Is Stereotyping Gen Y Bad Management?

Last year I wrote a few relatively pointed posts about Gen Y and what I called generational profiling on the part of management in the workplace. While I still feel that stereotyping employees is an ineffective management tool and dehumanizing, I had an experience the other day that got me thinking about this once again.

It started when someone I know asked if I knew about cars.

"Sure, I'm pretty good with cars," I said.

"Well, the brake lights in my son's car went out," she said.

"All of them, or just one light?"

"All of them," she replied, then added, "He replaced the bulbs and they still don't work."

For one thing, I don't suffer fools lightly. The first time I heard that expression was from a prospective employee who had asked around about my management style and that's one of the things she heard. While I accepted it as true, I wasn't ecstatic to hear it, at the time. I like to think I've toned it down a bit since.

Also, I'm a pretty sarcastic guy. I don't know if that comes from growing up on the streets of Brooklyn - where sarcasm is sort of an art form - but I do know that my wife, who grew up in rural Wisconsin, doesn't really appreciate it. Actually, she finds it incredibly annoying and occasionally downright condescending.

Now, back to the story, I bit my tongue and explained that her son (a twenty something guy) should check the fuse. If that's not it, then it's the wiring, probably a loose connector or a bored mouse or something. Then it hit me that he shouldn't even be messing with electricity and told her he should take the car to a mechanic ... and somewhere nearby since he'd be driving without break lights.

Ever since, something's been sort of bothering me. Hear me out and tell me if you think I'm making too much out of an isolated incident:

• First of all, we're talking about a car, a 3,000 pound hunk of metal you drive around at high speeds. Not only that, we're talking brake lights, the proper operation of which are fundamental to driving safely. So you're going to want to think pretty hard about what to do when they fail, right?
• Second, if you don't know what you're doing, i.e. you don't know cars, you find some other way of getting around until you can safely get the car to a mechanic. You don't screw around replacing bulbs, whether it does or doesn't make sense to do that. To me, that speaks to a person's judgment.
• Third, and this is the thing that really got me, if multiple lights go out at the same time, it's obviously not the bulbs. Sure, I'm a trouble-shooter by nature and an electrical engineer by trade - albeit eons ago - but isn't that just common sense or deductive reasoning or both?

As I said up top, I took a pass at what folks were calling "the Gen Y problem" last year and this quote sums up my conclusion pretty succinctly, "Profiling groups by generation is ridiculous, no matter what the management researchers and gurus say. Not to mention that it's dehumanizing."

But at the time, I saw this as primarily a behavioral issue, not a question of logical thinking, reasoning, or judgment, all of which are pretty much required to achieve any kind of business success. If there's a potential issue there, that's definitely worth exploring beyond my original, sort of flippant conclusion, Gen Y: Solve Your Own Damn Workplace Issue.

So, I thought I'd pose some questions to you folks:

1. Do you think there could be a generational impact on qualities like logical thinking, reasoning, or judgment? If so ...
2. Do you think it's U.S.-centric, western-centric, or broader?
3. What do you think is the root cause? Baby boomers coddling their kids, schools dampening individualism and competition, spending too much time in the virtual world, all of the above?
4. What's the implication for Gen Yers?
5. What's the implication for executives and business leaders?

Check out:

• Why Generational Profiling Is Bad Management
• Is 'Thinking' An Endangered Skill?
• How to Make High-Risk Decisions