Generation Y – Characteristics of Attitudes on Labour Market

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present possible attitudes of Gen Y on the labour market, characteristics that can be used in the management of young employees. Second purpose of this paper is to find if the assessment of present job changed during time for Generation Y. Gen Y are persons almost adults but with a less than 35 years, they were born in the 80s and 90s of the twentieth century. This period is conventional and in each country the cohorts may be different. Affiliation to the generation Y depends on the culture, lifestyle, family and friends patterns, social surrounding. Deal (2007, p. 14) writes that all generations have similar values and "they just express them differently". In Parment (2013) may be find that identity, image and social networks have become increasingly important in the job seeking process. These same characteristics that also affect the perception of conditions of work and the obligation to work. Gen Y do not want to work as hard as the older generations. They don't believe that work is important part of life, but they tend to work-life balance. Because Gen Y are multitasking, so they willingness to learn new thing is stronger than in older persons. They are also ready to work hard, but only when their work is meaningful. After analysis of the ESS data, it was found that between Poles and the respondents belonging to the countries participating in the ESS there are differences in the perception of the present job, and that the attitude to work of Gen Y in 2004, was changed in 2010. The paper concludes with suggestions for the employers, how to manage Generation Y.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s5p22