Comments on: Blogger frustration: Deloitte's great data that I can't link to

By: » The Recession Won’t Hit Generation Y (And Take Advantage of That) on Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:34:48 +0000

[...] Touche Tohmatsu says the next 10 years will be an employee-driven market, because of a whole host of demographics issues, from boomers leaving the workforce to fewer [...]

By: My Expectations and Outdated Conventions - Could I Have Been Wrong? : Slow Down Fast Today!

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 02:52:12 +0000

[...] thanks to Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist, not only for tracking down and posting the Deloitte survey on her blog, but also for her always thought-provoking [...]

By: Jeremy Sisson » Blog Archive » Generation Y and Social Marketing - Blog of Ultimate Power!

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:21:54 +0000

[...] (from Blogger frustration: Deloitte’s great data that I can’t link to) [...]

By: Gen Y Sets New Standards for Career Ambitions : CultureFeast

Gen Y Sets New Standards for Career Ambitions : CultureFeast — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:37:35 +0000

[...] Trunk wrote a blog post referencing a report written by Stan Smith. She quotes Smith concerning Gen X and Gen Y: "The [...]

By: Daniel Dessinger

Daniel Dessinger — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:10:11 +0000

The quote, “The real revolution is a decrease in career ambition in favor of family time, less travel, and less personal pressure," is so true.

I'm working hard to set some investments in motion so that by the time I reach 40 (ten years from now), I am sitting on a beach with my wife and kids and doing minimal work (blogging and writing a book or two at my own pace).

The most ridiculously amazing part of my (and your) industry is that we can work from the virtual office. People like Andy Hagans can become nationally renowned for SEO and web marketing while they're sippin' margaritas in the Caribbean.

While I do not know what the future holds, I am excited by the dream of rest and relaxation. I am a Renaissance man at heart, stifled by the cares of the world. It is the return to the arts and literature and the sound of the ocean which motivate and time with my children that motivates me to do now so I can rest later.

By: Rita

Rita — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 12:00:12 +0000

I work with CPA firms and CPA associations (non-Big 4). While this is good information, it appears to be a lot of what Claire Raines published in 2002 in her article, Managing Millennials.
http://www.generationsatwork.com/articles/millenials.htm

All Boomer CPAs who are partners in firms need to be more aware of these points. Many in local and regional firms have misconceptions about the Millennials.

Thanks for featuring this topic. I am a new reader of your Blog.
Rita

By: Wisconsinite

Wisconsinite — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:29:27 +0000

Penelope,

What other work has this author "published"? Because it is published, is it true? W. Stanton Smith has an amazing LACK of refereces for "facts" that he presents in his diatribe. You may have well as published this paper from the beach volleyball court, Penelope, for the lack of refences to verifiable facts. This is the difference between what you want to be true and scholarly work.

* * * * * *
The issue you bring up is really one of trust. Here's something to think about: The New York Times has been publishing forever without linking to their primary source, but bloggers almost always link. So do you trust bloggers over the NYT?

I trust Deloitte for their ability to do good reserach, so I trust that if Stan publishes a document, the reserach is good. But in the end, if you read this blog, you have to give me a little trust. Even if I link to all my sources, you're not going to read them all. So on some level, you are trusting me. We cannot all do background checks on all the information we gather– it's not practical or necessary. So we pick and choose who we're going to trust. On human resource issues I'm a good judge about whose information to trust, and I trust Deloitte's.

-Penelope

By: Javier Mendoza

Javier Mendoza — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:55:05 +0000

Hi,

I'm writing from Spain, and here it is my little opinion about how things are changing and how companies are trying to manage them.

It is obvious that Spanish market is far away from American, but I think that the generational issue is happening here also.

The main problem is that companies are not aware of this (I think that neither Deloitte Spanish branch is). Anyway we can take American market as a reference, so I hope we can see those changes in company management not so far away.

Congrats for this blog, thanks for this information and sorry about my English!

PS: I am going to review this in my blog. With a little luck any Spanish company will read about it…

By: Stuart

Stuart — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 02:31:00 +0000

And that is why I faithfully read your blog! This is already on its way out to my colleagues.

Thank you - you are among the best.

Stuart

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:00:20 +0000

Do you agree with Smith's assertion that labor market is actually shrinking? Although there may be fewer Americans in a particular age group to make up the "work force", I think that we can expect a huge influx of foreign talent that could easily make up for the retiring baby boomers. Especially in light of 'globablization' and the very technology that will allow us Americans to take advantage of telework and flexible scheduling. (Now, foreign workes don't have to immigrate here to work here.)

Although I agree that generation Xers will have their moment (I'm a 30 year-old professional), I think it will be as competative as ever as we are forced to compete with the entire world. I think that, given the availability of cheap, highly-skilled workers in such places as India and China, employers may actually encounter more of a BUYERS market - forcing us workers to be a little LESS brazen. I think it's dangerous to assume that generation x'ers will be able to call the shots in the near future based strictly on U.S. demographics.

I'm just picturing a young guy like myself trying to negotiate a flexible work schedule and other finges "on my own terms" based on this study only to be fired in favor of the guy with a comparable education and experience willing to work for 1/3 my salary remotely from India.

* * * * * * *
Brett, you ask a lot of interesting questions.

I think the baseline assumption here is that gen-Xers won't take jobs that involve 60-hours a week, tons of travel, things like that. So, those jobs will need to be split up. A lot of X-ers will drop out or cut back drastically for time with their kids. And women, especially, in gen X are starting businesses at a very high rate — mostly sole-proprietarships in order to get control over their time.

So, with all this, the members of gen-X who are aiming for a big title and a big salary won't have tons of competition from their peers because only a minority will want that.

No matter what generation we are, we all need to figure out how to get skills that cannot be duplicated by people living in much cheaper labor markets. It's not impossible, but it takes some conscious planning.

That's my piece, for now. I'd love to know what other readers think about the questions Brett raises.
– Penelope