starMetro, sAruRDAy ll MAy 2013 ###'ffi-42ffiw"*ew il

Fl ECENILY, I've stumbled uponftf manv articles on Gen Y,I \Milldnials, Echo Boomerswhatever you want to call those

ffiiiJJiil'"r"':ir:iildilt"."'" ^, I |lFBBeing a Gen-Y myself, I canstomach all those generalisations, butthe one that really got my goat was a

under 30 year olds -

in themainstream media.

We are typically creditedas being disloyal, lazy, surgi-cally attached to our phones aswell as being self-indulgent.

write-up on the blog of an Australian,radio station.

It wrote that apparently not onlyare we incredibly selfish, we also liveoffour parents for almost everything.

The writer cites a study, whichnotes that only a third of AustralianGen Y rated their jobs as being'veryimportant" while 18- to 3g-year-oldsin the UK "expect" their parents tocook and clean for them.

The ignoramus goes further to saythat these parents even lend financialassistance for entertainment expens-es or to pay off their child's phonebills.

While the writer does not specifi-cally state who commissioned thesestudies, or gave any indicationon what the methodology usedwas, it is rather disconcert-ing to see how peopleattempt to categoriseour traits, hopes andambitions ratherincorrectly, I might add

- despite us being very

disparate individuals.However, although I do appreciate

the need for stereotyping -

ater all, it!s an important part of us trying tobreak down the complexities of-theworld and life in general into bite-sized pieces

- there are oftentimesthat we get it wrong, and gives a badname to the individuals at hand.

For instance, I don't actually knowof anyone who "expect" their parentsto do chores for them, nor am I famil-iar with anybody who

- at this age

-still asks their parents for money towatch a movie,or have a drink.

And if the general election hastaught us anything

- it is that Gen y

are not as self-involved or apolitical aswe were made out to be.

So, I am hoping to debunk the manymyths of what under-30s are com-monly typecast to be.

Myth #l: We are disloyal.If I had a dollar for the number oftimes I have heard this stereotypebeing thrown about I would be a mil-lionaire.

We are not disloyal, we are simplyon the constant lookout for betteropportunities. And if a better prospectcomes by, logically, who wouldn'tsnap it up?

I once had a boss that wanted me topromise that I would dedicate the nextfive years of my life to staying in thecompany that I was then working at.' "Stay and you'll go far," he said. Butmy question was, where would thenext five years take me? What posi-

tion would tr have achieved after theend ofthose years oflabour?

With no clearanswerin sightand noreal reason to stay, I left for greenerpastures. Gen Ywant a solid, long termrelationship with a company, but wemust also be certain that the organisa-tion wants the same thing for us.

As Bruce Tulgan, co-author ofMana$ng GenerationY puts it : "They'revery loyal. It's just not the kind ofblind loyalty you get in a kingdom

-blind loyalty to the hierarchy.';

Myth #2:We are tech mvw.No, actually, we are not. There aremany, many others out there who aremuch more technologically inclinedthan us Gen-Y.., Take larry Page or Bill Gates, whoare both 40 and 57 years old respec-tively, as a case in point. There isilsothe brilliant Steve Jobs, who passedaway at the age of 56.

I think what we are, though, is beingtechnologically dependent. There is adifference

- admittedly; we are

attached to our devices.The Connected World Technolog

Reportby Cisco revealed that a third ofAustralia's Gen Y crowd suffer with-drawai symptoms when separatedfrom their smartphones.

And it is true, we do love our gadg-ets. I am even guilty of texting myhousemates when they're in the'nextroom.

My!h- f3: t{. arc an increasinglyselfish bunch.

But we'are not. In fact, according toDeloitte's Volunteer lmpact Suitey,there is an extremely stiong correli-tion between workplace volunteeractivities and promoting positive cor-porate culture.

Employed adults between the agesof 2'l to 35 prefer to work at compa-nies that provide volunteering servic-es, and tend to feel more loyal towardsorganisations that offer ttiese oppor-tunities.

An article in Bloomberg BuSinessweekalso notes that members of Gen yhave volunteered in their commun!ties more so than any other genera-tion in American history, aird areknown to be the "most,civic-mindedgeneration since World War II".

But perhaps we shouldn't even betermed as being a "generation" alto-gether.

Afterall, we're not just a category ofpeople, with stereotypical quirks, per-sonalities and traitq.

We are more -

as Karen Foster, asociologist at Saint Mary's Universityin Canada

- terms it, a "matter of

ideas", which shape, mould and growin response to various happenings insociety; be it the state of the econo-my, the fast'paced world of tectrnot-ogy, or the ever-changing face ofpolitics.

Joyce Au-Yong is a Malaysian who is arelent Masters graduate the universityof Sydney, and rarcls in the many iois(and idiosynrasies) that the city hds tooffer.