If I hear management talking about "Generation Y" or "The Millenials" as they are called, it's generally in pejorative terms. They don't focus, they lack initiative, they expect more and deliver less. I have a client with whom I have worked on and off since the mid-nineties, and the owner has been beside himself these last few years as that generation has come of age to enter the traditional clerical entry level positions in his business; his turnover has never been higher and satisfaction with job performance never lower. All I have to do to get him going on the latest examples of incompetence from his younger workforce is to say "Kids these days...."

Elizabeth Millard has an article up on Baseline suggesting that he may have it all backwards, and that at least as far as IT is concerned, the Millenials may revamp the business for the better.

Millard cites a number of stereotypical Millenial qualities which are more or less in line with the complaints I frequently here, from the low attention span to a lack of differentiation between work and home, but places a positive spin on all of them. I suppose you can look at it from either perspective, but the thing that continues to surprise me as I read these sorts of articles is the presumption that businesses need to woo these workers, rather than telling them to take a hike and continuing to use outsourced/offshored/older workers who have more value for the cost. If you have to spend money to bend over backward for someone, why wouldn't you want it to be someone who is expert at what they do and professional enough to finish it?

I'm curious what the general CIO perspective is. I have a hunch that it follows my own, but I'd be interested in hearing any dissenting views.