Frustration At Work: What To Do When Your Gen Y Employee Is All Day On The Cell Phone?

Would you like to know what to do when you see your Gen Y employee on his cell phone or social Would you like to know what to do when you see your Gen Y employee on his cell phone or social networking almost all day? You will when you read this article.

I stopped into the office of a friend not long ago who asked what I had been up to. "Well," I said, "I'm teaching generational differences to business owners and managers who have issues with Generation Y in the workplace. They are experiencing a lot of frustration with them."

"Tell me about it," she said, her eyes rolling. "I've got one cleaning out his desk right now."

"So, what happened?" I asked.

"He's selfish. We constantly had to work around his schedule, bent over backwards to change our schedules, and he's got a lot of stuff going on. He was on the cell phone so much that I had to tell him to leave it at home. I'm done with the aggravation. I've already hired a 40 year old to replace him."

Further into the conversation she shared that he had a good education and did quality work. Obviously, his cell phone usage created more than a generational gap; it was like a "generational barrier" that resulted in turnover costs for the employer and job loss for a 20something.

Sound familiar? From what my research tells me, scenarios like this are happening in workplaces all over the world today. What would you do in this situation?

What not to do.

1. Don't freak out. Don't take away his cell phone use, which I understand is like an appendage for Generation Y. That's like cutting off his arm. It's how Gen Yers live and do business. Big mistake.

2. Don't talk it around with your co-workers, stew over the problem, or come to resent the Gen Y employee for not falling in line with how everyone else gets their work done. This is a new and different generation shaped by new and different values-forming events.

3. Don't ignore the problem. It is obviously something very different from what is normal at your office and a failure to at least learn something from what is happening is well, failure.

That's what not to do. Here are 5 Steps for what to do.

Step #1. First of all, be professional. Sit down with your Gen Y employ and genuinely ask what is important to him about his cell phone. Find out how the cell phone and social media are helping him get his work done. Ask that question.

Step #2. Trust in your decision to hire him. Share briefly your expectations for his performance when you hired him. You hired this person for what they could contribute to your business. With transparency, tell what you observe, how you interpret what you see happening, and how new this is for you and others, based on your years of experience in business.These are behaviors that don't have to get in the way of good performance.

Step #3. Listen well to what they have to say with the intent of learning from them. Be open to what is new about technology in workplaces today. Is it possible that cell phones and Internet could be helpful in some ways to you and your coworkers, particularly in these times when employees are under more pressure to work longer at less pay and with fewer resources?

Step #4. Understand generational differences. Older generations were socialized to sacrifice home life and put work first with the hope of playing afterwards or until they could retire and have the life they want. On the other hand, Generation Y has responded to that work ethic of their parents and grandparents with a commitment to blend life and work. This generation says, "nope, that doesn't work for me. What I want is to be happy, have fun, and enjoy life in my work." This may be tough to get your head around, I agree. But you can not assume that personal technology, the Internet, and the next technological platform, which is right around the corner, will waste time and hurt business.

Step #5. Genuinely care about your people. When you see them in stress trying to balance their home and work lives, give a good listen. Discover ways in which both generations win rather than lose in this multi-generation workplace.

Bottom line, if you are rejecting this characteristic of Generation Y you are rejecting broad social change. Chances are this scenario will repeat itself in a similar way even if that Gen Y isn't there, and you're going to have to deal with it at some point for your business to remain competitive.