Workers 60 years ago were focused on survival and any job was a great benefit.
They weren’t too picky about what job they took…just needed anything that paid to survive. They were a hardy bunch!
Those days are over. If you are an employer, forget telling your employees that they are “lucky to have a job!” That is going to blow back on you bad.
The new workers entering the marketplace have lofty ideals and if you are not aware of them, it is going to give you significant problems.
You may remember the Google employee petition against a Pentagon contract. Thousands of the employees petitioned their management not to contract with the military.
This is not a passing phase. The new workforce wants their work to meet their ideals and are willing to risk their employment.
The dictionary defines idealism as:
The cherishing or pursuit of high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc.
The new crop of workers takes this pursuit seriously. They don’t want to work in a company that does not share their ideals.
Of course, this does not mean that a company should capitulate to every demand from the employees but we need to be aware of the internal dissension that may arise.
These ideals can have great benefit for a company as these employees can provide great insight into what products or services will be acceptable to customers like themselves.
But these workers are so serious that many of them will be willing to impact their careers for their ideals.
Each company needs to determine how much they want to be concerned about the idealism of these workers. These ideals will most likely clash with other goals (say profit!) and it may mean losing great team members.