Younger workers will survive? No kidding.

  • Share
  • Read Later

So says a new article in CIO Magazine. Meridith Levinson, a self-described “scrappy, do-it-yourself latch-key kid,” lists five reasons why Gen Y will do okay in the coming economic kaboom. Hard to believe, considering

According to a CareerBuilder survey from 2007, 74 percent of employers say Gen Y workers expect to be paid more; 56 percent of employers say Gen Y workers expect to be promoted within a year; and half say Gen Y professionals expect more vacation and personal time than older generations.

Her generation “may be spoiled, but we aren’t stupid,” she writes. Then they should capitalize on these cold facts: young workers are cheaper, healthier, more available, easier to mold, complain less, type faster, more eager to please. Yes, yes, I’m generalizing baldly. But if I were an employer, I would be tempted to chuck my creaky old staff and hire me a bushel of bushy-tailed college grads.

I worry about this, especially as we head into these dark economic times. Tell me: is your workplace getting younger and younger? What are the pros and cons of hiring younger workers? How young is young, anyway?