thoughts on gen-y work ethic

Today I found another one of Animal's mocking posts about Gen-Y based off of Modite's Gen-Y Work Ethic post. I had some thoughts....

Rebecca posts about a young professional that doesn't sleep:

He works for a Fortune 500 company here in Madison by day, and by night and by weekend, he runs two companies that he founded. Two. He calls it straddling. A leg in the corporate world, a leg in the entrepreneurial dream. His eyes and cheeks and mouth though, they are suffocating in exhaustion. The guy needs a pillow. Seriously. He needs to get some sleep.

The thing is, whenever I see him, I feel energized. He makes me smile because he comes to the meetings. He has great ideas. He contributes. He’s one of the last to leave. He’s insanely passionate. And I know he doesn’t sleep. I know he works ridiculously hard. I also know he’s going to be incredibly successful.

That's awesome! To find people who have drive, who can contribute to multiple projects! I love people like this because it helps you feel energized just like Rebecca feels when she sees this guy. But does that mean that an entire Generation is like this? I don't tend to think so. Going on just the people that I know, there are some that are very much like this young professional that Rebecca talks about. The guys and gals who are involved in everything, contribute great ideas, who are passionate about what they are doing. But I also know people my age who aren't. I really believe it's about the individual, their situation, their upbringing and countless other factors which may include generation. I was fortunate to have really hard-working parents to kind of set the standards for me. To be honest, I didn't want to even go to college when I graduated high school. My parents made this call and said I was going to college and that was it. Granted, looking back it was one of the best experiences I could've had but if it had been left completely up to me, I might not be as driven as I am today.

The excitement on the line is palpable. It’s everywhere. The exhaustion is merely a comma in the sentence of changing the world. It’s exhaustion of the status quo. It’s working hard, playing hard. It’s our generation pushing all together in one direction and only moving an inch. A mere inch. But gosh darn it all, we moved that inch forward. And that’s something to celebrate.

Maybe the exhaustion is from staying up all night working on 2,000 different projects. I jest, but I totally agree with the exhaustion of status quo. But I know plenty of people who half ass their job, working just enough to make enough money so that they can party hard. Being someone who does work hard, it's frustrating for me to see that. I'd love to observe my peers who work hard because they have passion for what they do or who get involved outside of work in something that they enjoy and do that well because they enjoy it.

Don't get me wrong, I know a handful of my peers who are driven, passionate, involved, creative, who don't sleep. However, I also know those who aren't so passionate about their work. They're not really passionate about much, in fact. Maybe that's because they don't like their work situation which feeds into everything else. Maybe they're just not passionate people. Yet, they still fall in the Gen-Y category. Maybe it's because they're not exactly toting the same white-collar that the young professional in Rebecca's post. If truly, the passion and drive that she talks about is solely based on someone's generation then these individuals would be similar regardless of what color their collar is at the very least passionate about something, involved with something?

I hope that more people find passion! Finding passion, gives people meaning in their lives and drive. Which then would create productivity and happiness. I would imagine that it would make the world a whole lot more enjoyable for everyone.

So how does one challenge their peers to find passion?