Give me all your spoiled, narcissistic layabouts who can’t spell
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 17, 2009 00:00
Not long ago I had a letter from a young Turk. It was a job query like many I get from aspiring journalists. Perhaps I sensed a sense of humor on the part of the letter writer; perhaps I was just in a surly mood. In any event I responded:
"Well, with your qualifications I can recommend a number of places where you can make far more money. Our newspaper is on the edge of the city and the daily commute on company shuttles robs hours from the day. We work on the unlucky 13th floor of the building and any elevator ride guarantees a stop at each of the other 12. The office is crowded, noisy and airless. Our policy for distribution of computers and other tools is akin to that used by the Soviet army for sharing rifles during the seige of Leningrad: just wait until a soldier gets shot, then take his. Reporters often work into the night. And we work six days a week. On the bright side? Well, food is free in the cafeteria if you can tolerate carbohydrates. You still interested?"
She went to work about 48 hours later.
That pre-employment exchange, and many similar conversations, came to mind this week as I stumbled across an article entitled "Managing the Facebookers" in the Economist magazine. It quoted a new report by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers. It described the problems of managers who decry that the, "the members of ’Generation Y’ Ğ those born in the 1980s and 1990s, otherwise known as Millenials or the Net Generation Ğ are spoiled, narcissistic layabouts who cannot spell and waste too much time on instant messaging and Facebook." The story went on to say, "for the more curmudgeonly sort of older manager, the current recession is the joyful equivalent of hiding an alarm clock in a sleeping teenager’s bedroom."
Needless to say, that depiction did not square with my own experience of "Generation Y." So I did what many a Facebooker would do. I ignored the received wisdom, went to the Internet (www.pwc.com/managingpeople2020) and dug out the original PwC report that prompted it all. At 21 pages, I recommend it. First, it presented a far more nuanced picture than the Economist. It was also interesting to learn that among the 4,271 Net Gen’ers in 44 countries surveyed for the report, about 50 respondents were in Turkey. It is also worth noting that among the three authors listed on the report, one in London is named Leyla Yıldırım.
You can read all that for yourself. My purpose here today is to share a few of my own reflections. For among the 50-plus people who make up the team producing the Daily News, ’Generation Y’ is in the vast majority. Far from being a generation who, as the Economist asserts, believe the world owes them a living, these kids are deeply engaged on the forefront of all of Turkey’s many challenges. They are well-read, committed and tireless. Readers of the newspaper witness this every day. And it is not just the elegantly educated graduates of Turkey’s elite universities or schools abroad who people the reportorial ranks at the Daily News. I think of Mehmet Ulaş, the teenage "office boy" from Diyarbakır who can hold his own in a conversation about South America, who routinely helps translate Kurdish and who now, on his own time, pens a column for our bi-weekly youth supplement.
Beyond the newspaper, it is helpful to remember that our demographics are Turkey’s; a near-majority of Turks are now "Net Gen’ers." I often travel to Anatolian cities, usually it is to join a panel discussion or something. Often these ritual-laden visits are a chore, lots of buttoning the top button of my blazer, utterances of "sayın" this or "sayın" that honorifics to the many chairmen. But on a visit just weeks ago to the eastern city of Elazığ I had a surprise. A "kaymakam," one of the deputy governors who head provincial outposts in Turkey’s administrative system, pulled me into his car as we moved from a tour of a marble factory to a visit of a meat-processing plant. His questions were not the usual, "where did you learn Turkish?" or "how do you like our food?" No, in fluent English he demanded to know my thoughts on resurgent Keynesian economic philosophy and the implications for Turkey’s talks with the International Monetary Fund. At lunch, he introduced seven of his "kaymakam" colleagues, all posted to various small towns in Elazığ province. Half had advanced degrees and all peppered me with questions and concerns ranging from wind power to environmental restoration to their hopes to expand the rural infrastructure for the Internet. Not one of these inquisitors is yet 30.
Not long ago, arriving home from work, I stuck my head into my corner grocer, or "bakkal," to pick up a kilo of oranges or something. I always chat a bit with İnan and Sinan, the two 20-something brothers from Malatya who own the modest enterprise open 16 hours a day. The question on İnan’s mind: Will the economic crisis force China to mobilize its Central Bank dollar reserves in a way that will affect the value of the Turkish lira? HmmmÉ hadn’t thought about that one.
So what is my point? I think there are two.
The first is that while talk of the virtues of Turkey’s dynamic young population is almost a cliche, turning on assumptions of productivity and actuarial wealth, the real promise is something far more profound. It is not a resource that can be catalogued like mineral reserves or potential port capacity. Rather, it is a globally networked generation, one fully aware of the world and its potentials and threats, that is fast-emerging. The world is witness to how this generation is remaking China and India. Incoming American President Barack Obama may not himself be of "Generation Y," but it was certainly they who raised money for him, campaigned for him and ultimately elected him. In the process, they changed the world.
The second point is that it is not this generation, as the Economist suggests, that is going to have to mature and accept the mundane rules of the "real" world. They may put up with old hierarchies today, they won’t tomorrow. They may endure the trials and commute of the Daily News today, but tomorrow they will be producing and delivering news with tools and in places I cannot even imagine Ğ no doubt with ample seating capacity. They may be "kaymakams" in backwater districts today; tomorrow they will be governors and ministers. It is my generation that must accept "change." This is the "real" world. If you ask me, this change can’t come fast enough. =
David Judson is editor-in-chief of the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review
She went to work about 48 hours later.
That pre-employment exchange, and many similar conversations, came to mind this week as I stumbled across an article entitled "Managing the Facebookers" in the Economist magazine. It quoted a new report by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers. It described the problems of managers who decry that the, "the members of ’Generation Y’ Ğ those born in the 1980s and 1990s, otherwise known as Millenials or the Net Generation Ğ are spoiled, narcissistic layabouts who cannot spell and waste too much time on instant messaging and Facebook." The story went on to say, "for the more curmudgeonly sort of older manager, the current recession is the joyful equivalent of hiding an alarm clock in a sleeping teenager’s bedroom."
Needless to say, that depiction did not square with my own experience of "Generation Y." So I did what many a Facebooker would do. I ignored the received wisdom, went to the Internet (www.pwc.com/managingpeople2020) and dug out the original PwC report that prompted it all. At 21 pages, I recommend it. First, it presented a far more nuanced picture than the Economist. It was also interesting to learn that among the 4,271 Net Gen’ers in 44 countries surveyed for the report, about 50 respondents were in Turkey. It is also worth noting that among the three authors listed on the report, one in London is named Leyla Yıldırım.
You can read all that for yourself. My purpose here today is to share a few of my own reflections. For among the 50-plus people who make up the team producing the Daily News, ’Generation Y’ is in the vast majority. Far from being a generation who, as the Economist asserts, believe the world owes them a living, these kids are deeply engaged on the forefront of all of Turkey’s many challenges. They are well-read, committed and tireless. Readers of the newspaper witness this every day. And it is not just the elegantly educated graduates of Turkey’s elite universities or schools abroad who people the reportorial ranks at the Daily News. I think of Mehmet Ulaş, the teenage "office boy" from Diyarbakır who can hold his own in a conversation about South America, who routinely helps translate Kurdish and who now, on his own time, pens a column for our bi-weekly youth supplement.
Beyond the newspaper, it is helpful to remember that our demographics are Turkey’s; a near-majority of Turks are now "Net Gen’ers." I often travel to Anatolian cities, usually it is to join a panel discussion or something. Often these ritual-laden visits are a chore, lots of buttoning the top button of my blazer, utterances of "sayın" this or "sayın" that honorifics to the many chairmen. But on a visit just weeks ago to the eastern city of Elazığ I had a surprise. A "kaymakam," one of the deputy governors who head provincial outposts in Turkey’s administrative system, pulled me into his car as we moved from a tour of a marble factory to a visit of a meat-processing plant. His questions were not the usual, "where did you learn Turkish?" or "how do you like our food?" No, in fluent English he demanded to know my thoughts on resurgent Keynesian economic philosophy and the implications for Turkey’s talks with the International Monetary Fund. At lunch, he introduced seven of his "kaymakam" colleagues, all posted to various small towns in Elazığ province. Half had advanced degrees and all peppered me with questions and concerns ranging from wind power to environmental restoration to their hopes to expand the rural infrastructure for the Internet. Not one of these inquisitors is yet 30.
Not long ago, arriving home from work, I stuck my head into my corner grocer, or "bakkal," to pick up a kilo of oranges or something. I always chat a bit with İnan and Sinan, the two 20-something brothers from Malatya who own the modest enterprise open 16 hours a day. The question on İnan’s mind: Will the economic crisis force China to mobilize its Central Bank dollar reserves in a way that will affect the value of the Turkish lira? HmmmÉ hadn’t thought about that one.
So what is my point? I think there are two.
The first is that while talk of the virtues of Turkey’s dynamic young population is almost a cliche, turning on assumptions of productivity and actuarial wealth, the real promise is something far more profound. It is not a resource that can be catalogued like mineral reserves or potential port capacity. Rather, it is a globally networked generation, one fully aware of the world and its potentials and threats, that is fast-emerging. The world is witness to how this generation is remaking China and India. Incoming American President Barack Obama may not himself be of "Generation Y," but it was certainly they who raised money for him, campaigned for him and ultimately elected him. In the process, they changed the world.
The second point is that it is not this generation, as the Economist suggests, that is going to have to mature and accept the mundane rules of the "real" world. They may put up with old hierarchies today, they won’t tomorrow. They may endure the trials and commute of the Daily News today, but tomorrow they will be producing and delivering news with tools and in places I cannot even imagine Ğ no doubt with ample seating capacity. They may be "kaymakams" in backwater districts today; tomorrow they will be governors and ministers. It is my generation that must accept "change." This is the "real" world. If you ask me, this change can’t come fast enough. =
David Judson is editor-in-chief of the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review