Is Gen Y Really Better at Their Jobs Than the Rest of Us?

It's always the bane of the youngest gen to think that they are smarter than their elders. In this case all the tech that they are "playing" with is built on the foundation of prior gens. Networks, protocols, programming that make their software, ipods, pda's etc work, they take for granted. Without them they would not have the tech that makes them think that they are smarter.

One other thing that prior gens have "endurance". When the going gets tough the genY's run off to grab a latte and the next job.

I think Gen Y and Gen X are similar in the fact that both are comfortable "playing" with technology, as Clay so aptly puts it. I'm 30 years old so I would consider myself an Xer. My mother started training me at a very early age on a computer using WordPerfect for DOS, not even windows.

But just because we know how to use Microsoft Outlook much more effeciently, doesn't mean we are going to do our job better. Boomers and Tranditionalist still have the experience we lack. While we spend time doing the research, perhaps some Boomers have the answers at the tip of their tongue. While we are spending time learning the processes, it's like second nature to them.

So while I agree that eventually Xer and Yers ability to research mixed with the knowledge we will gain, will make us better workers than previous generations.

But for now, we all have our strengths that contribute to the overall effectiveness of all of our organizations.