Tim Ferro

We all agree that technology is expensive, and staying “cutting edge” is not a reasonable or cost effective goal of any manager. But outdated and slow technology is an issue that affects everyone, especially Gen Y-ers. Slow and outdated technology causes many issues including decreased productivity, stress, and dissatisfaction at work. There are varying degrees to how tolerant employees will be with old technology. For older generations, who have seen even older technology, the 512MB Windows 2000 computer is light years ahead of what they had “back in the day”. For Gen X & Y, however, when our laptops at home are four times as fast, coming to work can seem almost counterproductive to what we could accomplish at home in one third the time. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that Gen Y-ers are usally bottom of the totem pole when it comes to receiving office technology. Conversely, giving younger employees the newest technology will cause dissension among the longer tenured staff.

So what do you do? Answer: Have a technology upgrade plan that accounts for everyone and stays current with acceptable standards in technology. The details of this will vary from company to company but having this will help alleviate issues and produce happy productive employees. Technology is important to Gen Y and being stuck using outdated technology is more than just an annoyance; it can be seen as a sign of a mismanaged company. For those of us who work in the technology industry, staying current is paramount. Tech companies that don’t keep up risk losing talented young employees because spending too much time with outdated technology can be detrimental to their careers.

– Tim Ferro

This post is the introduction of a new series of blog posts focused on how to make you company more Gen Y friendly; how to “Gen Y-ify” your company and places of work.

There is a large and growing number of blogs, articles, and discussions about how Gen Y is “not loyal” and “diva like”. There is much less going on about how to address the situation. Most of the conversations are being had by older generations and they don’t know what to do about it; they just complain. I am here to tell you that what Gen Y wants is not too dissimilar from what most employees want; we just have the fortitude to demand it. If we don’t get treated as we believe we deserve, we leave and go looking for another company that will be better. This is not “disloyal”, it is smart career building. Who wouldn’t want to work at a better company?

Keep checking back for more blog posts about how you can “Gen Y-ify” you company and your office. Leave comments with ideas and suggestions for future posts!

– Tim Ferro

“Microsoft Tuesday revealed Windows 7 at its annual Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. Windows 7 is designed to replace Windows Vista as the main operating system for Windows-based PC users.

With Apple’s OS X Snow Leopard also under development, we met up with Ian Moulster, Windows Live Commercial Lead for Microsoft to talk through some of Microsoft’s key ideas and discover what the next-generation of operating systems aim to offer both Mac and PC users.” – Source