An Expectation of Continued Success: The Work Attitudes of Generation Y

ABSTRACT

A popular mythology has emerged about the ‘Generation Y’ worker: Generation Y workers are uncommitted to their jobs and their employers and have unreasonably high expectations from their jobs; Generation Yare individualistic and reject the collective underpinning of trade unionism. This article explores one factor that may have caused Generation Y to have work attitudes and expectations that are different from previous generations: the increase in student employment. Student employment has increased in incidence, duration and intensity and, for university students, occurs in a setting very different to their intended occupation. These developments have changed young people's socialisation into work. A survey investigated the work attitudes and expectations of 890 final-year undergraduates. Approximately three in four students were working. Students who were working were found to have lower levels of work centrality and higher expectations of job quality, job security, and individual bargaining than non-working students. However, no differences in relation to attitudes towards trade unions were found between the two groups. These differences are attributed to the ‘student career’ that is now the norm. The factors underpinning the impact of the student career are discussed.