Chris Moates entered the workforce in 1984, at age 14, working at a drugstore the summer before entering high schol. Since then, he has held a variety of jobs and has interacted all kinds of people in the workplace. What does he think of some of the newest workers to arrive on the scene, the Millennials? Moates offers cautious praise of their tech savvy and a dose of advice on their communication style.
Gen Y workers: listen to his advice and then find out your current salary potential here.
In our G+ Hangout "Gen Y Parent Interview" with Moates, he agrees heartily with the statistics found in PayScale's recent "Gen Y on the Job" report, where job skills unique to Millennials are often technology, social media and web related.
Now a real estate broker, Moates says, "If we have a young Gen Y in the office, I get excited. With all changes that are happening in the internet in terms of marketing… these guys slide right in there. If I were a company, I would reach out to Gen Y."
On the other hand, Moates says of Millennials that "The communication style they use is very difficult. They don't like talking on the phone. They text. They don't like emails." He says that when working with a Gen Y home buyer, "They'll text you 11 o'clock at night but they won't pick up the phone at 8 or 9 in the morning so that you can actually talk to them." He says that because of that "a lot of things get lost in translation."
What is Moates' advice to the younger employees of the world? "They've gotta answer the phone sometimes. They gotta get the voicemail sometimes."
Moates is hopeful that an understanding can be reached. He emphasizes that the effort to find common ground is well worth it because the ambitious, intelligent, tech-savvy Millinnials have a lot of offer the economy.
"Everyone's going to have to come together in the next few years as we get more Gen Yers into the workplace. We're going to have to figure out a way to make that work."
Watch our interview with Moates on Gen Y.
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