Q:  My question is about career-growth trajectory and employee timeline expectations.  Perhaps it is just me showing my age, but I seem to find myself in more frequent discussions with impatient younger workers who don’t want to hear that you must work five, ten or more years in a field to gain the necessary work experience to be a well qualified candidate for promotion, particularly one with staff supervisory responsibilities. Why are they so impatient and how do we hold-on to talented staff who want to jump ship?

A:  I’ve heard many versions of this question, usually asked by “people of a certain age”. Yes, it can be frustrating, exasperating, -sometimes funny- to see the impatience and unrealistic expectations in some younger workers.  It’s such a common sentiment that there are several YouTube parody’s on the subject.

So why the impatience?  I can think of a couple of reasons.

First, I think they value accomplishments over experience.  Let me explain.

In school, they were taught that if they accomplished certain things (passed a test, obtained a score, completed a course, checked-off a box) it meant automatic advancement to the next level.  In school, the experiential component of growth is often missing as a requirement to move forward.  It’s no wonder they’d expect the same would be true in a job.  But of course, that’s not how things work in the real world.

Secondly, I think they mistakenly equate information (and access to the internet) with actual knowledge and context that can only come from experience.  They don’t grasp that even if you are a technical ace in accounting, engineering, law or whatever, if you have little applied experience, you are still unprepared for more responsibility. Especially when –as you point out- the promotion includes  managing staff.   They may feel over confident because they are equating technical knowledge with applied skill that only time can provide.

But enough younger-worker problem analysis.  How can we help them?

The reality is that we live in a fast-changing, inpatient world with evolving expectations, and the workplace is a reflection of that world.  We must therefore adapt career paths and advancement philosophy if we are going to retain talent.  So how do we do that?  Tune in next week.

©Copyright Eva Del Rio

Eva Del Rio is creator of HR Box™ – tools for small businesses and startups. Send questions to [email protected]