At age 25, Bruce Tulgan was a lawyer in New York City, working on Wall Street. He became curious about the generation gap that existed in the workplace, started doing some research, and managed to turn himself into an internationally recognized expert on young people in the workplace. He is the author of fourteen books and numerous management training programs. Just in time for the Mackinac Policy Conference, Tulgan shared some of his insights with the Detroiter.

Q: How do Generation X and Generation Y workers differ from Baby Boomers and their predecessors in the work place?

A: Every generation is an accident of its own history. But at the same time, life stages dictate part of the story, too. Baby boomers came into workplace in the 70s when things were still pretty old fashioned. You pay your dues, climb the ladder and have job security. The system will take care of you. Now everything has changed.

Generation X grew up in the 70s, when grown ups were caught in the "me" decade. Kids were alone while adults were busy being groovy. Generation X had parents who, in high numbers, didn't stay together, or who both had to work, or who were much more permissive than previous generations of parents. Generation X came into the workplace during the late 80's and early 90's, a time of downsizing, restructuring and reengineering, and never knew the work place another way.

Generation Y was born between 1978 and1993. Many of the same trends that shaped Generation X are shaping Generation Y. Institutions are in a constant flux because they have to be, and individuals realize that have to take care of themselves, because the institutions won't. There's also an immediacy factor - we live in a world where you can go online and find an answer to anything immediately. This new generation is going to be the most high maintenance and most high performing. They have high expectations for themselves. They expect to be connected all the time, and they want everything customized. In a way, Generation Y is like Generation X, but in fast forward with self esteem on steroids. Generation Y has higher expectations than Generation Xers ever did - parenting changed a lot and played a big role in this. Generation X was unsupervised, and Generation Y was oversupervised. There was a big shift that occurred in the mid eighties - parenting, teaching and counseling were geared towards developing self esteem. This has never happened before - Generation X's parents were busy, and Baby Boomers' parents were busy breaking their children's wills to make them fear god.

Generation Y has much higher self esteem - they're willing to take risks and move around more. They want to hit the ground running. They expect a lot of guidance, support and coaching, and they are in a hurry to be valuable. This puts a huge amount of pressure on leaders and managers. Because this generation is used to having more info at their fingertips than anyone has ever had, they know that if they encounter something they don't understand, they can fill in the gaps. However, there is a legitimate worry to thinking that they may not have the wisdom that comes along with age and experience - even if they can find the answers quickly. But you don't want to slow this generation down. If you can't lift them up, then maybe you're not up to being the boss. If you're telling people to slow down, maybe you shouldn't be in charge anymore.

Some organizations are doing this better than others. In any company you can find dinosaurs, and you can also find great managers who are highly engaged and rising to the challenge.

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