There’s a contentious conversation doing the rounds in PR agencies in the UK. It’s one that most people running businesses and managing teams acknowledge is a big issue for them, but few are prepared to talk openly about it. But believe me, they have whinged to me. In technicolour.
The issue is Generation Y. The struggle agencies are having, so these people have told me, is that Generation Y can become a straightjacket for personnel and client development in agencies. People who have entered the workforce during a certain period have unrealistic expectations of their careers, their workloads, their salaries, their employers and what they personally have to do in order to get ahead. This is a sweeping generalisation of course, but I’ve heard it enough times now to get the sense that it’s an issue that’s not going away.
I did say it was contentious.
I’ve been planning to blog about it for some time, but have been scratching my head about the right format. How can you do justice to something like this, how can you be fair and accurate (I still remember my NCTJ training, thank you) in covering the topic?
This morning it finally dawned on me. A five-part serial. Like Corrie or EastEnders for one of those seminal storylines, albeit with a slightly smaller audience.
So each day next week I’ll be tackling PR’s Generation Y: what the issues are, how agencies are trying to deal with it, what generation Y is thinking, what this may mean for a pained industry struggling to modernise/adapt and what it means for other ‘generations’ working in agencies today.
Everything I have been told to date (and it’s something of a dirty dossier) will be treated in the strictest confidence. If you want to leave a comment on this post, please do. If you want to tell me your point of view on this, do DM me.
Stay tuned.
PR’s generation why? A blogfest begins http://goo.gl/fb/rJNH (@mynameisearl)
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Blog – PR’s generation Y. Stay tuned for a five-part serial next week. http://bit.ly/aqP728. It may be outspoken in parts.
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Really interesting. Look forward to reading the rest… RT @mynameisearl: Blog – PR’s generation Y. http://bit.ly/aqP728.
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As someone with all the worst gen Y chareteristics, I’m looking forward to @mynameisearl’s blogs on PR’s gen Y http://bit.ly/aqP728
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So its like ‘This Life’ but without the entertaining drug use and gratuitous sex then?
Ged I made no commitments about it not containing sleaze. You know me.
Thanks all for the comments. Hold tight.
Sounds really interestin, I’ll be reading! RT @mynameisearl: Blog – PR’s generation Y. http://bit.ly/aqP728. (via @interpellation)
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I wanted to clarify and encourage the sleaze quotient just in case respectability struck.
Looking forward to @mynameisearl’s blog series on Gen Y next week! http://bit.ly/bjIsAh
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Magnificent. Especially if you get Ged chucking in storylines from the sidelines. We’ll have HBO on the phone by Wednesday.
Domonic West to play you do you in the screen version think?