Be Upfront and Honest About Job Tasks

I am managing a couple of 20 somethings in an hourly, part-time basis. The work is "part-time" because it's a little monotonous. We don't expect any individual to keep at it for 40 hours straight. But I notice a pattern always happens. I tell people what the job is, they swear they understand. And then less than six weeks in they do more web surfing than work. I've hired five people to do this job and only one managed to keep at it to the point where she got promoted, and she kept at it for five months before she was given more interesting work to do. I would be more than happy to give the employees some interesting side tasks, but I notice a pattern when that happens. Suddenly they don't want to do the boring work at all, but it's the boring work that needs getting done.

How does one encourage employees when you know the work is dull? I've thought about shortening the hours so they only work 4 hours a day, hoping they could be really focused when they are here but most people want to work more than that, and my current employees would probably (rightly so) take it as a demotion.

(For the record, I would be willing to *wink* at the Web surfing if they were at least working...but it doesn't take more than a week before I see my employees barely even pretending to work, while they chat on Gmail all day long, right in front of me.)

It would be hard to argue with the idea that there are significant differences in the work habits of diverse generations of employees. However, if the work is as dreadful as you say, then I imagine that employees of all ages might quickly become skilled at avoiding it. So I would suggest initially that you try to think of your employees not just as disaffected twenty-somethings, but as ordinary people responding in a predictable way to a suboptimal work environment. This will help you in your quest to understand the root of the personnel issues you are confronting.

Who, exactly, comprises Generation Y has not been definitively established, although the group is generally thought to include people born between 1978 and 2000. Early in the arrival of these employees to the workforce, it is fair to say that they earned a reputation among their older cohorts for expecting accolades for completing what most would call the basic requirements of the job. (See tenth place trophy on the "Wall of Gaylord"). As sociologists and market researchers investigated further, we learned in time that this was a misperception.

Gen Y employees can be and often are highly motivated and loyal. The challenge for managers in a different age group is to develop behaviors that support these positive qualities.

This generation of employees responds well to honesty and authenticity. So the more you can level with them about the realities of their position, the better. They will appreciate it if you say, "Hey, it is really starting to get on my nerves that most of you don't even pretend to be doing work. What is going on here?" Allow them to vent about the drawbacks of the work, and feel free to share a dose of truth with them as well. Open a dialogue about what you could be doing to make them more productive. In particular, ask your employees for their ideas about how you can make the workplace more fun and do your best to implement at least some of their suggestions.

Gen Y employees are motivated more by meaningful work and by opportunities for advancement and growth than by money. So you should find a way to describe to your young workers why the task they perform, boring as it might be, is actually crucial to the organization. Help them to understand why they are important and they will reward you with greater commitment.

Be as clear as you can about what lies ahead for those who pay their dues. Try to be transparent regarding how long they could expect to be in this role before more engaging opportunities become available. Provide concrete examples of people who have moved on to greener pastures. Also think about how you can reward those who actually do their work. Assigning them those more interesting "side tasks" would be great, but even giving a $20 Starbucks gift card to the person who is most productive each week is better than nothing.

Another defining characteristic of Gen Y employees is their profound desire to connect with their community, especially online. This might partly explain the counterproductive Internet habits of your employees. One way to address this phenomenon would be to measure performance by amount of work accomplished rather than amount of time at the office. What I am suggesting is that you tell your employees the target number of widgets that they should produce in the space of four hours. As long as they reach their goal before the four hours are up, they are free to spend as much time as they want on Facebook. The honesty of this approach will resonate with Gen Y workers. It could also help to promote accountability and enhance your image as a flexible and empathic manager.

Join Lily Garcia on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 11 a.m. ET for How to Deal Live.

Lily Garcia has offered employment law and human resources advice to companies of all sizes for more than 10 years. To submit a question, e-mail HRadvice@washingtonpost.com. We reserve the right to edit submitted questions for length and clarity and cannot guarantee that all questions will be answered.