SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 42) millennials, we are willing to put in the 80 hours a week to get the job done, but we find it difficult to keep up that type of career lifestyle while still continuing to have a life outside of work. Keeping our careers and work lives balanced is very important to us.” This perspective or value profoundly affects the workplace. With heated competition for engineering talent, companies are beginning to embrace flexibility. With technological advances in communications, they can. If they want to attract young engineers into their organizations, they must. “A paradigm shift is happening so that work is driven by the results, not a time clock,” noted Lions. In her research she talks with millennials who say they would rather work for a company that values a balance between work and personal time than earn an extra $10,000 a year. Kropp points out that many companies don’t take note if employees aren’t in their cubicles for eight hours. “There’s enough competition so that if companies don’t offer quality-of-life work arrangements, students will go elsewhere,” he said. Millennial and Gen Y engineers are mobile One of the boomers’ strengths is their loyalty. They have stayed with their employers What do Millennial Women Engineers Say About the Generation Gap? “They took me under their wing, helping me learn about the business and answering my questions. It seemed they wanted me to succeed and make a positive contribution toward the future of the company.” Katie Wentling, production team leader at the DuPont Sabine River Works site, wasn’t sure what to expect before starting with the company almost five years ago. She knew she was going into an environment with many experienced engineers and wage role employees and was uncertain how being a young female engineer would affect her assimilation into the workplace. Instead of opposition, she found experienced employees at the plant site were actually excited to Katie Wentling, production team leader, DuPont Sabine River Works have her fresh ideas. “Sometimes people have a few bad experiences from a particular generation and assume everyone is like that. Although stereotypes shouldn’t be there, there is some truth to them.” Anna Grashorn, a design engineer at Cummins Power Generation, has been in the workplace only two years but came with internship experience. She, too, expected a male-dominated workplace to be more of a factor than any generation gap, even though she says she is probably the first millennial engineer hired in her department. In her present job, she works with a lot of boomers and had to seek them out for their input on her projects. Her experience was positive as the people she dealt with were helpful and willing to explain what she needed to know. Anna Grashorn, design engineer, Cummins Power Generation DUPONT PACKAGING AND INDUSTRIAL POLYMERS DUPONT SABINE RIVER WORKS Jennifer Sizemore, area superintendent, and Mat Taylor, a co-worker at DuPont’s Packaging and Industrial Polymers facility “It’s surprising how open people are about the generation gap. I have had older, more experienced engineers say, ‘It must be tough as a young woman. We probably give you a hard time.’ People are aware of the gap and in general try not to make it an issue.” Jennifer Sizemore, area superintendent at DuPont’s Packaging and Industrial Polymers, is in a position to know what it’s like to be a millennial even though she didn’t hear much about the generation gap while in college. Her main concern then was how she would fit in as a young woman engineer in a plant environment. She ran into a few blocks in the generation gap herself and still hears about experiences from other young female employees, but she said it’s not “across the board.” Having worked two years in a production engineering assignment and currently supervising more experienced male engineers, she explained, “If anyone would see problems between generations, it would be me. Yeah, it’s there, but it’s not necessarily a negative issue.” 42 SWE SPRING 2008 CUMMINS POWER GENERATION
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