"It is very important for older generations to understand the younger ones so we can train them and work with them in a way that will make them, and in turn us (their leaders), successful. It is a reality that different people learn in different ways and it shows great vision when we accept this fact and adapt accordingly. I feel very fortunate to live in a time when each new generation is analyzed not only for the music and fashion they have but also in how they think, see the world, behave in the workplace and how older generations can get the best of them by knowing what makes them tick." Comment posted by Travel Agent reader Jacqueline, May 21, 2009.

Jacqueline's comment relates to recent blog entry on AgentNation about working with members of Generation Y and is of slight contrast to another user's comment, which the blog cites. The entry is repeated below:

There's a new generation of workers out there, and as Signature Worldwide, a training and marketing company that specializes in the hospitality industry, discovered, old training techniques don't apply to them.

The "millenials"—also known as Generation Y or the Net Generation—are generally considered to be those people born between about 1980 and 2000. Recognized as being tech-savvy multi-taskers, millenials have a different work ehtic, different values, and different skills.

But not everyone agrees that new training methods are called for. As one agent commented on Travel Agent Central, "I am a strong supporter of the opinion that if the new generation is not taught boundaries and life principles by their parents, they out to learn them in the real world where they work, live, shop, walk, etc.

"Texting and not paying attention in class is very rude and is a basic principle not to be excused with 'generational' Y-titude! since when is it tolerable to accept ignorance and disrespect other peoples' labor?

"This generation plays Guitar Hero but not the real guitar, forgot how to read a book but instead reads the Cliff Notes only and talks constantly on the phone but forgot how to talk properly to each other and the other generations as well. The millenials have grown to th perception that everything is due to them as a result."