Alexander Macris, Co-founder, President & CEO of The Themis Group Abstract - Business leaders across the country are grappling with the challenge of motivating and retaining the Gen Y workforce. The "Reset Generation" has grown up with computer and video games, and they think, play, and work differently from those who developed under a traditional paradigm. Join us for a discussion on leadership lessons gathered from a decade building and managing a videogame media company for and by the next-gen worker. Presented at NC State Fidelity Investments "Leadership in Technology" Executive Speakers Series (http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/corporate_relations/fi_lit/)

1. Reset Generation:
What Videogames Teach Us
About Motivating and Retaining
The Gen Y Workforce

2. About My Company What You’ll Be Getting
• Themis Media: 26 employees, average
age 26 years old
• Our Website: The Escapist
• Our Audience: 5 million / month
• Our Demographic: 18-30 year olds
• “The mouthpiece of the gamer
generation”
Pretty Good

3. What We’ve Accomplished
2007 Wall Street Journal Winning Workplace Award
2008 People’s Voice Award for Best Game-Related Website
2008 Webby Award for Best Game-Related Website
2008 Better Webby Award Speech than Will I Am or Stephen Colbert
2009 Webby Award for Best Game-Related Website
2009 Mashable Open Web Award for Best Online Magazine
2010 CED NC Company to Watch
2010 Business Leader Mover & Shaker
2011 Webby Award for Best Games-Related Website
2011 People’s Voice Award for Best Games-Related & Best Lifestyle
Alexander Macris
“Escapist Magazine. We have issues.”
Stephen Colbert
“Me, me, me, me, me!!!”
Other Webby Award Winners (Different
Categories):
Will. I . Am
“Now we know we can.”

4. My Wisdom Your Wisdom
Pretty Good

5. Defining the Reset Generation
• Born Between 1980 and 1995
• Came of Age Starting in 2001 – “Millennials”
• 79 million strong – 3 x larger than Gen X
• They are America’s future workforce, for good or
for ill…. But which is it?

6. “The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date”
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
They Have No Work Ethic!
“Gen Y is the most difficult workforce I’ve
“The most self-entitled, irresponsible, ever encountered… So self-indulgent as to be
and immature workers to date.” genuinely offensive to know, let alone
Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage
Millennials”, WSJ, March 15 2008 supervise. “
Marian Salzman, Senior Vice President of JWT
“The most demanding and coddled
“While Gen X valued money highly, they were willing
generation.”
to work hard for it. Gen Y has the high expectation of Ronald Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up, 2008
getting paid well and having more leisure time. They
want to have their cake and eat it too.”
Stacy M. Campbell, Professor of Management, Coles College of Business,
Kennesaw State University

7. “The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date”
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
They Don’t Respect Traditional Hierarchies!
“They value a casual working relationship
with their superiors. They want to see
their boss as a peer…”
Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage
Millennials”, WSJ, March 15 2008
“Young employees expect to move up the ladder
quickly, which causes some friction when they are not
shy about telling a boss they want his or her job.”
Red Fusion Media, “Managing the New Workforce, Generation Y,” 2008

8. “The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date”
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
They Demand Immediate Feedback…
“Millennials expect feedback and training to
be ongoing, not just a one-time event.”
Sharon Cunningham, “Managing the Millennials,” Best’s Review, “Because Gen Yers are used to playing computer games
Oldwick vol .107, Issue 11, March 2007
with immediate feedback on their decisions, they will
want immediate feedback on their work performance
as well.”
Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the ‘Why?’ Generation,” CPA Journal,
April 2008

9. “The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date”
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
But Then Can’t Cope With It!
“One of the biggest complaints I hear from “They were coddled growing up and rarely
managers about their Gen Y employees is had anyone yell at them.”
Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage
how defensive they get when given Millennials,” Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
corrective feedback.”
David Lee, founder, Human Nature at Work, July 2010
“Gen Y employees tend to have trouble
accepting responsibility for shortcomings or
“This is an entire generation who has been told ‘you failures in their work and look outward for a
can not fail and you will win a prize just for showing potential cause.
up... a generation of young professionals with over- Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the “Why?” Generation,”
inflated egos who are unprepared for the sometimes The CPA Journal, April 2008
harsh, often thankless environment that is the
workplace.”
Mary Crane, MBA Career Consulted, AllBusiness.com, “How Gen Y
is Responding to the Recession”

10. “The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date”
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
They Bounce from Job to Job!
“Incorrigible job hoppers that rarely
“The majority of twentysomethings job hop exhibit loyalty to any particular place of
every 18 months.” employment.”
Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Ronald Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up, 2008
Millennials,” Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
“They are an entire cohort secure in the knowledge
that their well-to-do Boomer parents can bail them out
of financial difficulty. If they don’t like their job they can,
“These young people simply choose to ‘reset’ and do, chuck it in and head back to live with their
their “play” buttons by changing jobs, partners, parents.”
or friends, instead of trying to cope with and learn from KPMG International Research Report, 2007
their difficulties – .”
“Reset Generation quick to wipe the slate clean,” Mainichi Daily News, 1996

11. “The most self-entitled, irresponsible and immature workers to date”
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
•Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
They are Narcissists with Low Empathy!
“24% of college students in 2006 showed “81% of 18-25 year olds surveyed said getting
elevated levels of narcissism, compared to rich is their most important or second most
just 15% in the early 1990s.” important life goal; 51% said the same about
Jack Halpern, “The New Me Generation,” Boston.com being famous.”
USA Today, quoting a Pew Research Survey
“40% of Generation Y thinks being self-promoting,
narcissistic, overconfident, and attention-seeking is
helpful for succeeding in the business world. 57% agree
“Since 2000, college students have become less that their generation is narcissistic, self-promoting, and
empathetic than ever before. College kids today are attention-seeking.”
40% lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or Mashable.com, quoting a study by Jean Twenge, co-author of
The Narcissism Epidemic, 2009
30 years ago.”
Psychology Today, quoting a study by Sara Konrath, University of Michigan
Institute for Social Research

12. •Rachel Solomon, “Running a Business: Learning to Manage Millenials”, Wall Street Journal, March 15 2008
Are They The Entitlement Generation?
“They are the Entitlement Generation, the upstarts “ “A challenge to manage… They demand immediate
at the office who put their feet on desks, voice their feedback on performance, expect to be consulted and
opinions frequently and loudly at meetings, and included in management decisions, and demand constant
always volunteer – nay, expect – to take charge of intellectual challenge. They insist on working flexibly,
the most interesting projects. They are smart, choosing when and where to work. They are demanding,
brash, even arrogant, and endowed with a as a right, a new reality from work.” M. Pyubaraud, “Generation Y
commanding sense of entitlement.” Jack Halpern, “The New and the Workplace:
Me Generation,” Annual Report 2010,” Johnson Controls, 2010
Boston.com
“Gen Y employees tend to have trouble
accepting responsibility for shortcomings or
“This generation expects things handed to them on failures in their work and look outward for a
a silver platter. They expect to be promoted in a potential cause.
Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the “Why?” Generation,”
year. They expect to have state of the art The CPA Journal, April 2008
technology. Their attitude is ‘If you guys aren’t going
to give it to me, I’ll work someplace else.”
Rosemary Haefner, VP of Human Resources, Career Builder

13. No, they are the Deceived Generation.
• A college degree is now the minimum to find a place in the working world.
• But cost of higher education has increased 63% at public schools and 47% in private schools.
• So most students will be paying tens of thousands of dollars in loans well until their 40s…
• If they can pay at all! 37% of 18-29 year olds lack a job or are underemployed, and real earnings
for workers between 25 and 34 have dropped 10% since 2000.
• Is it any wonder 58% of Gen Y between 2000 and 2006 had to move home in order to pay the
bills?
• And they can only look forward to a tax burden that’s double what it was for their parents.
• As an employer, you will be the site of the first collision between the world that Gen Y was told
to expect and the real world that awaits them: The reality of being young in America in the
Great Recession is quite bleak.

14. Video Game Interests
When
the going
gets tough,
the tough
get gaming.

15. What Videogames Have Taught Gen Y
You are the Hero
Your Avatar is Customizable
Difficulty Can be Adjusted
Feedback is Constant
Everything’s an Achievement
There is No Failure –
Only Reset
Newton Grant, 919-265-9922
ngrant@themis-media.com

16. You Are the Hero!
“Because of videogames,
Generation Y expects to make a
direct affect on their world.”
Oxygenz Report, 2010

17. Your avatar is customizable!
Ask the Greatest Generation
what makes it unique and they
talk about their struggles and
their honesty; the Boomers, their
values and work ethic; Gen X,
their smarts and technology
savvy. The Millennials say their
taste in clothes and pop culture.
Sourced from “Millennials: Confident, Connected,
Open to Change,” Pew Research Center, 2010

18. Difficulty Can be Adjusted!
I failed to find a pithy quote to
support my opinion on this slide,
so you’re just going to have to
take my word for it this time. I
did add an extra Zero
Punctuation picture to make up
for the lack of a juicy quote. I
hope you appreciate my efforts
here.
Made up in order to fill blank space by Alexander
Macris, publisher, The Escapist.

19. Feedback is Constant
Because Gen Yers are used to
playing computer games with
immediate feedback on their
decisions, they will want
immediate feedback on their
work performance as well.
Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the
“Why” Generation”, The CPA Journal, April
2008
Also, I would like to say….
WOAH.

20. Advancement is Ongoing!
Computer games provide seemingly
endless goals, with immediate feedback
when a player successfully moves on to
the next level. This generation has
grown up playing computer games, so
they are familiar with consistently
achieving goals in order to move
forward. Experiences such as these have
made this generation exceptionally goal-
and achievement-oriented. They tend to
desire these types of experiences in the
work environment as well.
Kathryn Yeaton, “Recruiting and Managing the
“Why” Generation”, The CPA Journal, April
2008

21. There is No Failure, Only Another Reset
“Is your son or daughter from
what I coined "the reset
generation?" The reset button
on video games makes quitting
easy. Quitting is a habit — it
doesn't matter where you pick
it up.
The reset button has become
the "no regret button." The
accountability to oneself, as well
as the sense of responsibility is
non-existent.”
Gary Simmons, “"Set an example in sports for
your child," Scripps Howard News Service, June
27, 2003

22. Expectations
Management
+
Wish
Fulfillment
=
Gen Y
Satisfaction
Life,
Play
Games
Live

23. What Would You Like To Know?
23

24. 24