Gen Y and IT management: It's not all that complicated

Generation Y has been billed as the group of workers that'll turn the enterprise into a social networking zone with consumerized tools and newfangled ways to manage. The reality is that Gen Y looks a lot like other groups of workers, according to a Forrester Research study.

Among the key points:

• 40 million of the 76 million folks defined as Gen Y---18 to 30 year olds---are in the workplace. A third of that Gen Y workforce are in manager or executive roles.
• This group thinks their personal technology is better than what they can find in the workplace, but don't necessarily bring their gear to work. Forrester found that the entire workplace is bringing software and devices to the office.
• 55 percent of Gen Y are satisfied with the technologies they use to do their job in line with the rest of workers.
• The IT department is seen as a resource. In fact, 62 percent of Gen Y see the IT department as a partner that understands the business. Only 10 percent say the IT department is clueless or hampers work.

In other words, Gen Y may not be the revolutionary IT generation that's portrayed by numerous articles.

Bottom line: The next generation of workers don't see business tech as a disaster. That fact makes you wonder what happens to all the enterprise 2.0 revolutionaries at the gate.