A recent article in the Silicon Valley Mercury News quoted psychologist Kit Yarrow’s analysis of Gen Y shopping habits thusly:

Yarrow found that buying stuff is the way Generation Y has learned to express itself. It’s not necessarily about accumulating large amounts of stuff, or declaring your financial status as was the case with the buying habits of baby boomers.

Rather, shopping is a new form of self-expression. “Stuff is a natural, easy way to say who you are,” Yarrow said.

And while Yarrow was interested in shopping behaviors of Generation Y, her insight is just as powerful when trying to understand why your young employees buck when told what they should wear: In the mind of many young people, when you tell them what to wear, you are telling them who to be.

Young employees tend to fight that.

Of course, most managers didn’t need psychoanalysis or in-depth research to know that. It can feel like an incredibly up hill battle to get young employees to wear their uniforms.

Fortunately, Yarrow’s insight doesn’t just explain the problem - it leads to a solution: allow your employees to choose their uniforms so that they want to wear the uniforms as a part of expressing themselves.

Now, for those of you who are recoiling at the thought (”This is a workplace, dammit, I pay them to work, not to express themselves!), remember: our goal is to find a way to get your employees to wear your uniform. As I’ve pointed out in the past, if you have a uniform your employees want to wear, you won’t have to make them wear it - they’ll take care of it themselves.

But I would never advocate giving employees a blank slate to work with. It’s important to represent your brand and keep the uniform from becoming a disservice to your brand.

Like this. Or this. Or this.

(OK, that last one was not the result of the players having free reign, but the uniforms have been a punchline since they debuted, and are thus a disservice to the Seahawks brand. This may be a welcome distraction for a 2-4 team, but likely wouldn’t be for your business.)

So, instead of giving your employees carte blanche or trying to fit them into a hat and shirt they’ll never wear, look to work your way into the middle of the road with one of these strategies.

1. Offer different uniform choices

Tokyo Joe’s and Chipotle are both concepts I’ve visited where I’ve seen employees wearing a variety of different uniforms that the company designed, prepared, and provided. You might have a standard uniform that’s issued, but sell different items to your team at cost so that those who are really inclined to express themselves can do so.

2. Let the team design the uniform

Whether it’s a contest or simply asking if anyone on your team wants to tackle the project for a few extra bucks, you are able to let the team get in some form of expression while still maintaining a level of control on this one. (Example: You tell them: it’s a black polo. They choose: the logo, image, or slogan on it.) If you wear screen prints and have to re-order regularly, consider allowing the team to make new designs with each large order.

3. Let the team choose the uniform pieces

So, maybe the design and slogan on your uniform are very important to your brand, but the cut of the shirt or the style of the hat isn’t. Let your team tell you what they’re more interested in wearing. It may be that getting your employees to wear their hats is as simple as letting them tell you that they prefer this style of hat over that style of hat. (God forbid they choose this style.)

4. Let them wear their own clothes with a few guidelines

Maybe it’s just saying “make sure you’re wearing this color.” Maybe it’s saying “make sure you wear a polo - I don’t care what color.” Whatever it looks like, I’ve seen this at a number of major national brands (Sears, Target, and Panera to name a few), and it seems pretty effective for the most part. The main battles I’ve seen on it is seeing shirts tucked in and getting enough flesh covered.

What other ways can you think of to allow employees to make some choices with their uniforms without choosing not to represent your brand?

Friday afternoon as I was sitting in the office, I caught an exchange  that got me wondering if despite all our immodesty and confidence that perhaps Gen Y has a soft spot for criticism, particularly when it comes to blogging.

It all began with this tweet:

@AlexJMann: You know “Gen Y” blogging has become a farce when the unemployed are giving career advice. It brings irony to a whole new level.

And then the fireworks started:

[Note: I've cleaned out the RTs and @replies to make this a bit more readable.]

@CarlosMic: Amen!

@BlakeSunshine: I think that’s a pretty unfair generalization. I’m a Gen-Y blogger with a real job too.

@JRMoreau: Agreed. I think that’s a pretty unfair generalization.

@ImNickArmstrong: Agreed. Hucksters abound, but that sort of generalization is bone stupid, Alex.

@Carol_Phillips: I agree as well [with JR, Nick, and Blake]

@AlexJMann: Blake, You have a job. Great, you’re not my target. The unemployed kid writing career top ten lists–I’ll call bullshit every time.

@BlakeSunshine: Fair enough, but don’t call all Gen-Y blogging a farce

Holy cow!

So what do we think, folks? Is this an example of a generation that is overly sensitive about criticisms of its own norms while it doesn’t hesitate to tear down the norms of previous generations? Or is it a fair defense against an unreasonable charge?

Updates!:

Blake Sunshine shared her take on her blog.

Carol Phillips offered up a couple great posts on generation Y’s perception of itself here and here.

It’s official: the H1N1 epidemic has ballooned to epic proportions. And I’m not talking about the disease itself. I’m talking about the epidemic of people  freaking out about a lesser version of the seasonal flu.

If we had the time, we could study this hysteria and learn lessons about about common sense, the realities of disease transmission, statistical significance, and the effects of the mass media on different populations. But since we’ve got our hands full trying to get the most out of young employees, we’ll look at what it can also teach us about communicating with them.

Today I read a report that a university has asked students not to play beer pong because they might transmit swine flu to other students. Dr. Leslie Lawrence, medical director of the school’s health center, sent a message to students saying, “While it might seem fun over the weekend, it will not be enjoyable when you and your friends are sick and missing class or midterm examinations.”

Because he made that statement, Dr. Lawrence is going to play the starring role in today’s edition of “DON’T EVER DO THAT. FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR BUSINESS. SERIOUSLY. DON’T.”

The way I see it, Dr. Lawrence made four glaring mistakes in that single sentence.

First and foremost, the good doctor has used a pretty condescending tone. “While it might seem fun” is an irritating construction that suggests (a) that he knows better than we do what is fun, and (b) that we are incapable of evaluating the possible consequences of a given activity.

Second, Dr. Lawrence’s has threatened weak consequences: missing classes and exams. He’s not breaking any hearts with those outcomes. Just ask my freshman economics teacher - I frequently missed class without being sick. If it was too cold out, or too nice out, or I had slept too little, or too much… Moreover, if I needed a few days to study for an exam and I knew that “I have swine flu” could translate into a reason for a teacher to keep me out of her class, I would definitely “come down with it.”

Third, doctor’s vocabulary is outdated. “Examinations” are not something college students take today. I took tests in college. I took exams in college. I never once took an examination because I didn’t go to school in the 1950’s.

Lastly, the doctor isn’t concerning himself with the issues reality suggests he should. Beer pong is a drinking game that has been played on college campuses for a good while now. Diseases like mono and cold sores have been present during that time, and presumably the doc hasn’t sent out blast e-mails cautioning students about the risk of getting those college classics after playing beer pong. It appears he didn’t even send one about the seasonal flu, which the CDC reports kills 36,000 Americans annually. (Swine flu has reportedly killed 5,400 people worldwide.)

So, aside from looking like I’m making a mean-spirited attack on a well-meaning medical practitioner, what points am I trying to make about communicating with your young employees?

1. Don’t talk down to your young employees. We can tell. You are not our parents. Don’t tell us to take our jackets when it’s cold.

2. If you’re going to threaten consequences, make them real consequences. I remember in high school a typical punishment for cutting class was to suspend the student. It’s hardly a deterrent when it’s what the person wants in the first place.

3. Don’t talk like it’s 1950. It’s the year 2009. Use natural language. (Props are due to the doctor, though, for not trying to use colloquialisms with which he isn’t familiar.)

4. Don’t come to me with crazyness. If you’re going to unravel a new policy aimed at stopping $0.07 of loss at an expense of ten minutes of my time (at minimum wage that would be a cost of $0.73), I’m not going to buy in. While your young employees might sometimes lack the level of social sophistication you’d like, we’re products of the information age. That means we are sophisticated consumers of information who have a lot of data, analyze it, and draw conclusions rapidly. Give me the data that sells me on your proposed change, or don’t give me the proposal at all.

So keep these points in mind next time you’re dealing with your young employees, lest you start your own epidemic of bad communication techniques.