In July 2007 I wrote a Workplace Perspectives editorial arguing that not only is the overall portrayal of Generation Y – children of the Baby Boomers born from between 1977 and 1995 – in the media inaccurate, but business leaders should heap the increasing recognition these employees are receiving to workers of all ages.  In my article* I talked about how this generation has been called greedy and lazy, among other unfavorable attributes, by media outlets ranging from Fortune to NPR.

Now TV is getting in on the game.  This past weekend I spotted a segment on "60 Minutes" that props up this portrayal.  Even worse, the segment was actually re-aired, having been originally produced and run late last year and aired again now in conjunction with high school and college graduation ceremonies.

Correspondent Morley Safer uses as the backbone of the segment the idea that you can't really blame Gen Y for being the way they are, it's in their breeding.  He says they've been "laden with trophies just for participating and they think your business-as-usual ethic is for the birds."

I found much of Safer's evidence – his sources of executives and consultants – to be patronizing.  For instance, although Marian Salzman, an ad agency executive "who has been managing and tracking millennials since they entered the workforce," acknowledges that "Some of them are the greatest generation," she quickly says, when it comes to managing them, "You cannot tell them you're disappointed in them.  You can't really ask them to live and breathe the company.  Because they're living and breathing themselves and that keeps them very busy."

Quite frankly, I can think of thousands of young employees in this generation – many of the over 2,600 employees of the 2007 Winning Workplaces/Wall Street Journal Top Small Workplaces, for starters – who would disagree.  Through ownership vehicles such as ESOPs and a thorough focus on team building, employees can live and breathe for themselves and for the company.

Apparently many of the 609 current commentors of the web version of the "60 Minutes" piece feel the same way.  "Lisette241," a 26-year-old worker, for instance, turns the argument around and says that

If I were to imply that the elderly were incapable of using knives and forks ... I would certainly be attacked, but since 60 Minutes is criticizing young people, insults and name calling are to be put up with ....

I am 25 years old and I work and make my own way in the world and work ... hard to do it and I am embarrassed that this is the best of what 60 [M]inutes [sic] can do to represent and grossly misrepresent my generation!!

I have argued my position through my editorial from last summer, so I won't say more for now except to point out that some major media outlets have recognized the onesidedness of this debate as framed by "60 Minutes."  BusinessWeek in particular was quick to play devil's advocate, writing that most in Gen Y are "industrious, extraordinarily hard-working, and not exactly hanging around waiting for a bunch of praise."

What's your take on this issue?  What best practices have you seen that promote across-the-board – not generation-specific – team building?

*Disclaimer: I was 28 years old when I wrote that.