Heather Kerrigan

is Governing's research specialist and events coordinator. E-mail her at hkerrigan@governing.com.

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• Gen Y in the Workplace

Last month's edition of Public Workforce (and the topic of young leaders in general) has generated a lot of interest and debate. To wrap up last month's discussion on the young leaders' session at Managing Performance conference, I wanted to share a few more comments on this topic from Governing's readers.

A state fiscal officer shared his opinions in each of the categories from last month's edition:

On why young leaders are attracted to government: Government offers flexibility — you can do far more things in government than you can in private industry at a young age. Our new state budget director is about 30. There are governors in their 40s. As long as you have a passion, knowledge and a drive to help people, [while] realizing that you are helping yourself ... then anyone can succeed.

On getting attention for government jobs: Government jobs in some ways are not sexy, but try to do without one. Society doesn't function without public safety, environment, education, etc. That's the way I get people interested. Government is in everything we do, every day. It's the air we breathe, the water we drink, our housing, our roads — everything.

On benefits for young leaders: Most governments today are IT savvy. If there is budget, you get travel and continuing education. Otherwise, if someone else is paying, you get those things (to go to a conference, say). You get a decent work environment and far better benefits than in the private sector (health insurance, deferred compensation, etc.). In my profession, it's difficult as in my office, you don't get credit for getting professionally licensed, but we allow time for someone to do so. We also have scholarship programs with private universities in our state to get their MBA, MPA or MPP. [Students attending] public institutions of higher ed. in our state have 100 percent tuition waived.

On government as a stepping stone: Most "graduates" from government go into consulting, education or some other service industry as they have tremendous service abilities. Those industries can be very lucrative. As less and less people are staying in government enough to earn a pension, the change to the private sector is much easier when you are younger. People who leave government have among the strongest skill sets I have seen.

On retention: Government is not immune from the economy. Unfortunately, some people who join may not be able to stay. But we try to retain the best and brightest. We can't offer bonuses, but we offer many other work/life balance items.

On what I would change about government if I could: We need to be a bit more flexible in some of our work practices. Government will not get the full respect it deserves until it climbs into the 21st century in terms of unions and bureaucracy.

Paul Grimyser, a planner with the City of Las Vegas, offered his opinion on how to attract young leaders to government:

As someone who finished up a graduate degree and began working for a municipal government two years ago — internships! I began working for the local municipality as a part-time intern without benefits while finishing my degree. Shortly after graduation, I was offered full-time work (with outstanding benefits) in the same department. The reason I choose to stay with the local municipality instead of choosing another job was my familiarity with the department and the agency. I felt an obligation or loyalty to repay the municipality for giving me an internship (work experience).

My advice to any agency looking for young talent is to build a relationship with colleges and universities ... to establish good internship programs that help college and graduate students develop their resume and work experience.

Also, make sure to maximize the outreach by communicating with HR. I went to career fair after career fair looking for internships. I was actually turned down by the human resources department for the organization I worked for, because the HR recruiter didn't know about the internship opportunities being offered in various departments. A week after being turned down or told there were no internships at the career fair, I was hired by a director for an internship they had been trying to fill for some time.

Patricia Emerson, Director of Administrative Services for the Calaveras County, California, Water District, had this to say:

I have great respect for the talent, energy and ideas young people bring to the workplace, but too often they want to start something — try a new idea, change a procedure — and then walk away from the very serious issues of ongoing follow-up. Especially in a government-services sector, the aspect of maintaining a program is vital.

First, these young people have to demonstrate that they are leaders:

• Leaders take care of business first. Show me that you can do what I ask you, and then I can give you some autonomy.

• Leaders don't respond "whatever" when their supervisors ask for something that might not make sense to the young person. The leader will ask questions — how does the task fit into some bigger picture the young person can't possibly know yet.

• Leaders make certain their areas of work are well-handled and completed before taking on "more interesting" challenges or offering opinions on someone else's business. Work isn't always about what you want or like to do.

• Leaders don't whine. Always asking "why" in a demanding or condescending manner makes you sound like a 3-year-old. Put your question into a context and it won't be so annoying: "Is it this way because of XYZ, or is it possible to do it ABC way?"

• You're not going to be VP in six months — so get over it. Your propensity for leaving claw marks in the backs of others and resume-dropping around other departments isn't enhancing your reputation. The old rule still stands: A person doesn't get out of the mailroom until he/she is the best-darned mailroom clerk there is.

The bottom line is, if you want to be taken seriously, take it seriously, not just today's "Hey, how about we do it this way...." There are always consequences!