Millennials

Millennials are a hot topic. I’m not sure when we decided not to call them Gen Y anymore, but that now seems to be the thing. And I fully understand why it’s discussed a lot. There’s all these people coming into the workplace, they’re our leaders of the future, and I don’t understand them. I don’t know how to support or please them. That’s going to worry people.

Some of the articles and research should give you pause for thought. EY (and others) will report that millennials are more entitled than older workers, that they are less good team players. There’s some decent academic research behind that too. Which leads to opinion pieces on how to weed out these unholy characteristics.

But for each of those articles, I seem to read a contradictory one. Now, I am fully aware of the levels of confirmation bias at play here. As previously discussed, I like things simple. I will naturally be more persuaded and seek more articles that make life simpler. I know that. But since I have to get off the fence, why not aim for the softer landing?

And – with that in mind – it’s this or this kind of article that I find more convincing. Yes, millennials are optimistic, over-ambitious and naïve to an endearing/irritating degree [delete as applicable], but that’s a function of youth. Once we were like that too.

But there are some cultural aspects at play here. So it’s claimed that millennials want more feedback. You know what? They probably do. Communication is more instant. We all take great umbrage if a brand deigns not to tweet us back in 5 minutes. Do millennials want meaning and purpose in their work? I reckon they probably do. They’ve been force-fed that idea from the cradle, an idea that didn’t really have much meaning for previous generations. (And I’m not convinced that their behaviour backs this up; who do they most want to work for?).

For me, like this article, it’s being aware of differences. But being aware that there’s more that we all have in common than divides us.