I hired a herd of Millennials

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

There are some specific generational differences that don’t involve the “young people are lazy” theme. My manager took a course in managing Millenials (I myself am a Baby Boomer), and she told me that one of the things she was taught that helped her was the difference in how they view communication. If I tell her that I talked to someone, I mean that we had a conversation, if not in person, at least on the telephone. When a Millenial says that she talked to someone, she may mean that she sent that person an email, and no actual conversation took place. It’s these types of differences, based on technology and the way each generation was raised, that can be helpful to distinguish, rather than general personality characteristics.

One other issue may be that young people raised with more overprotective parents may not be as self-motivated as people from other generations. That doesn’t mean that they are inherently lazy, just that they may not have developed a habit of working all the way through a problem on their own. This is something that can be trained and instilled through good management.

I think you’re making the right choice to learn more about Millenials in order to creatively manage them.

22

My dad is fond of telling me about his days as a young air force officer; he discovered that if he gave his troops 8 hours to do something, it took them 8 hours, and if he gave them 2 hours to do something, it took them 2 hours.

This was in the 70s, though, when people worked their asses off. Not like now. :rolleyes:

23

I’m 31, which is definitely a millennial even though it sometimes seems like people want millennials to stay in our early 20s forever.

I don’t pretend to really know what it’s like to be a GenXer or Baby Boomer, but we do seem to have a slightly different attitude about work/life than our predecessors. My observation has been that those of us who are successful and productive manage to mesh better with the rest of society and the workforce, even though at our core we have the same outlook as our lazy narcissistic generational siblings.

For example, I would be annoyed by an employer who cared if I arrived late or left early within 15-30 minutes, as long as I was getting the time in and accomplishing what was expected of me. At my last employer, there were quite a few busybody colleagues who didn`t even interact with me, let alone depend on my being there, who were always upset about the hours I kept. Luckily everyone who actually mattered was satisfied because I did a great job and everything that needed to be done was done.

There’s a really important caveat though, which is that I develop technology products. Nobody was depending on me to get something done by 8:15 in the morning. Often the most basic task I needed to complete would take days and involved sitting alone writing code or tinkering with electronics.

If my job required me to be available at a support desk, then my free wheeling attitude toward scheduling would’ve been a serious problem and I should definitely have been corrected.

I have a friend, a licensed mental health therapist, who received a negative review at the clinic he worked for. They complained that he only put in a bare minimum 40 hours per week and they wanted him to work harder. He told them he didn’t want to do that, and that he wanted to be home with his wife and daughter, not working more hours than he was being paid to.

I think many people from older generations would see that as a lazy undesirable attitude, but it matches my own outlook pretty well. In my opinion the only mistake is in *telling *your employer how you feel and thinking it’ll be acceptable. Of course your employer doesn’t care about your desire to spend more time with your wife.

On the other hand, he quit shortly after and started his own practice and is much happier. So I guess it worked out for him too.

So I guess in summary my view as a millennial is - we might/probably have different attitudes about work than you, but if we’re not effectively getting the job done you should just treat us like any other employee and correct the misbehavior. On the other hand, if you have someone who is doing the work you need, but his generational idiosyncrasies just annoy you, you’ll have to decide just how annoying you find him.

24

Interesting.

Apart from being (in general) better at newer technology and social Media than Gen-X and Baby Boomers, are there any other areas where you feel like Millennials are better at certain things?

25

Not only are they lazy but the little bastards won’t stay off my lawn! :slight_smile:

A friend is a recruiter for a major corporation and he’s seen the same thing you do getting worse over the years. It’s an over-simplification but his claim is that kids get rewarded so much today for just showing up and not doing anything - or even just for signing up - that they expect adulthood to be the same way. The “trophy for everyone syndrome” as he calls it.

I recently took a part-time gig in a shipping center and I see a lot of it now myself. One lady (20-25ish) was being fired and just couldn’t understand it. “I showed up every day!” Yes - but you then spent a half hour in the break room and a half hour later in the ladies room. “But I showed up every day!” Yes - but you didn’t do any work. Average scan rate is 130 packages an hour and you did less than 25. “But I showed up every day!” Except for the 4 days in 3 weeks you called in sick. Lets face it – you’re fired.

And folks wonder why my needle keeps leaning just a bit towards pessimist.

26

Both my sons are millenials and being the house where all the kids usually gathered, I’ve had many years of observing them and how they function. Here are a couple of observations:

1 - Always show them the goal (the what’s in it for me approach). If they have a goal and know what it takes to work toward it, this will engage many of them. They like a plan, they crave structure (although they may not know it), and they like to have all the facts laid out in front of them.

2 - They work best in groups. All of their schooling has emphasized a team approach (very different from those of us who went before and who concentrated on individual achievement). Give them something to work on as a team, even something small like how to organize the work area. They generally respond favorably.

3 - These are kids with parents who structured their lives to revolve around their kids - parents who schlepped them to every activity they showed an interest in, parents who made sure their self-esteem was never damaged, parents who insisted all participants get a trophy for showing up. They are very used to the world revolving around them. Being told ‘no’ is something they may just ignore. It’s infuriating as a manager to have to explain yourself to your employees, but they seem to be more engaged if they feel they have a say in whatever undertaking they are involved in. They want their opinions heard and an explanation of why you can’t do things the way they want. On the positive side, they do respond to logic, so if you can explain why things have to be a certain way, they will generally suck it up and comply.

4 - They will be all over any opportunity to network (ie social media). If you can bring social media into their work in any way, they’ll love it.

My older son (32 now) took a while to fit in to the workplace. He got and quit several jobs before finding one that was the right fit. He did very poorly as an underling. Now that he’s a management employee, he has blossomed. He is as good a manager as he was poor as a grunt. I think these kids have a longer learning curve on fitting into a traditional workplace. I suspect when they are in control themselves, things will change dramatically.

Good luck with your gaggle of millenials.

27

They said the same thing about Gen-X’ers back in the day.

(Full disclosure; I’m a Gen-X’er, spent formative full-time-employment years working around Boomers who always moaned on about how awful the younger generation was. It was tiresome. Don’t do it. Focus on the behavior, not the age of the employee.)

28

I don’t think that’s lazy at all. After working through a number of downsizings, layoffs, and so on, I’m not going to work more than I need to just because some people think we should put in 60-hour weeks. I used to work someplace that thought that a normal week should be 45-50 hours, not including break or lunch. Are you freakin’ kidding? i have duties outside of work, too. I’m not shirking those, either.

29

Cut 'em some slack. For most of their adult lives, “jobs” have been things from myths and fairy tales. They’ll learn.

And give their generation some credit for its accomplishments, too: to be called “narcissistic” and “self-indulgent” by Baby Boomers is no mean feat.

30

What is the basis for thinking this? In the UK, young people are expected to do more exams, more extracurricular activity, and more unpaid work experience than those over 40 or 50 ever were.

31

I don’t know what the reality is, but I don’t necessarily see any contradiction here. The more different activities kids are expected to do (i.e. sign up for), the less likely they may be to take any one of them seriously and put a lot of effort into it.

32

“Kids these days” - do you really want to be that grumpy old guy? :smiley: Learn to deal with the new generation, they’re going to be paying for your rest homes.

Everyone grows up at different rates. I am a generation X’er (although right in the end) and I like the Millennial values better than the Boomer values. They spend more time with their families and like others have said, don’t think it’s necessary to work 60 hours a week. I don’t really care what people think, life is not all about work.

For years we have been expected to put in more work than companies are willing to pay us for. I just don’t think that’s right. And there really isn’t any need for a lot of positions to roll in at 9 am. They expect to be valued more on the work they actually do.

I have Millennial of both stripes. One of the hardest workers and brightest young ladies I knew was a Millennial. She only did 40 hours, but when she was here, she gave it her all. I also have seen the opposite kind, and when it was the opposite kind, it was a direct result of the parents. The parents had been coddling her so long that she had no idea how to be on her own. Everytime something went wrong daddy swooped in and saved her.

People is people, I guess is what I am saying.

33

In the Navy I was made a 2nd shift supervisor for a division while our ship was in the shipyards. I would assign tasks and tell the group assigned to the task that they could leave when it was done to my satisfaction. Suddenly my shift was ~3x more productive than the other two shifts. When the division officer asked me how I was achieving these results, I had to lie because everyone was supposed to be working for 10 hours!

34

Complete IMHO but Millennials and younger people in general seem to be more creative, less rigid, than their older counterparts. If I were doing that customer service work and you had a problem with my time spent on the internet, my first thought would be if I’m completing the work I’m assigned, and if so, what difference does it make if I’m spending time online. Maybe they are actually doing less work, lounging around when they should be working, and if so, there’s no excuse.

Try to engage their creativity and their desire to control their own spaces. Ask them to think up ways to improve the job, make it more efficient. Have them write up existing procedures and make suggestions on how they’d want to change them.

35

To me, both of those speak to poor management and leadership skills, not a failing on the part of the manager.

Your teams should ALWAYS be aware of the end goal and how you’re planning to get there and you should explain things to your employees. They might surprise you with a better way to do it, or a more efficient one, or just a plain easier way to get there. Beyond that, if they have a say in things, they’ll internalize those goals and objectives and become much more personally invested in success.

36

Exactly. It’s a good idea to understand generational differences, but don’t let yourself get absolutely blinded by them. I think it’s important to look at the requirements of the job frequently to see what’s essential and what’s not. We once asked “why are we doing this” and discovered that there was no reason. Eons ago when we used NCR forms, we put the final copy in the filing cabinet. The forms were crashed numbered, then dispersed, so you had to do some sorting to put your copy in the correct numerical order. Finally, the person who was so uptight about putting those goldenrod copies in the correct order in the big filing cabinet left. And we realized that no one ever for any reason looked at or needed those copies. They sat in the filing cabinet and collected dust. We had the whole thing carted off and switched to 4 part forms. (it was the 90’s; whatcha gonna do?)

Some people don’t think I dress like a professional. I’m a certified professional who passed an exam to earn a title with letters after my name. I wear jeans, knit shirt, and sneakers to work. I work in an office, but it’s in a secure facility. No one can come in and visit us. I do 99% of my work on the phone and by email. I NEED fast internet, two (though I’m thinking about three) monitors, a multi-line desk phone with a hands free headset. Hose and heels and a nice suit do not do my job. My interaction with people outside of my building is based on the phone and written word. THAT is what needs to be professional and it is.

My “clients” are my co-workers who are similarly garbed. The outside world we deal with never sees us. Why does it matter what we wear as long as it’s clean, covers the essentials, and doesn’t rouse the rabble (potentially offensive t-shirt slogans). Sure some of them prefer to dress in typical office clothes. Some of the men even wear ties regularly, but mostly it’s jeans and tshirts. It wasn’t always this way. Someone in the 80’s asked why and the answer came back that there was no good reason so the dress code policy was dropped.

(By the way, I’m a Late Boomer, not a Millennial. I think they’ve got it right in terms of dress.)

37

I agree with you 99%. I just think it’s important for people to realize they need to do something about it, e.g. find a new job, if they’re unhappy with their employer’s office culture/expectations. Obstinately thinking the world is going to bend around you seems to me a more annoying millennial habit, but the key is to be proactive about your life, not compromise your own values.

I think even if you somehow account for technology, we’re generally more creative and flexible in how we work. I also think that’s probably been true of pretty much every generation while they’re young.

And this is a really cheap shot, but I think in general it shows that we grew up at a time where diversity and tolerance was important. Of course, I’ve worked with loads of gen xers and baby boomers who never once made an off color joke, and just a week or so ago we had those disgustingly hateful fraternity boys making national news.

Overall though, I’ve grown to know and like a lot of older colleagues only for them to one day make some blatantly racist or sexist or anti-gay remark as if it was totally normal. Talk about awkward and unpleasant. Again, I don’t mean to imply that’s typical of older generation workers. But if you meet a racist young person, they at least usually seem like a douchebag to the core. Seeming like a generally nice guy and then randomly saying something nasty about blacks or gays is pretty much limited to Boomers or the occassional Gen Xer

38

Madness.

There is a not-boring conversation about generational difference, but this OP is just, rather lazily, “College students are lazy.” Not like in his day!

39

This is a good thread to post this:

40

From a sociological perspective, my understanding is that there is a difference in leadership, communication, and work styles between most generations, but there’s nothing that says any generation has it right or wrong.

For example, if I remember it correctly (and I may not), Gen Xers do not tend to be as good working in groups as the generations before and after.