This is their first office job. It’ll take time to learn responsibility. They’ve taken the first step by seeking out the job. I’d suggest patience and a flexible management style. Flextime for example can often solve tardiness issues. They can’t get in by 8AM? Agree to 8:30 and they work an extra half hour at the end of the day.
Ironically, flextime often works out to be more strict. At my job we can come in 10 to 15 mins late. Just don’t do it every morning. That’s acceptable. The people on flextime are expected to be here on time. Its the price for getting flextime. A lady in the office next to me drops her kids off at school and comes in at 8:30. Flextime works out quite well in her situation.
All the millennial’s that we ever hired end up getting fired except the owner’s grandson for obvious reason. He’s 24 yrs old, 420 lbs and whines and cries about every single little thing possible. He won’t even really try to do something, he’ll just say “I can’t” or “I don’t know how”.
He lives at home (as does 24% of millennials) and never goes outside except to work or to get food and games. He plays only console games and watches anime around the clock.
Pretty sad lifestyles some of these millennial’s have. I get a kick out of watching the ones that work in places like BB or Gamestop. I never know whether to shake my head or laugh.
If it wasn’t at least 51% true, then the stereotypes wouldn’t exist. It persists because any observant person with half a brain can add 2+2 and gather a consensus of everything that they see on a daily basis for years and years on end.
Keep in mind you are employing a bunch of part-time college-aged people to work in what sounds like a call center. I remember working lots of jobs like that when I was in college (in the 90s). I didn’t give a shit about them either. They were part-time dead end jobs to put a bit of beer money in my pocket until I could graduate and find a real career.
I think the main difference with Millennials is that you can’t expect them to be excited and engaged in working for you simply because you are doing them the honor of allowing them to work for you. They have spent the past 20-35 years witnessing the excesses and hypocrisy of Corporate America. They have also been coddled for most of their life and grown up on stories of Mark Zuckerberg creating a billion dollar company in his dorm with nothing but a laptop. So if they don’t find the working meaningful, they aren’t going to get excited by it.
I have a friend my age (42) who constantly complains about the shitty work ethic of the 20-somethings he has to manage. They come in late, produce shoddy work, miss deadlines and otherwise act unprofessional. Then again, my friend and his boss spend half their day at the bar drinking, he almost never shows up to work himself and my friend’s boss constantly complains that he is on the verge of firing my friend. So I wonder where they get it from?
How is this a new term for you? “Mellenials” (also “Generation Y”) has been a fairly common term to describe people who are currently around age 20 to 35 for…well…the past 20 to 35 years.
An old person thinks that young people are lazy? What a shocking development! We must act swiftly to retard this unprecedented event! I shall call out the militia if you ride to alert the king. The good friar should also be present with sharpened quill and crisp parchment to record this seminal event for posterity. I’m sure that future (presumably lazy) generations will want to use their twitters and the facebook to learn about this unique phenomenon which bears no similarity to any past situation in the story of humanity.
It’s a low paying part time job. Your workers are poor workers because there is little incentive for them to be better workers. A wise old person with so many years of life experience such as yourself should have been able to realize that on his own. But it’s ok, you were probably just having a senior moment
If you’re looking for common ground with your workers, maybe you could talk to them about 1984. In my experience that book is very popular with intellectually leaning members of that generation. I’m assuming that’s where you got your username from?
I’ve read a number of articles in the last few years on the broader subject of “managing multi-generational work teams” at places like the WSJ, Business Journal, and others. Quick search on millennials specifically turns up many articles too. Here’s one with about as straightforward a title as you can get, “How to work with millennials”.
I’m sure if you search along the lines of “how to manage millennials” you’ll find tons of articles, because despite others here saying you described pretty much every other generation I think there’s a pretty strong consensus in the marketplace that you’re not imagining it and in fact there are some noticeable differences among generations. Sure, every generation has its share of screwups and goofoffs who just don’t take anything seriously, but I think you’re describing something more involved and prevalent than a few one-off characters. Anyway, best of luck in dealing with these folks and don’t let it get to you too much if some of them have an attitude that you’re the problem or just need to loosen up. It’s a workplace! Loosening up is for later.
I’m sure that article isn’t biased even one bit; I mean everyone knows that all the millenials have giant plug earrings, almost all of them, it’s totally normal, not unusual at all.
I have a question for anybody who cares to answer it. When I first read this, it rang really false to me. I would never say I “talked” to somebody I had e-mailed and heard nothing from. That seems very unclear and confusing at best and practically deceitful. On the other hand it reminds me of a similar communication issue I have pretty frequently:
Basically, imagine that on Monday morning, my boss and I discussed and decided I would ask a colleague to prepare some data for a report I need to complete by Friday. That afternoon the boss comes to ask about my status:
Boss: Did you talk to Jill about that data for the report? Fuzzy Dunlop: I e-mailed her explaining what data I need and that I need it by Friday, but I haven’t received a response yet. Boss: Ok… why don’t you go call her right now?
Meanwhile the boss is thinking, :mad: * “Why the fuck do I have to tell him that? I pay him a lot of money! He should have known.”*
Meanwhile I’m thinking, * “I know Jill to be a competent professional who is capable of managing her own time; it was a routine request similar to others Jill has completed without issue in the past. Sure, she could’ve e-mailed a quick message acknowledging receipt, but it’ll take her 30 minutes to get the data ready. She’s probably just waiting to reply with the data I requested in the next day or two. Why would I call and interrupt whatever she’s doing now when I specifically told her I didn’t need it until Friday? If I don’t hear from her I can contact her tomorrow, or Wednesday, and still have plenty of time.”*
I never considered the above the result of generational differences. I thought of it as people who “get” e-mail and people who don’t. Or people who value not being interrupted with low priority communications vs people who don’t take it into consideration.
Has anyone ever experienced a similar communication problem, and is it possibly a difference between generations?
“Millennial” isn’t a new term. It’s old, and is just as irritating as GenX was when old people were yelling at kids on their lawn when I was growing up. What is new to me, however, is college students (18-22) being grouped in with them. It just seems to me like the term is ever-expanding to include anyone under 40.
I’d never either. Talked means talked. It doesn’t mean I shot off an e-mail and am awaiting response. If that’s what happened, that’s what I would say. I’m in my early 30s, so.
Or as I like to call them, people who are annoying, and people who aren’t. I’ve known some people who believe you have to call everyone if you don’t get a response within 30 seconds. Those people need to calm their tits. I’m impatient too, but I also live on planet Earth and realize certain requests take time. If I don’t receive the requested info back in the amount of time I think it is reasonable for them to have provided it to me, then I’ll call or send a follow-up e-mail. Your boss needs to chill.
Ok, as a mucking millenial I will give my views of GenX’er and Baby Boomers and why they are such a bunch of useless fucks.
The are rigid and inflexible. Why do you need to do something in a certain way? Because you have always done it that way? Eh, is it still justifiable in light of present realities? What about initiative and innovation? (None whatsoever).
They remain married to meaningless metrics sans any context. So, you worked ten hours and I worked two? Well, you were much less productive than me and got less work done. You made 100 widgits and I made 15? Well yours are quite flimsy and mine are robust.
Quite obtuse and pig headed.No I was not at my desk for these hours. But,that does not mean I did not work. While travelling to that meeting, I finished with all outstanding correspondences on my smartphone and also cleared two documents for issuance while I say having coffee. There is no point in sitting late in the office doing all that shit, unless there are circumstance which dictate that. You should use your phone for more than candy crush.
Seem to be limited to only a “work” and “play” mode which are mutually exclusive. To take an example, its 11:54 p.m right now where I am. I got home at 7:00, changed, ate, went out for a movie, met with some friends. From 10:30 p.m I got home and then, I sent out a couple of emails and a completed a memo needed to do before tomorrow. I could have sat in the office doing that. But, I actually lived my life, refreshed myself and did a better job in less time than I could have sitting late in the office. And I will send out a couple of more emails and requests before I go to bed,
With such bad workers as the previous generations had, no wonder the world is in the sorry state it is now.
*One of the shops I mange is our taberna at Trajan’s Market. I’ve had a lot of turnover, mainly due to the staffing model I inherited (too few Athenian slaves working way too many horae). I changed the staffing model to have a bunch of part-time Macedonians working all the night and weekend hours. For the most part, it’s working out pretty well. My full-timers are working a normal, 40-horae work week, don’t have to work nights or weekends, and aren’t being subjected to the stress and burnout-inducing nightmare of 60-80 horae per week like my predecessor had them doing.
The trouble is, managing Macedonians is kind of a pain in the ass, at least for this mercatore. They’re really high maintenance, they all seem to have a deplorable work ethic, think nothing of rolling in late and leaving early, they do as little actual work as possible, and waste even more time at the nymphaeum than I do (which is a lot). So, I’m reading up on how to manage Macedonians, and a lot of what I’m reading is that my experience is typical, that Macedonians tend to be narcissistic and lazy, and that I need to creatively work around that in order to manage them.*
[INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT][INDENT]-- Fragment of a diary scroll from the 2nd century A.D.[/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT]
See, now, this is bullshit. Work is work, and having the attitude that because it’s a low-paying job I shouldn’t be required to fulfill the duties I agreed to when I signed on, is straight-up bullshit.
If OP called his employees college students instead of Millennials, this conversation wouldn’t be happening. But, the generation OP is describing has been raised differently, and in a very different world, then those of us in our 40s and 50s. There are differences. That there are exceptions does not disprove this simple fact.
Up until the late 1980s you had to bribe the Mafia before you could to get workers to pour cement in NYC. I’m not buying the “back in my day we had work ethic” shtick.
Well, I don’t call email “talking” unless we’ve emailed to each other, but I do refer to texting as “talking”. And yeah, I’ve texted someone two desks away from me, too. I’m a Millennial at heart, I suppose. The Gen-X-aged exterior is obviously wrong, since I feel about 25 inside.
I’ve had the same problem that you describe, Fuzzy. I always thought it was a difference between people who were fucking annoying and those who weren’t.
Jill could be working on a major problem. Jill could have had to leave to take care of her sick kid. Jill could be out for a dirty afternoon. Jill could’ve gone to a training course. But whatever; Jill is a fully-functioning grownup who I have to trust will respond to my email when she can. Email responses need to be immediate; people have to have time to do work that doesn’t involve answering emails.
But I always end up working for someone who thinks that badgering people if they don’t respond in an hour or two is equal to “following up” and “being proactive”.
I no longer point this out, though. I smile at the boss and say, “Yes, I reached out to Jill via email this morning. If I don’t hear from her by 4, I’ll give her a call.”
And then I log on to my anonymous twitter account and hurl some invective.
I think this is really the crux of the issue; I’m 42, and had I had a job like this when I was say… 21 in college, it wouldn’t have been anything I took very seriously either.
From their perspective, what’s the point? It’s not going on their resumes and they’re probably not planning on asking you for a recommendation, so the smart thing to do is to see just how far they can push things and not get fired. Anything else is essentially giving the company something for nothing. In other words, unless there’s a reason for them to do anything other than the bare minimum minus a little, that’s THEIR profit-maximization strategy, where profit = amount paid - actual work and trouble.
If you want them to really bust their humps, you have to engage them somehow with interesting and meaningful work.
The oldest ones are actually in their 30s about now.
I started a thread awhile back discussing the difference between being having a good work ethic and being an obedient serf. Yes, in theory I believe people should do as good a job as they can if they are being paid. But more and more, employers overwork their employees, give them impossible deadlines, hold them to unreasonable standards, have become more and more intrusive in their lives, relentlessly hammer them over any perceived transgression of policy or procedure, allow or enable environments that are hostile and abusive and will terminate employment at the whim of some capricious manager.
Let’s not pretend it’s a fair and even partnership. The only time the employee has an advantage in that relationship is when they are at an age where they have no financial obligations, are in the process of building their skillset for what they actually want to do and have plenty of time to pursue a new job or career.
So IOW, if you are an employer who is upset because the college or high school student doesn’t take the bullshit job you have him seriously because he knows that he will be graduating in a few years, it’s hard for me to have much sympathy.
Yes, you should try to do a good job if someone is paying you. But unless that job is teaching real skills and experience, is on a track to something more senior or even equity, let’s not pretend that the only reason employees will work harder than they have to is the threat of taking away their livelihood.
The notion that today’s employers are tougher and meaner than yesterday’s employers is almost as ancient as the notion that today’s employees are lazier than yesterday’s employees.
Based upon what? There are plenty of statistics and data that I can pull up to show the exact opposite of what you’re saying. If your analysis is based on data, bring it. If not, then I won’t even bother entering into a serious data driven discussion about the matter.
* “I know Jill to be a competent professional who is capable of managing her own time; it was a routine request similar to others Jill has completed without issue in the past. Sure, she could’ve e-mailed a quick message acknowledging receipt, but it’ll take her 30 minutes to get the data ready. She’s probably just waiting to reply with the data I requested in the next day or two. Why would I call and interrupt whatever she’s doing now when I specifically told her I didn’t need it until Friday? If I don’t hear from her I can contact her tomorrow, or Wednesday, and still have plenty of time.”*