By David Wolfe
When you hear the term millennial, what comes to mind? Unless you are in that generation yourself, it’s probably not good.
A lot of negative things are being said about this generation—more than positive things. But when you think about it, most generations start off with a bad reputation. The younger generation rarely delights the older generations. I don’t think this is anything new. The post-World War II generation complained about the baby boomers. Then the baby boomers complained about Gen X workers. It’s human nature to think you know more than those who come after you, that your way is the best way, and that “these kids” are just that: kids.
Like all generations, millennials have traits that can be both good and bad in the work environment. Millennials are considered entitled, selfish, and impatient. They are called lazy and disloyal. They need a lot of hand holding. They’re still under the influence of Mom and Dad.
There is probably some level of truth to all of those conceptions, or else people wouldn’t say them. But my argument is there’s some level of truth to those traits for every generation when they are in their twenties to early thirties. There may have been slightly different aspects of what their weaker points were and what their stronger points were, but the baby boomers, the Gen Xers, and all the other generations were in some way immature and self-centered at that age.
Millennials are singled out for being especially entitled. I could probably go on for hours about why—the “everybody gets a trophy” mentality they were raised with, etc. But I don’t want to go into the reasons they may be entitled or impatient or less loyal. I want to focus on their strengths and how to use those when hiring and retaining them as workers. It requires cracking their code and adjusting, figuring out how to motivate and engage and recruit this workforce, versus sitting on your hands and complaining. A lot of hiring managers may be toward the end of their career and are complaining about this generation rather than doing something about it. They’re just hurting their organization by complaining about it, instead of stepping up and doing something.
Stay tuned for my next article, “Embracing Tech-Savvy Millennials in the Workplace.”