The “Millennials” Are ComingYour telling me that we finally have a generation that is not going to break its back working 60+ hours a week. Ones that understand life is more than just your job. And now that is twisted as not having a good work ethic? If only we would be good cogs in the machine.What the crap is that?! Man this has gotten me furious.(Be sure to check out the comments for a more detailed rant)
November 19, 2007 at 1:41 am |
Actually, I completely agree with this article… It describes the situation of what this generation is like pretty well, although I would start earlier, maybe 1978 or so. And look, all is not perfect with our demographic: We are a spoiled generation. We do expect things to come to us instead of going out and struggling for it. There are pros and cons to every gen.
And I definitely think that this gen does not think life is more than a job. I just think they’ve brought the job closer to home and made it another activity, but a very big one. At least in my field it’s true (hi tech).
November 19, 2007 at 8:04 am |
“We are a spoiled generation”
Maybe its just the difference between how we both grew up. I was never spoiled, nor did I see much spoiling going on around me, and certainly not with my close group of friends.
“We do expect things to come to us instead of going out and struggling for it.”
In some ways this is accurate but I think its portrayed in the wrong way. Many of us saw our parents struggle and refuse to do the same. We are more educated, more technologically equipped, and more productive and we don’t expect to have to scrape through life only to retire poor. We aren’t going to bust our humps for the man because we have the luxury of being 20 something, with no family in a time where there are more jobs ant workers.
At the same time, I don’t think there is near the level of entitlement that seems to be attributed. As one commenter put it well “we don’t expect to come in at noon in flip flops and become the CEO, but we do expect to be able to make a difference in the company” We are no longer the drones who work a blue collar job pumping out widgets, we will be working in a “flat world”, to use Thomas Friedman’s term, in which we are required to crank out ideas and grab opportunities. We have grown up putting our all into a multitude of actives and we won’t quietly fill out TPS reports for a living. We are motivated and won’t settle for mediocre and business should be embracing this instead of fearing it. I have already had a huge influence on my team for the better since I started and being a hi tech company they embrace it and reward me for it. This is the model we need to encourage.
“There are pros and cons to every gen.”
Isn’t that always the reality though? Surprise, surprise there are some snotty, self centered people between the ages of 20 and 30. A disservice is done when that minority is taken as the stereotype and broadcast on national television. What was the goal of this piece? Certainly not to give a fair accurate picture of the diversity of the new generation. It was generally to malign it. And to what end? Would it not be more productive to talk about everything I mentioned above. How we are more educated, how we focus more on results than appearances, how we put family and self above (or at least side by side) with work, how we use technology to improve our world including our jobs and our employers. But that doesn’t fit in with the “kids these days” narrative.
Moreover, even if they wanted to focus on the minority of us who are more and more beholden to our parents, the real story is not that kids haven’t grown up, its that parents haven’t let them. Kids didn’t choose to play in no winners t-ball (I have never actually heard of this really existing but it is certainly put forth as some sort of example) its the generation before us who meticulously melded us into the people we are today. Lets have a story about overprotective helicopter moms any day of the week before we start blaming the victims as it were.
“I just think they’ve brought the job closer to home and made it another activity, but a very big one”
I saw it put well that we no longer want to have a personal and a professional persona. Again, I don’t think this is a bad thing. In a time when most jobs can be done from anywhere in the world at any time of day the idea of the 9-5 or the 9-6 job is rapidly becoming pointless. I remember my first job where people would literally spend a good 1/4 of their day out front smoking and chatting. And when they were inside they would mostly be chatting instead of actual working. I think the theme of “The 4-hour workweek” is a very interesting one. While a bit of a hyperbole, it is not too far off the mark. Most weeks I could probably do all the work I need to in a matter of 4-5 hours a day. As it currently stands I usually work a less than 40 hour work week, and I still get bonuses for my hard work. So why not mix work and play. Work from home, take a 2 hour lunch for yoga, work from 12-8 or from 6-2 or from 8-2 or 12-6 whatever it takes. We no longer have to punch in when the whistle blow, our jobs no longer require that level of specific time commitment. We should embrace the technology and job opportunities that allow for the mixing of life and work in turn allows us to excel at both.