Prior to writing this article, I read through more than 1,000 RSS feeds that I had collected over the work day, went through my e-mail accounts for work, school, my blog and then my personal e-mail. I dug through the more than 4,000 songs on my computer, and found what I wanted to listen to. After letting the world know what I was up to by updating my Facebook and Twitter profiles, I finally opened Word and went to work. But instead of working at the office, I was at my dorm office, typing away on my MacBook. That morning, I had texted my boss to tell her that I would work from home in the morning and then go into the office after class. And I'm fairly normal for our generation. I am a Millennial.
Lexington, KY -
Thus begins an article in the November 28, 2008 edition of Alive Magazine. The author, Mitch Hilsop, went on to remark about Baby Boomer and Generation X criticisms of his peers, those born between 1980 and '95: "They often say things like 'They are lazy,' 'They don't have any loyalty,' 'They are always playing on the Internet,' and 'Why do they always text message?'"
Much has been written in recent editions of Business Lexington about the challenges presented when members of various generations find themselves working together, under the same roof, day after day. It's not always pretty sight. Psychological minefields abound. "There seems to be an expectation by older generations that Millennials will be exactly like them," complained Hilsop.
And there's the rub. Generational conflict is universal and ancient. It's nothing new. But time and space have not diminished its capacity to irritate.
As a generation, we boomers are now reaping what we have sown, as did a now retired generation that, in retrospect, must've wondered what God had wrought when we Boomers showed up for work, as twenty-somethings all filled with vim, vigor and our own ideas about things (see Joel DiGirolamo's latest Leadership in Action column, Leading Multiple Generations).
The rise of the "helicopter parent" hovering over their childrens' every move is now translating into the arrival in the labor pool of an entirely new - and to some, alien - set of expectations, ambitions and work habits.
Business consultant Mary Crane, a speaker at the 2009 Women Leading Kentucky Conference, said she has heard the war stories from human resources professionals of parents accompanying their children on job interviews and "of young people who are offered a position, and the parent calls in to HR to negotiate the salary." Crane also noted that Millennials have grown up enabled by a mind-boggling array of near-magical digital technologies, conditioned to believe that they can accomplish their work anywhere, at any time.
All of this is a source of discomfort among their Boomer bosses (many of whom can readily recall when telephones didn't have dials) who actually went on to hit the big 3-0 (the big 4-0, the big 5-0, etc.) and in the process of scrambling to meet the raised-bar expectations of their own elders, gave rise to the term "workaholic." Whether to their credit or detriment, Boomers did accomplish some pretty marvelous, transformative technological feats in their many hours away from home and hearth.
But the management of time as well as workplace cultures have undergone profound changes since the children of Boomers became parents themselves. Even the nature of change itself has changed.
Change, especially at today's pace, can be mighty intimidating as constantly emerging technologies assure that the latest new thing will soon be rendered obsolete by the next latest new thing - even before you've come close to mastering the previous latest new thing.
In his exploration of the generation topic in our April 30 edition (Millennials Forcing Change in the Workplace), contributing writer Dan Dickson characterized Millennials as "technically literate" individuals who "integrate technology into almost every facet of their lives and are highly skilled multi-taskers. Technology has always been in their lives and is almost an extension of their bodies. They love immediate communication by cell, text messaging or IM and they're just beginning to enter Kentucky workplaces."
However, Tracy Morford, human resources manager for Cardinal Hill Healthcare System and president of the Bluegrass Society for Human Resource Management noted at least one Millennial failing: oral and written communication skills. "They use abbreviations in sending text messages and e-mail and speak in an abbreviated format and may not understand proper sentence construction and grammar. And when the time comes for them to sit down and create a business document, many don't do it very well."
This concern aside, said Morford, they are a joy. "They probably are the most balanced we'll ever work with. They want a work-life balance. They want time for their relationships, hobbies, pastimes, families and work. It doesn't mean that when at work they aren't doing a good job. They are just not married to their jobs like other generations have been."
And that, according to Mitch Hilsop, gets to the heart of his generation's perception of any dysfunction in today's multi-generational workplace. "We Millennials have our fair share of complaints as well: Strict office settings, top-down leaderships, not enough technology, and not enough flexibility. Our generation does not work the same, and with the Millennials set to be the largest generation in the workforce, this generation gap needs to be addressed."
Yes, it does. And that's what makes this whole discussion about generations so important to us all. Because, as our parents and their parents eventually came to understand, the more things (seem to) change, the more they stay the same. Give it another 20 years and whatever "latest thing" has succeeded Google will call up for your reading pleasure a slew of contemporary articles fretting with much exasperation over the work habits and ethic of the latest entry-level workforce.
In the meantime, I believe Dan Dickson raised a good point when in closing his article, he noted, "Consultants advise that 40-, 50- and 60-year-old managers should focus on training and nurturing Millennials rather than bossing them around. It's the old-line managers who may need to change, not necessarily their young charges. Those in the know say these new workers will likely need a lot of mentoring, no matter how smart and confident they appear, and they'll respond well to the personal attention because they appreciate structure and stability."
As a Boomer (b:1949), I feel that there is much room for improvement in generational relations both in and out of the workplace. Maybe one starting point is the realization that there is much to learn from each other and a willingness to open our minds to that possibility. The question is, can we manage it without standing on each others' last nerve?