I'm a Millennial...So Listen Up!
First off, I don't put a whole lot of stock into the idea of putting people into generational boxes, especially those boxes that seem to change depending on whose book or blog you read. The fact that I was born in 1980 makes me a "Millennial" (or Gen Y) by most standards, but then again, the same would be true if I was born in 1999.
And, let me tell you, I'm a hell of a lot different than someone born in 1999!
Yet, call us Millennials or not, there are 80 million of us born between 1980 and 2000 and we are now making money, which also means we are spending it; and since money talks, people are starting to listen - at least the smart ones.
This is true. For example, take business travel where "the #Millennial generation is expected to account for nearly 50% of business-flight spending by around 2020, according to the Boston Consulting Group" (WSJ, 2/18/2014). Even the Radisson Hotel chain is on board, investing $140 million in its new Radisson Red line, catering specifically to Millennials, and, as their Chief Branding Officer Gordon McKinnon puts it, their "changing attitudes and technologies" (WSJ, 2/18/2014).
By most accounts, the Millennial population is larger than the Baby Boomers, so its no wonder why people are starting to pay attention as they outnumber their Gen X (born 1965ish - 1979ish) supervisors nearly 2 to 1.
It's hard to consider myself one of these millennial types because doing so means I have to agree with the idea that we are "narcissistic," "dis-loyal," foolishly believe we can change the world, and that everything is all about, as Time Magazine boldly stated, "ME, ME, ME!"
My Dad, for example, was the son of a proud WWII vet, yet my father was one of the many who dodged the Vietnam draft. His father chastised him for the decision and wouldn't speak to him for years because of it. Was my father disloyal or was he right?
Tell me that all those 15 and 16 year-olds who lied about their age to enlist in the military in 1941 for WWII weren't young and disobedient scoundrels. We got trouble, my friends. Their parents must've been worried sick. But in retrospect, we now can call them the "Greatest Generation," and in fact they were in that they were the last real generation to make sacrifices on behalf of this community we call a Nation.
By all standards, #GenX was supposed to grow brain dead because of the Breakfast Club (if you don't know the movie, think post-pubescent Little Rascals...in denim), and M-TV - the television group that sought to kill the "radio star," which the Baby Boomers (1946ish-1964ish) were trying so hard to nostalgically embalm.
The point is that it is ridiculous to negatively categorize people by their birth-year, especially with generalizations that simply want more and seek fulfillment.. Doesn't everyone?
The world in which we grew up is radically different and ripe with more options and intellectual freedoms than in any time in history. Of course this has an impact on our expectations, how we accomplish work, and how we relate to one another. We don't need to agree, but we do need to understand.
Senior Director at Ohio University
10 年Creating a good work culture starts with viewing every generation of your co-workers from an asset perspective.