The millennial series : Part 1 - Why are we the way we are?

There are as many definitions for millennials out there, as there of us. The simplest way might be to group millennials as those born from 1980 to 2000. Given this 20 year span, and the incessant need of our parents to procreate, there are millions of us roaming the earth today.

Somehow, along the way, people (mostly of our parents baby boomer generation) have found it fitting to generalise us as the “entitled” generation. We have parents, bosses, and random extended family members, criticising us for the way we approach work. We are often referred to as lazy, narcissistic, selfish over-spenders. One of the favourite go-tos is to say that millennials would rather spend money on avo toast than saving for a house. First of all, show me one person who doesn’t love avo toast and I will show you a liar. Secondly, I think this view is completely mis-aligned to what the millennial generation brings to the workforce. But, of course I would say this, because millenials think they’re always right, right? So, let me hit you with some facts.

I finished high school in 2006. I left bright eyed and bushy tailed to university in 2007, and one year later, we were hit with the 2008 financial crisis. Before leaving university, the weight of this reality crushed all of us entering the workforce. I was lucky enough to leave university debt free through some help from my parents, and taking on a few jobs while studying. But this luxury of debt free studying was not the reality for the majority of my peers. If you take me as the best case scenario (and I was far from it) the first few years of working still painted a less than pretty picture.

As a law graduate, I secured articles at one of the top firms in South Africa. I spent four years there before moving on to a global firm in Africa’s golden square mile. Yet, at the age of 28, where my parents, at the same age, had bought a house, paid off their student debt and cars, and had 2.5 kids, I was barely able to afford getting a pet. And no, I did not use my money to “find myself” in South East Asia. I saved diligently, and lived a conservative life.  

Yet, when it came time to try to invest in property, I put in an offer on my two-bedroom 70sqm apartment. When I drew the reports to see what others had paid for similar apartments, I was appalled to see that my flat was bought for a tenth of what it was selling for…only ten years before. The generation before us lived through the property boom. Now, even though the bank was generous enough to give me loan at a hefty interest rate, as a single income household, I couldn’t actually afford to pay the bond and cover my living expenses, and therefore found another millennial to become my roommate. One almost 30 year old and one just over 30 year old living together - talk about #livingourbestlives.

I see you rolling your eyes every time we use these kinds of hashtags on social media. But, in reality, while we might say we are #tooblessedtobestressed, the truth is, we are way too stressed to be blessed. There are many reports showcasing how this generation is the most anxious of all generations before. Yes, we are part of the problem given our ridiculous use of social media platforms to post only the best parts of our lives, but a lot of it has to do with the reality in which we live. It takes us, on average, double the amount of time to reach promotional milestones that the baby boomers experienced.  

We grew up with technology at our fingertips. You might say that we are the generation that has access to the most information, but knows the least. That is simply not true. We entered the workforce with more knowledge about the world than our bosses. Yes, we don’t want to be indoctrinated, but this is an opportunity for the workforce, not an act of insubordination.  

You see us as having a short attention span, and unable to complete tasks. We see ourselves as being able to add value across a spectrum of projects, even and especially those that don’t directly involve us. You see us as lazy, yet we are driving automation across all industries in order to make us more efficient at doing our jobs. We take initiative to collaborate, we share knowledge freely with our peers, and we are constantly looking for ways to learn a new skill (from learning to play the ukulele and practice yoga to how to navigate excel spreadsheets and develop software).  

You can spend all day moaning about this “entitled” generation, but as we sit on the cusp of becoming the majority of all employees in your workforce (we are already the majority population group) this should be a good time to open yourself up to the possibility that we might actually have something great to add. Just give us half the chance. Was that a demand? Yes, a completely unapologetic demand from a very entitled millenial.