The millennial series : Part 2 - Millennial Mythbusters

I kicked off the millennial series with a brief look at why we are the way we are. You can catch up on that post here. To start off, a quick Google search on millennials does not paint a very pretty picture about our generation.

Whilst I cannot shed any light on why the Google algorithm thinks we are killing the napkin industry, this next post will take a look at three of the most common assumptions made about the millennial generation, and offer some arguments as to why these generalisations are just hogwash (what a great word!). There are many more myths to tackle, like the assumption that we are lazy, financially reckless, and not prepared to have families or make babies, but these will have to wait until another post.

Millennials are entitled narcissists in need of constant praise

This myth takes first place as it is the one that gets my blood boiling the most. The primary reason for this is that most people who toss around the word “narcissism” are too lazy to look up what it actually means. Secondly, having worked with a few true narcissists in the past, it is probably one of the worst words I can think of to generalise an entire generation.

Narcissists are self-centered, which generally arises from a failure to distinguish the self from external objects. In a very young baby, this is normal. In a senior manager, this is immensely destructive. Don’t get me wrong, narcissists can be extremely successful. They are goal orientated and focussed, just usually at the expense of empathy and any consideration of what is happening in someone else’s life. They expect special treatment to be given to themselves, but not anyone else. They get angry very quickly, throw tantrums, and cannot take criticism very well.  

Yes, millennials do require validation, but not more so than anyone else. Here, a big distinction needs to be made between a generation that is more confident, willing to speak up against poor leadership, and share their views, than true narcissists. And before you use the selfie tendency as an argument to support your view against me, let me remind you that most of our parents have profile photos that look like this… 

Millennials are job-hoppers who don’t respect authority 

On the note of entitlement, doesn’t it strike you as strange that the generation calling us entitled is the same generation that is so quick to say “after everything I’ve done for you, I can’t believe you would leave”. 

A lesson to learn, and quickly, is that millennials will not respect authority “just because”. An IBM study shows that most millennials want a boss that is fair, ethical, transparent, consistent, and dependable. Having said that, you can have a boss that ticks all those boxes, and still want to leave a job (Exhibit A being me leaving my first job after four years with only the best things to report back about my boss).  

Our reasons for moving vary. Some of us want to take advantage of the ease of traveling by teaching overseas for a while, trying our hand at starting a business, studying further, or making a change to a completely different industry. For me, it was simply a question of wanting to gain exposure to a larger variety of legal work versus the very stable but nuanced field I had as an intellectual property dispute lawyer. I still have a great relationship with my first boss, and there is a very high possibility that I will return to my former company, albeit probably in a different role to one I had when I left. I know that, should I choose to return, I will do so more skilled and confident than when I left.

To say we don’t respect authority is also a cop-out. Yes, we are more likely to ask for a raise, or a promotion, and we are ok with the risk of moving on when necessary. But we are neither disloyal or disrespectful. In fact, we are more likely to do what our bosses ask us to, even if we disagree, versus Gen Xers and Baby Boomers.

If you want to increase your chances of attracting and retaining real talent, a huge shift of attitude needs to happen at a C-suite level. Remember, millennials have options for work. Quite contrary, businesses do not have an option for the workforce, unless they are so tech advanced that they have a pipeline of AI robots that we’re unaware of. But, this is unlikely, given the immense resistance to implementing technology in the workplace, which brings me to my next point.

Milllennials are addicted to social media and technology

This is an easy one to bust, as Nielsen so nicely conducted a study that proved that Gen X folks (aged 37 - 52) actually spend more time on social media than us millennials (by about 40 minutes per week). The Baby Boomers are actually not that far behind, and I just can’t wait to see what the numbers look like in a few years when that group retires to one of their many holiday homes down by the coast.  

The big difference - millennials actually know how to use social media more appropriately than their older peers. Whilst there is no magical divide between the real and social media world, millennials tend to appreciate and enforce a divide between their personal and professional lives (think of how we use LinkedIn vs Facebook for example). Another way to look at this is to think about some of the biggest social media blunders to make the headlines over the past two years and see what age the protagonists of the stories were.

As for us being addicted to technology, well I’ll give you that one. We were raised in a digital age and we know how much technology can make ordinary tasks that much easier. I agree that our new perception of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs looks something like this:

To conclude, I heard a story that hits the nails on the head and I hope I do it enough justice in my attempt to summarise it here.

Most of us would remember being a child, and being asked by one of your parents to get up and change the channel on the TV by pushing in one of the buttons. We loathed this task, but knew it was necessary to effect the change required. But, today, those same kids are now adults, probably with children of their own. Now, imagine us as parents watching TV, with a shiny remote control in our hands. We look at our kids and tell them to get off the couch and change the channel. Our kids look at us perplexed and say “You have the TV control adult human. Just push the button”. 

The parent passes a stern look at their child and instead of saying "thank you", places the remote down with force, and proceeds to lecture the child on talking back and having an attitude. Then goes off on a soliloquy about the value of hard work, and demands that the child gets up off their lazy bum and changes the channel on the TV. The big problem - there is soon going to be no buttons on the TV to change.  

This is what is happening in the workforce today, and it needs to change immediately. Instead of complaining about this generation’s attitude to work, start looking at the ways in which your business can make changes to foster a positive work environment. You may be surprised to hear that instead of salary increases, insincere praise and mythical titles, millennials may actually welcome more paid off time (where they are actually left alone to enjoy their holiday), location autonomy, and the flexibility to do the job they have been hired to do.