Millennials Get Undeserved Hate at the Workplace

In case you haven't heard, millennials are evil incarnate. They're lazy, entitled, rude, selfish, have very short attention spans and wouldn't know what a hard day's work looks like if it slapped them in the face. In fact, recent studies have shown that it might be a good idea to just put them all on an island and skip the generation completely.

I joke and exaggerate of course, but we've all heard these stories and witnessed the immense coverage around Millennials. Talking about their lifestyle and personal choices as a generation is one thing, but Millennials at the workplace is an entirely different, and far more toxic debate.

Let's get first get something out of the way - since it's 2017 - there are technically Millennials out there that are 40 years old. When I talk about Millennials here, my primary focus is on my experiences with people in their early to late 20s, and a few that are in their very early 30s. In my experience, Millennials are anything but lazy, selfish or rude - in fact, they're not even misunderstood. They're incredibly frank with what they want, and straightforward in their demands.

They don't beat around the bush, they get to the point and refuse to play political games and dance around on eggshells. When they don't think they're going to get what they want, they move on because they're not going to live forever.

Based on my experience with Millennials, here are the key reasons I feel they get undeserved hate at the workplace.

1. They're Straightforward, and Expect Employers to be Straightforward

Millennials get a bad reputation purely because they ask for what they want. Such honesty and openness is new to a lot of people, who expect their employees to put their heads down and put in a shift day in and day out - and believe that at some point their work will be recognised and rewarded. But millennials have heard too many stories of this not being the case. From their family. From their friends.

They've heard of too many people at work who feel undervalued, under-appreciated and underpaid. They don't want to fall into the same trap - so they ask for exactly what they want. In all my interviews with the millennial generation - they're upfront about what they're willing to sacrifice on and what they're not willing to compromise on. And trust me - it's not the same things. Some have told me that they're willing to sacrifice pay for doing meaningful work, while others have flat out told me that if they don't get an encouraging paycheque - they won't be motivated to work hard.

In fact - just because they're upfront about salaries - the perception that's been forged into the mind of most managers is that they're money minded. Not true.

2. They Don't Have Time for Office Politics and Fear Based Management

We've all been in that position. Being told that the Vice President of Sales is unhappy with the team's sales performance and he's looking at who's worth keeping and who's not. The Chief Marketing Officer is unhappy with the content being created by the company - and is therefore looking at who needs replacing. Sometimes, these stories are true. Most times, they're used by managers to instil fear into employees into working harder - by dangling the threat of a "higher up" being unhappy.

Millennials don't have time for this. If someone is happy, they should come right out and say it to the team. They should say why they're unhappy, what they expect, set clear goals and come back the next quarter to review those goals. Hearsay and whispers are nothing but a put off for this generation, and why shouldn't it be?

3. They Have Reason to Believe They Know Better

Perhaps it's because of the industry I'm in, perhaps it's the nature of digital marketing and social media being something far closer at heart for the millennial generation. But I've always been challenged by the millennial generation at work. They don't just come to me with problems, they come with a problem and a proposed solution.

When they see someone in the team or the organisation doing something that they perceive to be incorrect, they always have a valid opinion about how it can be done better. They've either read a case study about it, heard a story from a friend, done some research around it, or have access to data that proves their point.

And in my experience, when they don't - they're the first to shut up, listen and learn. They don't hold grudges about being wrong, don't engage in petulant behaviour because they've been "shown up". For them, an opportunity to be wrong is an opportunity to learn. At least in my experience.

It comes as no surprise then, that the reason that they want to be leaders (apart from the obvious incentive of earning more) - is to have the opportunity to influence, to work with strategic challenges and to have the power to make decisions.

4. They're Willing to Cut Their Losses, But They're No Less Loyal

You've surely heard all those stories about how Millennials jump from one job to the other, have no loyalty with organisations that give them a shot, and so on and so forth. I've always asked millennials before hiring them - why are you moving on from your current organisation? Very rarely do I get a fluffy response like, "I'm looking for a new challenge" or "I'm looking to make a bigger difference in the world."

I often get a variation of the following answers:

• There was no clear growth plan for me at the organisation
• My manager and I did not see eye to eye on the way work should be done
• The organisation's values are not aligned with mine
• My feedback was never taken seriously and improvements were never made
• I'm looking for better compensation because my employer did not keep their word

According to data from the Pew Research Center, millennials are not spending any less time at their jobs than Generation X did when they were the same age. They too, stayed for the same amount of time before seeking employment elsewhere.

If millennials don't think they're going to get what they were promised or what they were looking for, they have no problems in moving on and finding employment elsewhere. They aren't emotional about their job functions if their employer isn't going to be emotional about them either. They don't believe that they "owe" anything to their employer, and believe that no organisation is doing them a favour by giving them a job.

It's a refreshing view. And because they're vocal about these things, they're often labelled as "entitled" employees.

5. Their Expectations of Employers is High, and It Should Be

I often used to have a repeated conversation with a colleague where she kept telling me that the rules of job interviews have changed. In her point of view - candidates were no longer just being interviewed, but they were also interviewing the organisation. Dejectedly, I used to agree. No hiring manager wants to think that there's been a shift in power in the interview process, but it's true. In fact, perhaps it's always been true.

Candidates today are interviewing organisations.

And when they're promised great things at, and from, the company - they hold no qualms about holding the company responsible for delivering on those promises. It's almost like the company is setting KPIs for itself, and the candidate after six months into the job is going to do a review of those set KPIs.

It's a new development, and companies aren't used to it.

Gallup's research shows that what the Millennial generation is primarily looking for at an organisation is an opportunity to learn and grow, at the quality of their manager and senior management, and then of course - the nature of the work and opportunities for advancement. Is this that different from what Baby Boomers wanted? Not really.

The next time you see a millennial having trouble at your organisation, or wanting to leave - perhaps the first thing to look at is not what's wrong with the millennial, but what they perceive to be wrong about your organisation and how true it is.

It's a harsh truth to accept for most. It's time to be realistic, the Millennial generation isn't one that companies can skip. It's not a generation that needs to be "tolerated" or "pandered to" either. It's one to be understood. And when you try and understand them with an open mind with no pre-conceived notions, you'll realise that their expectations and demands are anything but unrealistic.

They're the future, whether you like it or not.