A Millennial's Perspective on the Changing Nature of Work

Millennials are loosely defined as the generation born between the early 80s and mid 90s. A 1987 baby myself, I'm right in the middle of the wave. For the first time in history, we make up the majority of the population.

In grade school I learned to type 60wpm. The software was on a floppy. Around the third grade, I was introduced to the internet company with the funny name, Google, it sure beat Ask Jeeves.

By high school I had my first flip phone, owned an original iPod and got my first smart phone right around the time I graduated. Facebook took off when I was 18.

After a few years pursuing guitar and working as a bell hop it was time to enter the workforce. It was a big change. My passion for music led me to the radio industry where I sold radio ads. There were few people under 40 on the sales team, I was 23. Even though it was 2011, I was amazed at how much paper we had. Everything involved paper work! I still got customers' signatures the old fashioned way and orders were largely filed by hand. Every time I wanted to submit a schedule of ads to air, I had to stop by my manager's desk and get their signature. Every. Time. That may not seem crazy to you, but it certainly did to me.

The gap between the technology I had in my personal life and the experience I had at work grew. Instagram exploded, What'sApp scaled to over a billion monthly actives. I was recording high quality music in my bedroom with just a MacBook, Garage Band and a USB mic. Meanwhile the workplace offered an old machine that took minutes to boot up, huffing and puffing and kind of "thinking about it" before the outdated operating system flickered to life. The software was terrible, I scrunched my face at every new system I had to use.

The consumerization of IT is changing the workplace dramatically. With shifting generational demographics, expectations have changed.

The future is bright. I'm excited. What smartphones and social networks did for consumers; software is now doing for the workplace. It's becoming more connected. Every type of software from data visualization to communication to hiring and performance management is becoming.. beautiful, friendly to use, intuitive. Software is eating the world and it's eating the workplace too.

Many companies are facing a crossroads where they must now shape what the digital future of work looks like for them, and the opportunities are endless. We can do more with less. We can make better decisions and glean deeper insights from data than ever before. But what about the cultural side of things? Sure, millennials are used to great technology but so what? What is it we really care about and how do you motivate us?

Technology breeds culture and culture breeds technology. Attracting and retaining top performing millennials is one part technology and one part purpose.

Millennials are oft maligned for being entitled, for expecting the world and not being willing to work for it. Just listen to Simon Sinek pontificate about how we were raised to believe that we "can have anything we life just because we want it". This couldn't be further from my experience. He says we "need to learn patience". Well here's my view on that, I just want to afford a wedding and own a home- and I can't. I'm patient, and willing to work for it.. and it's still out of reach. This, at a time when an education costs more than ever and delivers a staggeringly low return. Elizabeth Warren saw it coming back in 2004. Truth is, the average annual household income of the middle class has not kept up with the rising cost of living, or even inflation. We watched our twenties fly by as the great recession ushered in. The housing market collapsed, the banks collapsed, the automotive companies.. the bailouts, Occupy Wall Street, the 1%..

This is our generation's reality. It has shaped our values and view of the world.

What we're left with is twofold. Firstly, we have come to expect the best of the technological and connected world. As Mark Zuckerberg cited in his recent commencement speech at Harvard:

"In a survey asking millennials around the world what defines our identity, the most popular answer wasn’t nationality, religion or ethnicity, it was 'citizen of the world'. That’s a big deal."

Things like mobility, friendly software, increased connectivity, automation, AI and a more connected world are standard for us and we will seek to accelerate their proliferation.

Secondly, we expect purpose and fulfillment from our work and to be part of something larger than ourselves, larger than our companies, cities or countries.

So here's my millennial perspective then: a great technology toolkit combined with meaningful intent, vision and purpose is a virtuous cycle. Companies that master this will thrive with millennials, there are lots of examples today. The absence of either of these ingredients should be seen as a potentially existentialist peril for organizations of all kinds, in the new era of millennial majority.

What's really cool about it to me, is that we're all embarking on an exciting journey to shape the future of work together. Let's get to work!

Conflicting opinions, comments and additional thoughts are welcome!