Stop Millennial Shaming, It's Not All of Us!

There's this Bible verse in Timothy that says "Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity."

Now don't worry, I'm not here to evangelize you, that's not the purpose of this article. That just happens to be my vantage point. 

It has come to my attention, time and time again (from every LinkedIn post, Forbes article, and op-ed piece I've read in the last two years) that millennials are lazy, lack patience, and are incredibly entitled. 

According to this YouGov Poll, 69% of Americans overwhelmingly agree that adults under 30 have less of a work ethic than older generations. This article in TIME states and I quote "The incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that's now 65 or older, according to the National Institutes of Health; 58% more college students scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982." And goes on to say:

"Millennials got so many participation trophies growing up that a recent study showed that 40% believe they should be promoted every two years, regardless of performance." 

Now look, I could literally sit here for the rest of my day and badger you with hundreds of articles on the narcissistic, self-absorbed tendencies of us crazy millennials. But I won't. I'll start here

Yes, many of us can be lazy. Yes, many of us can be and are entitled. Yes, many of us are a lot of things. But not all of us are included in this grouping that the world can't seem to stop doing. 

One of my favorite interview questions to ask is "What do you think of my generation?" Many times it takes an HR professional a minute or two to compose themselves to answer this very forward question. So I reiterate "What do you think of the millennial generation, good and bad?"

Below is an amalgam of the responses I've received over the years:

"Well, that's a good question (always starts out that way), you know, I'd say that your generation is very cutting edge, on the forefront of trends. It seems you all have done so much in so few years of life - so that's the good part. You all come in with a breadth of experience, far beyond where I was when I was 22, 23 (that statement alone has become a recurring motif in job interviews). I'd say the bad part is that you all seem to be really impatient. You don't seem to be willing to wait for things, like promotion. There seems to be a lack of loyalty to any particular company in your generation. You all hop around from job to job in a matter of years and never fully plant roots. But again, you all are very resourceful and know so much about the digital space."

Now, I'm not saying that what they said was completely incorrect, but hear me out. I understand we may be impatient. I understand that impatience may come off as disloyalty. But let's think a bit about the reasons why these things might be true. My grandfather, a World War II veteran and one of the hardest working men I've ever encountered, worked tirelessly for the same company. Now in his day, being born during the Great Depression, he worked in a factory for years and never received a raise, bonus, or promotion. (Now, he was a black man in the early 20th century, but we won't even get into that today.) He would break his back, day in and day out, and then still come home and tend to farmland and livestock and whatever other side hustle he had picked up. 

So he took that loyalty and hard work and passed it down to my father, a faithful employee of the public school system for almost three decades. He taught my dad to work hard and that if he did, people would take notice and anything was possible. And my father passed down that work ethic to me, but the message had since evolved. He told me things like "You can do anything you put your mind to," and "There's no man or woman that can ever stop you from accomplishing your goals," and my favorite middle school classroom poster quote "The sky's the limit!"

So you're telling me, if we've been told our entire lives that we can do anything and achieve our goals, that we're now supposed to wait on those things to happen when we are ready, willing, and able to make them happen? Hmm. *Queue the rise in millennial entrepreneurship*

Today, I think it's safe to say, that I don't have to stay with a company for 20 years to advance professionally. In the last 15 years, the job market has seen a drastic decrease in the barriers to promotion. Not to inundate you with obvious examples, but look at millennials like Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, a 32 year old billionaire who started an almost $400 Billion dollar business from the comfort of his dorm room in 2004. Or a more recent example: Evan Spiegel, a 26 year old thought leader and CEO and founder of Snap Inc., which continues to innovate and engage a world whose attention span only seems to shrink. 

The game has changed. The traditional way of looking at promotion and when and why it comes is becoming more obsolete. And no that doesn't replace hard work ethic, grit and grind, or an appreciation for age-old wisdom, but it does say something about why millennials have gained a heightened sense of impatience or may move companies within single digit years, in the name of professional advancement. 

BUT while we're on the subject. Take a look at the LinkedIn pages of any C-Level Executive at a major Fortune 500 company. You'll notice an interesting trend. Many of these executives, ages 35 and up, don't stay in their positions for very long. In 2009, a survey was conducted stating that after surveying 5,000 business executives, the average tenure in a position was about 2.3 years. 

Many times to grow and continue to advance, you may have to move. And that doesn't necessarily display disloyalty, or laziness, or lack of effort. Sometimes it just means that an opportunity presented itself that ultimately would facilitate the upward movement of of a hopefully lengthy career.

You may not agree with all I had to say, and that's okay. The point of this article is to breed discussion, close the generational thought gap, and join hand in hand in creating a better, more cohesive professional landscape. I think you'll find that we, as a generation, are more than willing to listen to what makes sense, when we can in turn be heard and valued. Comment below, let me know your thoughts, gripes, and concerns and let's talk it out!

Liked this article? Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter @KristoffHart for more millennial focused rants!

Kristoff is the founder of bellhart., a marketing and brand management agency in Nashville, TN. Visit us at bellhart.co - (shameless millennial entrepreneur's plug)