UNDERSTANDING WHO MILLENNIALS ARE AND HOW TO WORK WITH THEM (Episode 1)

So you want to learn about millennials, huh? Not surprising, as they represent half of the working population in most developing countries! You might have heard all kinds of mixed things about them, like: “Millennials are impatient,” “Millennials are lazy,” “It is hard to work with them,” “Millennials are tech addicts,” and so on. Being a member of Generation Y, commonly referred to as a Millennial, I’m stunned by the number of clichés people just throw out there, and I rarely hear or read anything designed to help people of all generations work together and understand each other better.

This is precisely the aim of this series of three articles: to help you understand who millennials are, how to spot the different subsets of members in this generation, and to understand our general strengths and weaknesses.

GENERATION Y ARE PROBABLY MORE THAN YOU THINK

Born between 1981-83 and 1999, millennials are often described as if they were some kind of alien who just arrived on the planet with weird habits. I think this clearly shows a lack of interest in understanding a demographic that accounts for 2.3 Billion people. We are not talking about a group of hot-headed young people in some pop music sub-culture, as so many older generations believe. Instead,

Millennials account for about 1/3 of the global population and half of the workforce!

Statistics show that they will outnumber Generation X (1961-1980) and the Baby Boomers (1946-1960) in 2019 in the US and represent around 70% of the workforce in diverse countries in the 2020s.

If you treat the subject lightly, as a trend you can overlook to focus on your current work, I think you need to wake up because it will backfire big time! But who are millennials, exactly? Your manager? Your intern? Your son?  

TWO AGE CATEGORIES OF GENERATION Y  

The 18 to 24-year-olds, the “young millennials” (born between 1993 and 1999). 

He is an example of a 20-year-old, ambitious looking intern. If you are dealing with younger than him, he isn't a Millennial anymore but in the Generation Z.

The group of 24 to 34-year-olds, the “old millennials” (born between 1983 and 1992).

He is an example of a man in the category: "Right at the limit". Older than him, you are dealing with a "Xennial" or else.

Looking at either end of the age spectrum, we can see they are already very different! At 30-35, millennials are probably thinking about having kids, their 401k, and planning for retirement. Meanwhile, the 20-year-old millennials just came out of their teens and want to travel the world, are worried about grades at college, and most are still living on their parents’ dime. There are considerable differences in this generation. 

The common thing between the two of them? Their parents were in the early Generation X or were Baby boomers, and they have common behaviors and experiences, such as their education, the period in which they grew up, and the responses they have to their parents’ education.

To give you a cliché of a millennial’s father, remember the TV show “Malcolm in the Middle”? Picture Malcolm’s dad Hal, Bryan Cranston, always wearing a collared shirt tucked into a pair of beige trousers, a cell phone attached to his belt, working in a low-management job in a company he hates. It is just a cliché, but the stereotype has merit.

There is an often-forgotten third category we must discuss too, as they help magnify the differences between generations: the XENNIALS. 

BE CAREFUL, XENNIALS ARE NOT MILLENIALS!

Here it gets a little bit tricky: Xennials are the ones stuck in the middle. They were born between 1977 and 1983, which means they are today between 35 and 41. You are in this category yourself if you had a childhood without internet, you used to rent tapes are a video store in your 20s, you played Street Fighter on the first Nintendo, but you are also young enough to master your smartphone today.

XENNIALS ARE NOT MILLENIALS. Yes, technically, there is a portion of Xennials who are the millennial category (if we consider millennials are born between 1980 and 1983), and it isn’t an exact science, but

Xennials have a different mindset, and there are huge differences between them and their younger millennial counterpart. Many Xennials’ values and align more closely with millennials’ parents’ values, while their behaviors, expectations, and habits are more close to millennials’.

GENERAL DIFFERENCES AND COMMON BEHAVIORS BETWEEN THE THREE CATEGORIES

Now that you know the three main categories: the young millennials, the old millennials, and the non-millennials (Xennials), you need to look around the office so that you can spot them.

I typed “millennials work” on Google and found this picture of a group of millennials who pretended to work. We can already see the differences between them.

How does knowing these differentiations between age group help you? Because they don’t behave the same way. Yes, between 25 and 40 you are expected to know the world you live in, master your smartphone, know how social media work, and are generally more adaptable than the previous generation. But there are some key differences. First of all, young millennials… are younger. Wow, I know. Revelation. But this is something not to overlook because they will likely be less experienced and sometimes more immature. But this isn’t a millennial thing. It is a universal thing. So, don’t fall in the trap of thinking “millennials are generally immature.” Moreover, some 25-year-olds will be more immature than others. 

That being said, each category will have strengths and weaknesses.

The younger one will be a tremendous help when you want to learn about trends, social media, new age costumer expectations, fashion, and even new markets.

Did you know Facebook is dead to their eyes? Do you know how to create ads on Snapchat? Do you know ads on Instagram stories are already the norm? Do you know fashion is all about the 90s now? Did you know video games market is a 138 billion Dollars market? They can help you with all that, easily, along with how to use new functionalities on your smartphone.

The 26 to 33 year-olds are kind of in the middle. They aren’t necessarily geniuses on social media but still know a lot about it and about technology. 30-year-olds are definitely more likely to be on Facebook still and be friends with older generations.

The key to understanding the “Generation Y” is that they are in search for meaning, even more so than the previous generations.

Some say the "Y" in "Generation Y" comes from “Why?”. So they do thrive with motivation and purpose.

They have now a bit of working experience and are more agile. If you give them more flexibility in the way they work, more meaning in their missions, help them evolve and learn more while guiding them with your experience, they'll blossom! They don't need an authoritarian boss but a kind of manager/mentor to lead and accompany them.

They are great guides for the young millennials but also need appropriate guidance from the older generations (see the next article about millennials’ double-edged qualities in which I detail everything that is great about Millennials!).

35 to 40-year-olds generally don’t use the latest social media, though they still use facebook to keep in touch with friends and their smartphones to call rather than sending text messages.

35 to 40-year-olds Xennials understand Generation X very well while remaining in touch with the old millennials (25 to 30). So, it might be interesting for them to be a bridge between the older managers and the old millennials.

The problem might be that they are already out-of-touch with the young millennials, and they need the old millennials to understand them. Society and behaviors change so quickly with technologies and innovations that a 10-year-difference between a 20 and a 30-year-old is now bigger than before. There are also vast differences between the groups, as some are fond of technology and more agile with tech and others kind of reject that in parts. This category is generally annoyed to see those “youngster glued to their phone” and understand the benefits of talking to real people more than the young generation. You need to be able to see which Xennials behave more like millennials and which are closer to generation X.

CONCLUSION: THIS IS JUST A FIRST STEP.

It is very hard to put huge portions of the population in a couple categories. At least, now you see who is who and you can try to understand the differences between them regarding technology, agility, social media, type of management, and need for purpose. But it stays a first step towards knowing each person individually of course.

But I strongly believe that, whatever age you are, you can then learn from previous and next generations on different subjects. Baby boomers, Xers and Xennials definitely have more experience, and this is the most valuable thing a millennial can learn from.

If you are older than 34-35, there is so much to learn from those youngsters, and the only thing to do is to ask them questions about how they see society today. Then, you can make up your point of view, mixing it with your knowledge and experience, but if you do so before, you’ll end up talking like a grumpy old person, resisting change and not learning from others.

Have fun working with all together and see you in my next article about Millennials double-edged qualities!