WHY Millennials Blame Boomers for Plight

I saw this note on LinkedIn this week, and I was like: "Who the hell was polled on this? I never got a survey." If you didn't see it or the link isn't working for some reason, here are the details:

As Millennials face daunting student debt and the threat of job displacement due to automation, a majority say baby boomers are to blame, according to a poll from Axios and Survey Monkey. The survey results hint at a coming political battle, as baby boomers fight to preserve programs like Social Security and Medicare, all while Millennials seek shelter from the coming shifts in the job market.

This pisses me off. It really does. Why? Because I know that the Millennials who answered this survey, if one was ever conducted (I'm on to you Internet), were the ones who are probably looking for the easy route. That whole "entitled" thing. The ones who have nothing better to do than to respond to a random Survey Monkey that got sent out while sitting at a Starbucks, mooching the free Wi-Fi and drinking a Chai-whatever Latte while re-hashing a conversation had via text about their crippling debt and lack of ability to afford a mortgage because they won't get Social Security for 45 years. I think I nailed the demographic there...let me check my math...carry the two... OH, forgot they were paying for their Latte with their unemployment check due to being laid-off because robots took their job. Got it. 100% on point. #truth. Here are some additional stereotypes I've heard on Millennials not outlined above:

• We are entitled, but the root of that has never been explained.
• We are lazy and look for the easy way out of things rather than taking the hard path.
• We are overly digital, requiring instant gratification and feedback
• We are tied to and reliant on social media for all things "truth"
• We text more than we speak, and when we text it's all in emojis and code words
• We all have beards and live in tiny houses (Well, most of us. We can't afford razors or large, normal houses because we are crippled by student loan debt)
• We blame others for our problems rather than taking responsibility for our own actions (ouch, that one hit close to home...and the entire reason I'm writing this post)

Now that I've pin-pointed the entirety of the Millennials (including myself, because I'm all about a Chai-whatever Latte), let's see how I stack up against this to see why I wasn't invited to take this poll. Then, I'd like to dive a little in to the stereotypes and try to make some correlations against all those pesky "old people" who say we are the worst generation.

Purpose

I'm writing this to make sure you all see that not all Millennials are created equally, and looping us all in the a category to get clicks, likes (so Millennial of you), or ads is just not fair. We are all different people, born in a variety of years, from people with all different backgrounds and generations, all over the world. Taking a singular view of a generation discounts all the good that is there.

How I Stack Up

Yaaassss!! I get to be narcissistic! The EXACT thing a Millennial lives for. All the selfies, entitlement, etc. Let's cover the main ones here and see where I sit:

1. Lazy - I feel everyone has their moments. I sure do. If it was an option, I would never work again. I'd focus on living and learning 100% of my time. But, bills have to get paid and the dogs need to be fed. This one I've been able to avoid in the office. I was fortunate...my parents are late Boomers, not early Gen X like most of the Millennials. Due to this, as a kid I had to haul a lot of bricks, to build a lot of paths, in the woods. When I lived in Marion, Iowa for 2 years, we had to walk to school, in the snow, uphill (one way, don't be silly!). I was taught life lessons on how to learn from failure (never received a participation reward), how to meet people and create relationships (oh my parents and their insatiable lust for Alta Tennis), how to show respect for others in order to gain mutual respect (this works for the most part...but there was a guy in traffic the other day who disagreed), and how to be both a follower and a leader (for all it's flaws, Football was a good investment in personal growth). I'm not lazy in general, but I have my moments of Netflix and Food.
2. Entitled - This one I really don't understand for me. I've earned everything I have that wasn't given to me. Sure, I grew up in an affluent neighborhood. My parents were well off, I had a cell phone when I was like 13, and we had the fastest dial-up Internet money could buy. But, again, I was trained to earn what I wanted. Chores over allowance. Mowing the grass, taking out the garbage, doing the dishes, washing the cars...all to get the glorious pat on the back or, when overachieved, the coveted $20 bill. Here's the thing: you are probably saying "I did all that too!" But did you understand why that was effective, or did you just take the money and rush to Game Stop? My chores, as I got older, turned in to a business. Z-Pack Lawncare Service was born, and I started mowing all my neighbor's lawns for money. It was a good gig, made some great Summer money. Hell, I even printed up invoices and put them in the mailboxes. In my career, I've never taken for granted that I had to earn what I wanted. Promotion? Earn it. Raise? Earn it. I know my generational brethren have completely different perspectives on this, but I am surely not an outlier.
3. Instant Gratification - Yep, I'm guilty of this. I grew up with Internet access. At the touch of a finger, I can get answers to my questions immediately. This doesn't make me automatically trust the content I see when this happens, which is unfortunately a downfall I see with my counterparts. They tend to only trust the information they find rather than question it's integrity/source. Yes, we need more feedback, regularly, in the office. I like to have feedback on every action I do, because it validates my work in real-time. I know it can be too much to ask, so I've self-adjusted to get out of that mentality at work. However, if you ask me where a movie quote was from and give me the wrong answer, damn straight I'll correct you on it, smart phone in hand. So, who are the parents of the majority of Millennials? Late Boomers and early Gen X. What was happening around that time when these folks were getting married and having kids? The 80's and 90's is what was happening. Where did these people grow up? In the 60's and 70's. A time of tremendous social change and media frenzies that started the digital age. They had TVs they watched, newspapers they read, and computers they used. I think the biggest part of this is instant gratification isn't new...it's just faster and more readily available.
4. Text more than Speak - I hate having conversations via text message. To me, it's the most wasteful, time-consuming, and least efficient means of communication. It's great to get 1 answer to 1 question or for someone to share an address or something. Otherwise, pick up the damn phone and call someone. It drives me insane that our society has embraced texting as the go-to form of communication. A 1-hour texting session could be wrapped up in a 10-15 minute phone call, with more emotional connection. Why do we text as Millennials? I'm sure there are plenty of studies out there talking about the psychology here. But I feel it's more about the option of ignoring. I can ignore a text. I choose to respond or not. With a phone call, God forbid I accidentally answer it, I have to struggle through a full chat with someone rather than just a few characters on the screen. It's so intrusive and creates so much anxiety! The fact is, a phone call is wildly more productive and I hope Gen Z brings it back. My go-to is a phone call, and my Fiancee hates it ;)
5. Beards and Tiny Houses - I can't grow a beard and my house is normal sized...so I guess I'm missing out here.
6. Blaming Others for Your Problems - This one is big. Obviously, due to this entire post, the purpose behind it, and all that...most of "us" are blaming those pesky Boomers for all our problems. I think that's ridiculous. Here's the thing...when you grow up knowing you are 'special', receiving awards for participating and not winning, being given everything you ask for rather than being told 'No', and having your parents cater to you're every whim...then it's more of a result of how you were raised than your generational moniker. I don't believe people are predisposed to being entitled. They are trained that. For example...a child doesn't know how to use the toilet unless they are trained not to poop in their pants. Ok, bad analogy. But the point stands...everyone is trainable, and everyone takes their initial life training, and in some cases ALL of their life training, from their parents. We've evolved as a generation to our surroundings rather than held on to our past, which in turn is seen negatively by older generations. Ever tried to explain how to use email to your Mom? It sucks. She doesn't care, just knows she needs to use it for a singular purpose and resents the fact this is the new standard. I have 5 email addresses (that I know of) and use all of them...in 3 different formats. Do I take that for granted? Sure I do. But the point is, she can write a hand-written letter faster, her cursive is amazing, has a whole book of addresses that I don't (physical, not emails), and has closer relationships with people than I ever will. I don't feel like my emails are better than her snail mails, they are just faster and more efficient. Notice I didn't say they are better...because I don't believe they are. My point here is this: we blame others because it's easy to do that rather than taking responsibility for our failures, because we were trained that we are infallible. Me? I take responsibility for my actions, but I'm sure there are times where I'll displace blame. I'm solutions-oriented rather than just pointing at a problem and screaming "Whose responsible for this shit?" I wish more of us Millennials had this trait, but unfortunately they were trained wrong. (side note: this entire paragraph is blaming parents for their Millennial children...wow, fell in to my OWN TRAP!)

To sum all this up, I'm not perfect, and NEITHER ARE ANY OF YOU. No one ever will be perfect. Ever. And that's the beauty of it...you have the opportunity to constantly be learning from your failures in life/career/anything if you look at it from that perspective. Optimism is the key to happiness in my opinion. I love Richard Branson's quote on failure:

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again. 

The Old People

Man, I bet that section head stuck a cord. Sorry/Not Sorry. But hey, we are the ones who don't respect our elders, right? I wonder how things were back in the 60's and 70's when drug use was abound, the hippies were everywhere (and called lazy and told to get a job), people followed bands on tours rather than leaders on LinkedIn, Disco...my God Disco...WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? My suggestion, when the older generations want to judge the younger ones, is to think back to how you were when you were in your 20's and 30's, how you acted, the decisions you made, the environment you were in, etc. Self-reflection is always a good thing. It puts things in perspective and, in my mind (where my self-reflection lives and breathes), takes judgement out and replaces it with understanding.

Sure, some of you might say that this article is absurd because I keep referring to myself rather than others. I have tons of friends who are in the Millennial crowd and are wildly successful, curb each one of these stereotypes, and are harder-working than I am. I have others who are dreadful and lazy. It's not the entire generation that is flawed. My purpose of writing this was to give you some perspective from a Millennial, not flash my credentials and upbringing. I'd like you to walk away with this thinking, "Who have I judged lately and did I try to understand their situation before making that judgement?"

Moreover, "Did I look at myself before making that judgement?"

To the Millennials who DO fall in to the categories of our generation as told by the Internet:

• Shut up and work harder.
• Stop complaining and start solutioning.
• Automation of jobs is not hindering you from finding one, it's just an easy excuse not to find a job.
• No, Chai-whatever Lattes are disgusting and probably giving you some type of cancer.
• Your beard is glorious, keep it up.
• This world doesn't revolve around you. It's revolved for millions of years without you, and will keep doing so after you. You can't control that. But what you can control is how you act and live with the time you have in this world, and it's a choice on how that happens.
• Earn it, don't think you deserve it. You don't deserve it, unless you earn it.

K Bye!

Zach Sines

Pesky Millennial Scum