My response to being called a "Millennial"...
Category: Work
Published: 08/15/2008 05:08 p.m.
(as a quick aside, these are thoughts I have had for a while. Corporate America is all companies, not just the ones where I have worked. Fluor allowed me to learn and take on more responsibility, and Accenture is letting me get real work done. And get it done I will...)
Most of this is based on an article I read describing Millennials and how they seem to be doing everything wrong. I'm sure I don't need to mention that we are not doing everything wrong. But I will. We (from now on, we = Millennials) are not doing everything wrong; we are doing everything right. I'd like to introduce you to a concept my good friend Obama knows something about. It's called "change" and it's sweeping the nation.
As a Millennial, I have been told that I am the following (not all from the article):
- easily bored and impatient
- need to feel a sense of belonging
- need a personal connection
- need to be treated as an individual
- questions authority
- not concerned with moving up the corporate ladder
- poor work ethic
- willing to sacrifice promotions for lifestyle
From my limited work experiences, I think that Corporate America is doing an ok job of responding to what they think we need. There are new "official" work communities. New hires are also paired up with a buddy or counselor or some kind of person to connect with them. And the pay seems to be increasing much faster than inflation (or maybe I am just awesome and get good offers). So, I commend you, Corporate America, for you have done a good job at trying to change. But it really isn't what we want. Or what we need.
As kids, I think most of us played sports of some kind. We had that team interaction. We had coaches that paid attention to us. We had teacher conferences and lots of focus on us. For lots of us, that ended in high school (or in college). We have learned to adapt, to make our own teams and find our own mentors. So, let us figure it out instead of making us a headache for someone else. We are good at making friends. We are great at finding out what we have in common. Let us form our own communities.
Part of the deal with Web2.0 bs is the notion of online communities and social networks. This is not the result of some powerful study and years of research. These communities are young people making their own solutions. Facebook was started by someone my age. That's not the reason I like it. The reason it works is because Mark Z. and I share a common desire to relate to many people in a quick, central way. Same goes for the millions of Millennials (spelled it right for the first time just now) that are on Facebook and have been since it was called TheFacebook (anybody?). The old model for friends consisted of three categories: relatives, fellow workers, and neighbors. Notice the common connection. These are all people you come in close contact with on a regular basis. The old notion of friend is someone you see regularly. The internet breaks this. Facebook breaks this. I have 200+ friends that aren't in any of the three categories. They are far away, we aren't related, and we don't work together. But we still connect on a weekly or even daily basis. What this concept boils down to is that our notion of connection, community, and personal attention does not need to be physical. We connect and have virtual communities. I just got a bunch of buzz on my Wall because I posted a pick of my tattoo. That's personal attention, and it wasn't forced or planned. Corporate America needs to let connections happen on their own. Let us do our own connecting.
Now as far as questioning authority, I have to agree to a degree. But is isn't really authority we are questioning, it's titles. We questions skills that are only on paper. The same way a recruiter questions us when they read our resume, we question them. Is this person really a manager of others, or do they just go around and interview people? Respect is a separate issue. I respect everyone until they give me a reason not to respect them. But as far as respecting their authority on paper, I don't see why I should. If you really are an authority, show me. Prove it. Let your experience come out. Communicate like a manager should. Motivate and be knowledgeable like a manager should. But when you look disorganized and don't seem to have answers that you should... what are you really an authority over? If I am expected to prove myself, you have to prove yourself too. Be an authority, not just a person with a title.
The last three all fall under the heading of balancing work with life. I think this in general is a new concept. Lets take a look at some of the things we have seen in our short lives. Divorce rates are high. Unemployment is pretty low. Materialism and Millionaires are at all-time highs. (ok, materialism is subjective but whatever) Seems to me that people are working too hard. Why do I need to work so much? To neglect my family, make money so that I can buy stuff I don't need? I don't want that. I don't want to adapt my life around my work. And I think that statement truly defines the difference in Millennials. We want work to bend. I don't think that is the best way to put it. In my opinion, if I am hired to do something, and it is expected to take 40 hours, and I figure out a way to get it done (correctly) in 20 hours, then the other 20 are mine. I say this because rarely am I able to take on more (goes back to the challenged part which is way up at the top). If I don't want to make more money, why would a company not like that? And as far as climbing the corporate ladder, this connects to job titles. If I ran a company, everyone would be labeled "employee" (maybe someone is the CEO or whatever, but that is just for the press). What we would have at JMOcorp is different roles. We would do different tasks. Some of us would have more responsibility than others. That doesn't mean we need a Director of Regional Sales and an Assistant Regional Manager. Getting back on topic, the corporate ladder as it stands doesn't matter. If you need to make me print new business cards because I now do different things at work, I guess that's ok. But don't expect the words "Vice President" to be a motivator. Or six figures. If you want us to care more about work, then give us work that you care about. If you want to motivate me, challenge me.
As some last words, I would like to discuss what I want out of my career. I want to accomplish things. I want to do something better (and faster) than anyone else can do it. I want to break records and be a true leader. And I want to do it all for your company. So please, let me. Allow me to work hard, because right now, in Corporate America, all the old guys are working too hard to adjust to us and it prevents them from letting us work too hard to get the job done better and faster. The Millennials are coming in full force to dominate the workplace (did I mention we are all competitive?) and all you need to do is point us in the right direction. Don't look at us as lazy, or we will be. Look at us as valuable assets, and we will be.
(thanks Christine for spurring me to have these thoughts)