MANAGING FOR A BETTER WORLD
Research tends to find meaningful differences between generations are more attributable to life stage than to being born post 1980 (or whenever), writes Kate Kearins.
Millennials – not really so different. By Kate Kearins.
THIS IDEA that we, as a human race, continually advance in terms of higher order thinking is one that I personally find a little arrogant. I'm sceptical of the notion that because we might have more knowledge, we are consequentially stunningly smarter (or better) people than those who came before us.
I can accept, however, that those who come after us might be more sensitive and open to changes in the collective mood and play an important part in determining what is deemed to be socially important at that particular time. And that, as we get older, we might be missing some important cues. That's natural adaptation at play.
Millennials – generally seen as those born between 1981 and 2000 – are an increasing constituency in our workforce. Right now they make up around 34 percent of the global workforce.
They are not all the same, but broadly speaking they can be seen to have a different approach. They are much more digitally engaged, many more of them more highly educated and ambitious, more socially conscious, and demanding greater flexibility, according to Diversity Works New Zealand advisor, Fia Collins.
One of my millennial daughters is more stereotypical than the other. A recent graduate, she sought a job with interest and challenge in a new economy company, she is never far away from a device, and she gets to wfh (work from home) with reasonable regularity. She's part of an organisation where I sense she feels appreciated and can thrive.
Importantly for her there's a consideration of how work meshes with the rest of her life. She recently told me about an early morning rave she went to, arriving at her office after having spent a couple of hours dancing. It's a new one on me.
On hand at the city ‘nightclub' were healthy drinks and no alcohol was in sight. The bar was covered with a black cloth. She bought a concession for 10 sessions. What a way to start the working day – for some.
It sure does not sound like the entitled and lazy millennial generation we hear about, who care only about themselves and don't pay their dues (along with those other supposedly good attributes I mentioned above).
Indeed I am seeing more staff with their gym gear at work, hearing about more workplaces with fresh fruit for staff and far fewer sausage rolls, and more expectation that folk will be ‘fit' to cope with the long hours that both managers and this millennial workforce are prepared to work.
I'm also hearing about the importance of latitude, getting to try new things and the expectation that for millennials work should be fun and promotions should come quickly rather than involve unnecessary timeserving by talented individuals.
But I suspect these ideals are more widespread – that culturally – and situationally where we have choices especially – more of us are holding to these values. They weren't invented by millennials. Demands for them are just more readily made, and heard, at this time in history.
There is plenty of research that says that employees of all ages are much more alike than they are different in their attitudes and values at and around work. Indeed, research tends to find meaningful differences are more attributable to life stage than to being born post 1980 (or whenever).
Looking across many studies, one set of researchers concluded that it really may not be effective to target organisational interventions around generational differences.
Interestingly there are burgeoning consultancy businesses that promise to help organisational managers attune to generational differences. What of similarities across generations? We would do well not to ignore them – for fundamentally humanity has not changed on many important dimensions.
Dare I suggest to the possibly older readers of this magazine that we were probably fascinating once and might still well be?