What’s Different About Millennials?
British marketing guru Simon Sinek gave his blistering analysis of everything that’s wrong with Generation Y. When it was uploaded on You Tube, it hit such a nerve that it went viral within a day and has now racked up over a million hits. What’s in Sinek’s YouTube post?
Sinek painted a picture of the so-called “problem with Millennials.” His description had such devastating clarity on how a generation that’s been given everything for nothing has created a crisis of unmet expectations. “They’re thrust in the real world and in an instant they find out they’re not special; that their moms can’t get them a promotion; that you get nothing for coming in last – and by the way, you can’t just have it because you want it.”
Some people blame it on the home, others on the educational system. The economic situation has since changed the child-rearing environment of the home. Both parents are working now, in order to keep up with the high – and continually increasing – cost of living.
The school environment has changed, too. The very good professionals will no longer ‘waste’ their time in a teaching career. There are now better-paying options everywhere. They choose to be there where they could earn more, in order to keep their heads above water with the rising prices of everything.
Leadership psychologist Averil Leimon agrees that Millennials “certainly want a different order of things – and it could be this which is making [the older generation] uncomfortable.” Leimon explains that Millennials “want a more balanced life. They have often seen one or both of their parents working flat out and not coming home till late, knackered after the commute. They want to find ways to incorporate real relationships, be hands on in bringing up their kids, keep up with external interests and be fit and healthy.”
And what’s really different about that? That’s exactly what their parents wanted too – if only they had the means or the opportunities. Everyone – in the past or in the present – want their relationships to be genuine, want to take full responsibility in the upbringing of their kids, want to be abreast with the goings-on in the community and the world, want to have good jobs, all without missing to take care of themselves.
In a sense, the ‘different’ attitude of Millennials is founded on naiveté. They were raised by parents who would simply give in to their demand rather than negotiate or explain to the young ones why they couldn’t have all the things they wanted. The parents were tired from work; they didn’t have the energy to engage in arguments, or they didn’t have the time.
Some employers would bend backwards with their
Millennial hires with regards to the so-called ‘entitled’ work attitude. But employers do so only with Millennial employees that show some strong potentials. Employers tend to concede that these young people “grew up with technology so they know how to work remotely and cannot see why sitting in a building is required,” notes psychologist Leimon. “These [Millenials] don’t want to ‘go to work’, they want to just work.”
“Technology is integral to their lives,” Leimon adds, “so they do not split home and work as rigorously as the previous generations did. They seek close and rewarding relationships at work, not just in their personal lives.” Again, the aspirations of Millennials are no different from everybody else’s.
Millennials must grow up fast emotionally. The world or life will not be any different for them, and they have to come to terms with it. Their familiarity with new technologies does not make Millennials special or different. Their own parents and grandparents could do jobs that don’t need modern technologies to accomplish – and they’re not special or different, either.
Those that have wider experience have better wisdom. And the better wisdom is to try to fit to the established ways of the world, rather than to expect the established ways of the world to adapt to them. It’s much more attainable and realistic that way, and Millenials are smart enough to understand that.