Millennials: The Peacock of the Modern Workforce
“Can we please stop referring to millennials as if they’re exotic birds?” I asked that recently at an event. And, lately, I keep repeating the question.
We are hyper-focused on Millennials. No, we’re distracted by Millennials. We are obsessed with the Millennial conversation when it comes to work culture — how to reach them, how to engage with them, how to hire them, how to retain them. And I’m over it. Not because I’m over them, but because I’m frustrated with what we’re not talking about when we focus on Millennials. This all came to a head for me when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about pop-up consulting firms that are getting paid enormous amounts of money to tell organizations how to deal with Millennials in the workplace. I can’t believe that organizations are paying big money to understand Millennials. It’s like we’re hiring Jack Hanna to come and tame our crazy bird. It’s as if we’re dealing with another species entirely.
The work conversation we need to have isn’t about Millennials. Work has been broken for a long time.
Prior to Millennials, we struggled with other generations. As a Gen X’er, I can tell you that we were perceived as the consummate slackers. We defined that word, slackers, long before the movie of the same name was even made. And every film of our generation told the same story (Reality Bites, Singles, and so on). They painted a picture of a generation of idiots. The rest of the world seemed to feel like we didn’t want to work very hard and that we weren’t interested in investing in work like our Baby Boomer parents did. But that just wasn’t true. We were trying to break out of the mold and see work differently. We were trying to feel connected to work in a more authentic way — we didn’t want to dress a certain way or show up a certain way simply because that’s what the rules dictated. We wanted different experiences at work. We wanted meaningfulness.
And so — we were labeled ‘slackers’ and a lot of frustration was experienced all around. Ironically, now, if you read about Gen X, we’re often called the hardest working generation or the quiet generation.
That’s all to say that the push-back and the frustration with workplace norms started a long time ago. It’s not the generations that are broken, it’s work. Baby Boomers were rule followers who did things because you should, Gen Xers started to break the rules and tried to abandon the “shoulds,” and now, Millennials expect different rules altogether.
Millennials were raised by late Boomers and Gen Xers who told them a different story abut what’s possible and achievable. They’re called ‘entitled’, but I don’t think that’s true. I think Millennials are more emotionally available and emotionally curious. Their parents have invested in their emotional bodies and have encouraged them to approach life in that way. Between that and their status as digital natives — and their participation in the total democratization of information — it’s no surprise that they are interested in substance and connection at work. But they aren’t the first generation to want to find meaning, connection, and purpose at work. Not at all.
Millennials aren’t the only generation to corner the market on purpose. They are just the first generation that came to the work force believing that they could ask for it.
Previous generations believed we had to work our way up and eventually, if we were lucky, we’d discover the holy grail — purpose. Or maybe that would happen in retirement -that later-in-life opportunity to find your true ‘passion’. But Millennials don’t even want to start a job without options, or one that’s devoid of meaning or purpose. Honestly, I think older generations resent them for arriving with these expectations — and there’s resentment around the fact that organizations are responding and trying to meet these crazy demands. And it all leads to tension, frustration and confusion all around.
Hiring consultants to uncover meaning at work misses the real opportunities companies have within all of this. They should be looking inward. They should be looking to see if their values reflect their truth or if they’re just marketing speak. They should be looking at whether the people they have throughout all levels of the organization are an absolute refection of those values. But it seems few organizations are willing to look that deeply. Instead, we’re trying to figure out how to feed the exotic bird.
Millennials are asking questions that we should all be asking. They are asking questions that make sense right now: How is work going to change to accommodate the evolving human? How is work going to change to accommodate the technology that has moved us into the future, while changing everything about how we communicate and connect? Technology has changed everything about our lives, how are organizations going to evolve to meet us where we are now? Those are the questions we should be asking.
Millennials aren’t causing issues. And they aren’t the issue. Organizations’ (and individuals’) inability to change and adapt is the issue.
The sooner we get our heads around that, the sooner we will have the rich, diverse talent we need to represent our companies. The sooner we recognize that it’s not a generational issue, it’s a fundamentally human issue. How we see change, how we promote change, and how we adapt to change; how we tell our story and live our values. These are the things we need to look at.
Sorry to be a Gen X’er spoiling your Millennial party, but that’s the truth.
(Cross-posted on LinkedIN.)
