By Libby Sanders
Posted
This week, Muffin Break general manager Natalie Brennan complained that “entitled” millennials were not prepared to work for free to gain workplace experience, blaming social media for giving those seeking work an inflated sense of self-importance.
She added that people expected pay rises far too early in their careers and felt like they should be rewarded for completing routine tasks as part of their jobs.
Her comments provoked an outcry on social media, but they speak to common perceptions of young people in the workplace.
Some of the confusion in this debate arises at the very beginning, around our understanding of what constitutes a millennial — while there are different definitions, the Pew Research Centre defines millennials as those born between 1981 and 1996.
So, millennials are not as young and inexperienced as we may think. Most of them have been in the workforce for some time.
What’s more, they probably don’t even want to be known as a millennial. Across the board, people don’t want to be compartmentalised at work. They want to be treated like individuals, they don’t want to be lumped together in a group, and they want jobs based on merit.
But there are a few things we specifically know about millennials.
What we know about millennials
Research has shown millennials are quite confident and they’re quite optimistic, which was fostered and moulded by the generation that came before them. They might have high levels of assertiveness and self-esteem when compared with previous generations.
They’re often looking for new learning opportunities, they’re willing to make the effort to help organisations succeed.
At the same time however, they are also quite family-focused and want to have better work-life balance.
And that’s where some of the criticism comes from — people say millennials “just want to go to the gym and they don’t really care about work”, but with the rising levels of stress within the workplace, millennials’ awareness of work-life balance is surely a good thing.
Baby boomers will often complain that millennials are difficult to interact with, that they express opinions, and that they make more demands than previous generations.
While the expectation of work-life balance has created some conflict with baby boomers, it’s not fair to say millennials are just lazy people who won’t work overtime.
One thing that was very valued by the baby boomer generation was face time — you had to be in the office for long hours, longer hours than your boss. We must remember that at that time, technology that enabled remote working largely didn’t exist, and things were very different to how they are now.
Some organisations are still very hung up on the idea that if people are in the building, they’re working, and we know that’s not necessarily true. Instead, we really need to focus on what results people are producing, rather than the idea that the number of hours you spend in the office equates to your value to the organisation.
Many generations, one workplace
Business managers are now entering an era where they’ll have a wide range of generations across their staff, and they’ll need to be constantly looking at how they adapt their management style to suit all these employees.
Having a flexible leadership style and looking at what the desired outcomes are for a business, as well as the best way to achieve those outcomes, is critical.
But ultimately, accountability has to rest with both the organisation and the individual, no matter whether they’re a baby boomer, generation X, generation Y — or a millennial.
Dr Libby Sander is an assistant professor of organisational behaviour at Bond University.
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