I know the title of this piece
may sound like a big irony to the Generation Xer reading this now, but at the
end of this piece you will agree with it. But before I go on and on, in the
first place, who is a millennial? Who is an Xers? A millennial is one born in
the millennial generation. The millennial generation is loosely regarded as
people born between 1980 and 2000. They are sometimes referred to as Generation Y.
They are different in comparison with generations preceding them - Generation X;
born between 1960 and 1980, Baby Boomers; born between 1946 and 1964 and Silent
Generation; born between 1930s and 1946. Although the basis for classifying these
generations are the social, economic and cultural activities that existed in
Europe and America at those times, these groups, especially the millennial
generation, are also identifiable in Africa. As people, we
are products of nature (inherited behaviour from birth) and nurture (learned
behaviour from society). Some people even argue that we are shaped more by
nurture than nature. Consequently, every generation is different from others
and this translates into workplace behaviour. Therefore,the question is no longer whether
we are different, it is about how different we are. And
the big questions are - Is it a good or bad kind of different? How do we work
with and through our differences?
