“Why We are the Easiest to Work with” - The Millennial

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?

In the workplace today, the seemingly unexplainable “point of view” clash between Generation Xers and the Millennial is apparent and undeniable. Many Xers, the predominant generation in management positions, expect the Millennial to come early, close late and go above and beyond to make the project great. The Millennial on the other hand is only interested in doing the job specifications in his offer letter, in the time frame mentioned in the offer letter, for the pay which he desperately wants increased. With these different ideologies, one can easily see why work between these two groups is often less than harmonious. In the field of science, a reaction is always equal and opposite to an action. So also, in a bid to understand us “strange little millennials” (yes, I am a proud millennial!), Xers need to understand why we are the way we are.

As millennials, our story is set in a different background. We have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, Foursquare and many other social networking websites. This easily tells you we generally have “short attention spans”. Also, we use softwares, we barely even use calculators anymore, there is an app for everything, we have “e-degrees” and we order everything online. You guessed right, we like to take the easier route in everything. Additionally, our super rich Baby Boomer grandparents and our Xer parents have made us accustomed to certain basic necessities like allowances for having no jobs, and shower us with praises for having any job at all. Meanwhile,those who do not have such parents or grandparents surely have Facebook friends who do. Consequently, we will always want a life that an entry level salary cannot afford. However, this is just one side of us. There is another side that is often less recognised.  

Looking on the other better side, while a short attention span in many cases is only seen as a short attention span, it is sometimes simply an inability to be satisfied by the ordinary. Milennials believe they have a lot to offer, and they constantly cry out for an outlet for their creativity. This behaviour is largely influenced by having a global local  background. According to The Delloite Millennial Survey, 2014, “over one in four millennials are asking for a chance to show their leadership skills”. The millennials, of all the generations that have existed, have the most global culture. They interact with each other from different ends of the globe within a second. They share ideas, and have information at the click of a button. They have the choices of various outlets through which they can express themselves and they have a passion for making their voices and opinions heard. They have Google! This means that roaming freely in the mind of a graduate trainee, is a perspective that a management executive may never be able to have. They have an unexplainable boldness to take risks where a CEO might never venture, and certain dissatisfaction for the norm that the marketing executive might never agree with.

Going further, a short listen to a pop song might just tell you exactly what is on the average millennial’s mind. A Hip Hop Artiste called 50 cent states it explicitly in his album title as “Get rich or die trying” (I am young, but still do not get how and why people bought an album with that title though). Another American hip hop record label has its name as ‘Young Money Cash Money’. Do I need to go on about how millennial desire to live their lives? But this is not all bad news for employers and managers who must hire millennials, as they are an integral part of the workforce. There is good news. Milennials always think of an easier way (even for already easy things), they want to be filthy rich, they have no thoughts of being averagely successful, and then there is that creative force they have in them! The other end of this seemingly disturbing equation is that they become innovators and trend setters because of these desires. They like to differentiate themselves in a way that can make them shine, noticed and paid. If managers can see this other side of the equation and work with it, I believe they will get more from us than just resentment for our payslip.

I know I have said a lot in this piece and I have made a lot of generalisations that cannot be used to classify every single millennial out there, but it is undeniable that these behaviours are evident in a little more than a handful of milennials at the workplace. Also, I do not think any generation is superior to another, neither do I believe that the work patterns of any generation is more productive than the other. Instead, I believe generations form their own work culture from their perceived lapses in the culture of their ‘predecessors’. Consequently a harmonious blend of all generational cultures might just give us that ideal work culture we have always hypothesised.