Molly, Brandon, and Suzi discuss the articles “5 Tips for Leading Millenials” from Entrepreneur and “What you think about millennials is wrong” from the Washington Post. They also share what they have learned about working with millennials from their own experiences.
Supporting Articles:
“5 Tips for Leading Millennials” by Rob Reuteman, Entrepreneur
“What You Think About Millennials is Wrong” by Jena McGregor, The Washington Post
“The Millennial Generation–Research Review,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation
Molly: Hello everyone and welcome to the It’s About People podcast! I am joined by Suzi Alligood and Brandon Laws, this is Molly Kelley. And I brought to the table today an article called “Five Tips for Leading Millennials” by Rob Reuteman, I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly. This was in the March 2015 issue of Entrepreneur. It’s a topic that’s been coming up everywhere I go it seems like. And interestingly enough, I think maybe a week or two before I read this article I read another article that I unfortunately can’t recall the name of right now, but it was basically saying that everything you know about Millennials is not true. So there’s a lot of back and forth about what Millennials believe in and what they value. There we go—Brandon actually has from the Washington Post, “What You Think About Millennials is Wrong.”
So my question as we go into this conversation is, is there that much of a difference between generations in general or this generation and other generations? The article is putting forward the idea that this generation, the Millennial generation which is basically 1980-1999, so folks who are 13 to 32 years old right now, the early end of the workforce right now, do have some very different values and drives and interests in the workplace that need to be paid attention to. And the article kind of starts out with sort of saying that we really need to be emphasizing training and development, which speaks to my own heart so I love that idea personally. There are surveys that show that Millennial workers rate training and development as an employee benefit three times higher than they rate cash bonuses, which I find just fascinating and very heartening. This is also a generation that, per the article, really thrives on collaboration and transparency. So side-to-side management versus top-down and essentially managers saying things like, Here’s what we have to get done, let’s focus on how we do it and collaboration versus kind of an authoritarian or a dictatorial approach.
And then reconsidering schedules, that’s something we’ve been hearing more and more with all generations, but looking at maybe a three day weekend where people are doing four 10’s. That’s becoming very popular, it used to be primarily in manufacturing environments, doing four 10’s. But that’s now, I think, becoming more common in creative environments and IT. Obviously if there’s a service component to your work, maybe being closed on a Friday or a Monday isn’t as viable. But I’m kind of curious to see what your thoughts are, guys, in terms of whether there is a dramatic difference between this generation and others, and what you’re hearing from employers as well.
Suzi: Well, the Washington Post article was trying to point out that yes, there may be some differences, but they’re minor, they’re not as extreme between the generations. And I think there’s been some negative information published about how these Millennials are spoiled.
Brandon: The trophy generation!
Suzi: Yeah! There’s a sense of entitlement.
Brandon: There’s some truth to those!
Suzi: Yes, there’s a sense of entitlement, so employers hear and see that, and they get concerned and worried about, Gosh, what do I need to do to retain these people? Why can’t it be easier like it was for people who were just happy to have a job? I would say, with regard to your comment about flexibility, I see that across all generations, and I 
think that’s just becoming more valued in our society.
I’m a Gen-Xer and that is huge for me, and I don’t know that it’s any more valued by the Gen X people that I know than the Millennial people I know—we both want that.
Brandon: Yeah, it’s funny when articles and books try to paint broad strokes on generations. To your point, Suzi, I don’t think there’s a lot that’s different between the generations. I am a Millennial, and I can speak to a couple of these things. They emphasize training and personal development and a mentorship part, versus being paid a lot. So the way I look at those things, I’m a sponge. I like to learn, I like knowledge, and I think I could be better at my job if I have mentorship and the training and development. And the money will take care of itself later on, but I’ve got to pay my dues first.
I think a lot of people in my generation think that way as well, because they see that their grandparents or parents in the Boomer generation paid their dues. They worked their butts off, and they’re getting retirement packages or they’re living good because they worked hard and I think the training and mentorship and some of these things will help them prepare to be great workers.
Molly: What’s interesting is that when I think about the types of conflict that I would say have a generational component that I’ve worked for in the last five or six years with clients, it typically is Gen-X to Millennial. It’s really interesting to me. Because I kind of would just expect maybe a bigger gap, between like Baby Boom and Millennial, would be an issue, but what I’ve heard over and over again from my Gen-X managers are She’s a Millennial. She needs so much handholding, she needs so much encouragement, she needs so much support, she needs so much feedback and collaboration, and I just like to work on my own. It’s really interesting. I’ve heard that several times, and, again, that could just be select personality times. But that has been a bigger area of conflict. I would agree with Suzi though, I think that need for flexibility, the sandwich generation is no longer just one generation. There’s many of us who are caring for young children and an elder in our lives. That’s a very significant drain on personal energy, career, your ability to juggle a 40-hour or more work week. I think that’s been kind of spreading across.
I found a really interesting U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation report that talks about the Millennial generation. They noted that this is the single most-studied generation to date. So there’s been more work done on figuring out who these people are. There’s 80 million Millennials, they’re considered optimistic, and they’re actually the most diverse generation we’ve ever had, which probably isn’t that surprising. They’re coming in with a different view of the workplace, which is being echoed in a lot of the articles right now.
One of the things that they note in the article that we’re referring to originally here, from Entrepreneur, is their commitment to social causes. I think we’re seeing a lot more clients adding in volunteer time, so you can take paid time from work, 8 hours PTO or vacation time, that is paid to you to go and work with Habitat for Humanity or the Humane Society or your child’s school or what have you. I think that’s a really great benefit that’s often missed but that speaks not just to Millennials but to every generation as well, too.
Brandon: Yeah, I think if we’re talking about how do we lead Millennials and how do we really integrate them in the workplace and work with them, I really think teaming up generations, Boomer generations, Gen-Xers, with the Millennials, I think there’s a lot to be learned between the cross-generational work. Millennials are really good at some things, and they need advice and guidance from Boomers and Gen-Xers. So I think it’s about keeping an open mind and not to paint these broad strokes, saying Every Millennial wants flexibility. Well, that’s not necessarily true, some people really like structure and want that 40-hour week.
Molly: And many Baby Boomers want flexibility as well too.
Suzi: Right, right! And I think the point that you brought up about the conflict, facilitation between the Gen-Xer manager and the Millennial employee and not understanding how to get the best work out of that person, when I hear stuff like that, I think it’s easy for people to put labels. When they don’t understand something it’s easy to say It must be because they’re a Millennial! And in my experience, it’s usually a bit more complicated than that!
Molly: It’s personality too.
Suzi: Yeah, there are so many variables influencing the way people communicate and perform. So I almost feel like there’s an opportunity to dive in deeper about what is 
important to each individual and what do they feel like they need to be successful, and then giving them the tools to do that.
Molly: I agree. And then how do they like to work? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce article notes that “Some studies suggest that this generation, the Millennial generation, is actually re-wiring their brain for multitasking.” This is the first generation that has been entirely digital. Their whole existence has existed with computers. Gen-X, we can’t say that entirely of that whole generation. So the way that they function and the amount of information they take in and their focus on information and the way that they handle information is completely different, in some ways, from anything we’ve seen before. And their brains are actually potentially a little bit different from the rest of ours. So we’ve joked before on a previous podcast about the need for paper, and this is a generation that moves pretty nimbly without it. So there’s how I like to work, there’s how I like to work with others, just all kinds of facets that should be honed in on here.
Suzi: Yeah, and I think in my opinion one of the single biggest influences on this generation is the technology. That’s influencing, likely, their commitment to want to do more for their community, the world, because they have a broader view of the world. Through technology, you have access to finding out and seeing what’s going on all around the world, right? Whereas when we were kids, we’d have to go to the library and check out an encyclopedia. They just have such a larger view, a global view of the world, and then immediate access to any information they want.
Brandon: They’re very resourceful, because they know where to look.
Molly: Absolutely.
Suzi: Yeah!
Molly: Well thank you for joining us on this conversation! We’ll of course post links to each of the articles that we’ve referenced here and hope you can join us again in the future!