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    The Millennial generation

    Fascinating speech was given on a conference I attended this week. Apparently studies have shown that the generation after "Generation X", (born from around 1965 to 1982) are "The millennial generation", meaning kids who were 16 or under in 2000. They're just now entering the workplace, and organisations like mine have to learn how to cope with them.

    Studies apparently show that because they're the first generation to genuinely grow up with multi-media technology surrounding them, they, er, really know how to use it, in ways that even old farts like me can't comprehend. They don't use e-mail, they text. They don't like working alone, they actively group-network solutions to problems, both in person and, crucially, virtually, on-line in messageboards. In a classroom setting, our children, having been set a problem, don't go back to their desks and solve it, as we would have done, but instinctively wander off to form groups and brainstorm solutions. At social events, they are observed not dancing in pairs, but in groups. They are so comfortable with on-line researching that they actively mistrust traditional guidance manuals, preferring - actively preferring - to be given the freedom to search for their own solutions to problems through a variety of media before deciding on a way forward. They - and this is where it gets really interesting - are growing up with absolutely no concept at all of racial or class divide, or of geographical boundaries, and are perfectly comfortable with the concept of forming "on-line" virtual networks of colleagues or friends that contain no prejudice towards where people live, or what time it is. They do not see the value in being constrained by in-task time limits, preferring an environment where finding the solution is the key, and want to work when they feel it suits them towards any end-goal deadline.

    All real challenges to the traditional employer, bringing kids in to sit them down, hand them a manual and say "you're doing that from 9 to 5, now get on with it". We're unlikely to be able to attract, motivate or indeed get these kids to work for us unless we adapt to their way of being, not just working.

    Personally I feel, myself, to be more akin to the Millenial generation that my own (probably why I'm on this board so often) but it's still fascinating stuff. Our kids reallly are, it would seem, the product of what we always wanted to become.

    #2
    The Millennial generation

    They ... are growing up with absolutely no concept at all of racial or class divide...
    Yeah right.

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      #3
      The Millennial generation

      No, genuinely, WE. This is backed up by studies of kids. They apparently simply don't recognise the words we would have used in classrooms towards minorities, have no concept of them. A generation of liberal correctness amnog their parents, and probably more importantly on the mass media, seems to have done the trick. I'm quite proud if we've (the generation X parents) have made the latter fact come true.

      I think the point is that they are comfortable - as we are on this board - with the virtual world where they simply don't know if some of the people they're making friends with or talking to on-line are blue, black, browen or beige, and it never occurs to them to ask.

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        #4
        The Millennial generation

        All real challenges to the traditional employer, bringing kids in to sit them down, hand them a manual and say "you're doing that from 9 to 5, now get on with it". We're unlikely to be able to attract, motivate or indeed get these kids to work for us unless we adapt to their way of being, not just working.
        Bullshit. I didn't want to be told "you're doing this from 9 to 5, now get on with it." I'm sure my dad didn't either. Neither did his dad or his dad's dad. Or his dad's dad's dad back in Germany. But guess what? We had to do it. If it were supposed to be fucking fun, it wouldn't be work and we wouldn't get paid for it. People wouldn't pay us to do what we do, because it would be so fun that our customers/clients would do it for themselves.

        I hate these fucking generational generalizations almost as much as I hate the sort of kids (and that's all they are, fucking kids) who use this description of the Millienial Generation as an excuse to whine that they don't like their jobs or whatever.

        This takes us back to the stuffwhitepeoplelike controversy somewhat, in that it makes me want to go on a long rant about how much I hate the smug little twats that aspire to inherit this country. Like these people.

        In my day...

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          #5
          The Millennial generation

          This is backed up by studies of kids.
          Oooh, studies.

          Come on, Rogin. The capacity of businesspeople to believe bullshit is limitless. Every sane human knows this.

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            #6
            The Millennial generation

            Let's see these studies, anyway. Cite away.

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              #7
              The Millennial generation

              Heh, well, I can't. I didn't take notes of the exact references the speaker alluded to (although I'd hope he wasn't simply making it all up). But it was food for thought. It inspirational to me, anyway, to think that we were being urged to dream of a world where our kids could grow up in a society that we could make for them that we would have wanted to inhabit. Maybe I'm just being unnecssarily wistful thinking of my own two girls' futures.

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                #8
                The Millennial generation

                The millennial generation? What the fuck is this all about? We're really cramming all the generations in, aren't we?

                So 65-82 puts you in Generation X.
                82-85 makes you Generation Y.
                January 85-March 85 puts you in the iGeneration.
                Tuesday in 1988 makes you Generation C
                And now this one.

                I'm inclined to say "Fuck off." to all these studies. But I shan't, as speaking from a position of ignorance is typical of my generation. And I don't want to live up to these terrible stereotypes.

                Comment


                  #9
                  The Millennial generation

                  Nearly all of these studies suffer from a terminal inability to distinguish between age effects and cohort effects.

                  That generation "X" views the world differently than generation "Y" is hardly surprising; they are 15-20 years older. What would be genuinely surprising is if generation y was different from generation X 20 years ago. But we have very few longitudinal studies of this type.

                  The cohort effects I see most strongly are related to the economy. Young people in the NPS genuinely think it's normal to waltz into a $45K/year job right out of school. When WOM and I graduated from university 15-20 years ago, we were in the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s and youth unemployment was running at about 25%. These things do tend to breed different attitudes to work.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The Millennial generation

                    It inspirational to me, anyway, to think that we were being urged to dream of a world where our kids could grow up in a society that we could make for them that we would have wanted to inhabit.

                    As it was to me. And my parents. And their parents and so on. That's what parents do. All of us for ever and always, we want better for our kids than we had ourselves, nothing new in that at all.

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                      #11
                      The Millennial generation

                      I, for one, welcome our Millenial generation overlords.

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                        #12
                        The Millennial generation

                        When WOM and I graduated from university 15-20 years ago, we were in the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s and youth unemployment was running at about 25%.
                        That's interesting. I started babysitting and cutting lawns for cash when I was 13 or 14. I'm now 40. I've never had a day in between when I didn't have a job. (The exception was when the ad agency I worked for lost a huge account and 35 of us were cut in one day. I was working at a new agency 4 days later.) I'm terminally petrified of the prospect of unemployment. I think I inherited that from my dad, who worked from 15 to 62-ish without so much as a sick-day off. I'm not sure what the actual insecurity is, but it exists and I can't stop worrying about it. Bizarre. Hopefully the feeling goes away when I reach retirement age.

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                          #13
                          The Millennial generation

                          I can confirm the whole point within the work-related arena.

                          Pupils, sorry students, I mean young adults, sorry stakeholders, in schools, I mean educational interface areas, usually do shun traditional methods of research, i.e. reading. Traditional methods of work are also shunned. These steps are usually taken in order to brainstorm in groups.

                          They don't care who they talk to either, just as long as they're not working, sorry conforming to outdated stereotypes of human activity.

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                            #14
                            The Millennial generation

                            The (younger...22 to 30 yrs) guys in our interactive department have a different approach to work than the guys (30 to 50) in our direct marketing department. We're much more 9 to 5 with traditional roles/responsibilities. They roll in whenever they want, but are quite content to work until midnight with their music blasting. Maybe they'll change when they get wives and kids and whatnot, but I don't really think so.

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                              #15
                              The Millennial generation

                              Ask jason voorhees for his thoughts on Generation Y.

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                                #16
                                The Millennial generation

                                jason vorhees, what are your thoughts on generation y?

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                                  #17
                                  The Millennial generation

                                  EIM, what are your thoughts on Generation Y?

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                                    #18
                                    The Millennial generation

                                    These days, she is a host of a gathering in Williamsburg called Home Buying for Hipsters, at which she explains the idea of Tenancy in Common, a form of ownership that enables people to combine their resources to buy a house jointly instead of just renting together.
                                    If she's getting paid more than $100 for that, she's really exploiting the idiocy of people.

                                    I'd like to see the looks on these young whippersnappers' faces when I dump Sumption on Capital Gains Tax in their laps and ask them to research post death Inheritance and Capital Gains Tax interaction for me if they're so scared of books. It's as bad as it sounds; I shit a brick when I have to go near the thing.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      The Millennial generation

                                      We're much more 9 to 5 with traditional roles/responsibilities. They roll in whenever they want, but are quite content to work until midnight with their music blasting. Maybe they'll change when they get wives and kids and whatnot, but I don't really think so.
                                      That's not new. People of my generation (X) and probably a few before it prefer to work that way. It's just not practical, especially if you have a job where you have to go to meetings or otherwise be considerate of other people's schedules.

                                      People with kids want flexible schedules, but they tend to come in early and leave early, not the other way around.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        The Millennial generation

                                        This is a pretty good critique of what is wrong with kids today. Well, not so much kids today, but how all of this texting and blogging and shit is an impediment to human contact as much as it is a benefit.
                                        http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          The Millennial generation

                                          I'm terminally petrified of the prospect of unemployment.
                                          See, this is what I'm saying. I think that people who have only been in the job market 2-4 years have no concept of fear of unemployment.

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                                            #22
                                            The Millennial generation

                                            I fucking have. I'm going to be out of work at the end of this week!

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                                              #23
                                              The Millennial generation

                                              I share some of WE scepticism, possibly not on the race front but on the class divide front, I think it's a strong as ever if not more, it seems to me all that online networking business is more of a hobby for peole with time and money on their hands.

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                                                #24
                                                The Millennial generation

                                                A welcome relief from the hype

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                                                  #25
                                                  The Millennial generation

                                                  "They don't like working alone, they actively group-network solutions to problems, both in person and, crucially, virtually, on-line in messageboards.

                                                  [They] instinctively wander off to form groups and brainstorm solutions. At social events, they are observed not dancing in pairs, but in groups. They are so comfortable with on-line researching that they actively mistrust traditional guidance manuals, preferring - actively preferring - to be given the freedom to search for their own solutions to problems through a variety of media before deciding on a way forward.

                                                  They... are perfectly comfortable with the concept of forming "on-line" virtual networks of colleagues or friends that contain no prejudice towards where people live, or what time it is. They do not see the value in being constrained by in-task time limits, preferring an environment where finding the solution is the key, and want to work when they feel it suits them towards any end-goal deadline"
                                                  That pretty much sums me up, too. I always knew I was a kid at heart.

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