Loading ...I read an article in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week about the work place, entitlement and the Millennial generation. Apparently, Millennials are spoiled rotten, and want to move up quickly. At the same time, the Globe and Mail recently published an article about 30-somethings (which would be part of Generation X) who are starting new careers by interning for little to no pay (one woman left her $70,000 a year job for an internship that paid in the low $20,000s.) It’s interesting to see the stark differences between the two age groups. Even the difference between the last of Generation X and the first of the Millennials can be quite startling.
The WSJ”s piece on the Millennials was, for the most part negative. The author complains that these kids are very picky at what they do, that they “want to be CEO tomorrow.” Of course, this has to do with the type of environment they were raised in. Many of these kids were educated at schools where students were promoted to the next grade level, even if they were not ready. They also received very little punishment compared to earlier generations. Taking away TV or playdate privileges were done only in very extreme circumstances. And many seem to have been raised by parents who were seen as friends, rather than parents. This has led to an entire generation of casualness. In the past few years there have been several articles about young people and their interpretation of “business casual” – many are wearing flip flops to work – many also don’t feel that it’s necessary to dress up. Of course, the Millennials aren’t the only generation with a wardrobe malfunction. The laid-back philosophy of Generation X gave rise to “business casual” in the 90s. Baby boomers changed school dress codes from what is now known as “business casual” to a world of jeans and t-shirts.
While the Globe internship article was about Generation X, it did mention that companies often prefer to hire people “with experience”, even for internships, than those who were fresh out of school. More importantly, the older interns tend not to show the same entitlement tendencies as the Millennials. After all, many of these 30-somethings have families to feed. Many of the Millennials, on the other hand, are living with their parents.
Generation X also didn’t grow up extremely spoiled. Sure, many had it easy, but they also grew up in a world that was more realistic. There wasn’t any of the positive reinforcement that Millennials grew up with. Life came with negativity. Not everyone can win. The Millennials, especially those who were born in the mid 80s or later, however, always won SOMETHING, regardless of whether they did well or not. This was very true when I worked with Brownies in high school. When I was a Brownie in the 1980s, one had to work through a number of requirements to “fly up” to Girl Guides. If you just aged out, you “walked up.” That had all been eliminated by the mid-90s when I returned as a Junior Leader. Everyone was promoted the same way. However, things can come out fake if all you get are positive vibes.
Of course, the Millennials have positive qualities as well. This is a generation which can help older age groups communicate with youth. They are technologically sophisticated and are open to new ways of communication, ways that puzzle many older people (especially the boomers). Unlike their Generation X counterparts, the Millennials were born after the birth of the first true home computer and were well-versed on anything regarding online communication before they were old enough to vote. This generation’s new, innovative ideas can very well change our society.
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Dear Cynthia
Call them millienials or Echo boomers or Generation Y or even Trophy kids, the generation born in the late 1970s and brought up in the 1990s and the early years of this millennium are much different from the previous generation. This is a fact that can be easily verified through so many of their distinct behaviours as also by the way look at life and look at things around themselves. These tech savvy young men and women are a lot in themselves.
But here I would like to go rather with your views than that of the WSJ article which you are referring to, for the simple reason that because of the changing economic and cultural scenario, the Gen Y has been much more responsible and has the tendency of growing more mature in a faster manner,. Moreover, they also seem to be less self-afflicted and more socially concerned.
And just because they have a higher ambition-ratio, they can’t be criticized for this.
Isn’t it?
Dr Nutan Thakur,
Editor,
Nutan Satta Pravah,
Lucknow
Dr. Thakur,
As a Cusper myself (age 29), I certainly wouldn’t put people my age in the “same” generation as those who are, say 23 or 24. In fact, most studies I’ve seen don’t group those born up to 1979 or 1980 in the Millennial group. I know that a lot of us would feel insulted if we were. We may be just as tech-savvy as those who are 24, but the truth is, most of us weren’t even introduced to the Internet until we were well into our teens. I took computer classes until I was in Grade 10 (age 15/16) and not once were we taught anything about the Internet. That would have been in the 1994-1995 school year.
The late 20-something/early 30-something’s childhood was also very different – we actually HAD one. While most of us started reading teen celebrity rags like Teen Beat or Tiger Beat at, say, age 8 or 9 (roughly the same age as kids today), our versions were much more wholesome. Same goes for the fashion magazines. We were kids before all the grown-up spin-off publications launched (e.g. CosmoGirl, Elle Girl, Teen Vogue – most which are now defunct), reading Seventeen, YM (RIP) and Sassy instead. Our magazines also informed us more about our health than today’s. Practically every issue (especially with YM and at times, Seventeen) had a piece on health, often an editorial. We were very well-versed on how to protect ourselves from disease. I also don’t remember wearing sexy “grown-up” clothes at the age of 12 or 13. The “in” teen look back then was the FIRST 90210, and the girls looked pretty wholesome.
However, what many Cuspers DO have in common with Millennials is that we have a longer adolescence! Many of us move home after university and stay there for a few years!
Just a thought.