The Importance Of Millennials In The Workplace

Since Howe and Strauss (2007) defined the traits of the Millennials, a number of authors have continued to explore and categorise this generation’s values and traits more than any other; “optimistic spirits, assertive or confident, consummate multitaskers, positive, sociable, cooperative, team oriented with an affinity for innovation and technology”(Pardue 2008, p74). Millennials experience and practice life at an augmented speed, communicating on a multiplicity of electronic devices; “they are an idealistic generation awaiting leadership and motivation; they are primed to do well” and achieve highly (Holt 2012, p81). Despite these characteristics which read as an inventory of an ideal employee, with the merging of multi-generations in a workplace, there comes a disparity in attitudes and approaches; the generational or life-stage divide. Each generation offers rich and valuable outlooks, however to bridge the gap it is important to know what motivates the other.

The Tethered Generation, written by Kathryn Tyler, a self-identified member of Generation X, published this article in HR Magazine, a magazine for HR Professionals. In this piece, Tyler elaborates on what she believes to be the most dependent generation to exist: Millennials. A “frequent contributor” to the publication as a freelance writer, she has quite the background in human resources and training, which reflects in the style of this particular article. In the beginning Tyler discusses the effect that tethering to technology, peers, and parents has had on this generation. Towards the end, she writes a sort of “how to” guide on dealing with those effects in the workforce, and how to make the transition into the workplace for those individuals (and other employees) as smooth as possible. Her thesis is evident in the beginning of the article. Tyler argues that because millennials are too attached to technology and dependent on other people that are close to them (like parents and peers), they lack the skills and traits that previous generations possessed, as well as autonomy, and in the process created an epidemic of very overbearing parents that may be too concerned and involved in the life of their children, which could be detrimental to the new young adult’s development of their professional life. This rhetorical analysis is going to dissect the writer’s use of logos, pathos, and ethos in her argument.

It was the time when the internet was invented and Millennials are the first generation to have access to Internet during their initial years. They are the people who is born between 1980-2000. Years after that, Millennials have been an emerging cohort of generation who is always up-to-date with new inventions, trends, technology, social media and much more. They have been the centre of attraction in the society compare to the older generations by their unique point of view, interest, priorities and expectations (Source: Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, 2016). This paper will be focusing on who a young Millennial is in perspective of their employment choices and career progression. Initially, we will describe who is Millennials based on media sources, then identifying different study approaches and meanings of Millennials with recognised sources to study the contrast. Finally identifying the opportunities and expectations for the next Millennials followed by a conclusion.

Broadcast journalist and reporter, Morley Safer once stated, “ The workplace has become a psychological battlefield and the millennials have the upper-hand, because they are tech savvy, with every gadget imaginable like an extension of their bodies. They multitask, talk, walk, listen, and type, and text. And their priorities are simple: they come first,”(Safer). Not everyone sees the benefits of coexisting with millennials or Generation Y in the workplace. There are several factors that often give older generations a pause when it comes to welcoming millennials in the workplace, but if they are given the chance, millennials can bring major advantages to businesses and corporations. Millennials commonly bring better communication to achieve a shared goal, a more effective and near-constant use of technology, and they are more diverse and racially tolerant than other generations.

Millennials and the older generations do have distant relationships in the workplace that needs a resolution to provide a productive and excited work environment that produces results. These critcism about Millennials Steve Gavatorta witness at his own work environment, he states, “One of the common issues I experience when working with clients, who are primarily Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers, involves Generation Y entering the workplace,” Gavatorta describes how he personally experience these objections daily about Generation Y in the workplace, and how the older generations protests about Generation Y and the communication barrier with technology, their sense of entitlement, and their work ethic. Generation Y’s differences compared to the

The four major societal factors that caused millennials to struggle in today’s workspace is parenting.technology, impatience, and environment. First, failed parents strategies some parents always told their kids that  can have anything and never really have to work for it. Secondly, technology is that more kids are focusing more on what’s on social media than what’s happening in the real world. Thirdly, Millennials are very impatient if they see anything that they want they have to have it. Fourthly, environment everywhere we go there's technology. The effects social media have on millennials is putting filters on things to “prove” to people or make it look like you're living this perfect little life. It’s highly addictive. It’s so crazy how, that people go on social media to talk about their problems and look for solutions on the internet instead of talking to a family member or someone that totally gets them. When people are stress  they don’t turn to their peers or family member they turn to

Before we look at any issue, any good psychologist will first evaluate their own bias. Although it is impossible to eliminate bias from any situation, it is important to, at the very least, identify the source of said bias. So before this essay considers the question of millennials in the workplace, let it first be known that the authors are, if not millennials, riding very closely behind millennials’ coattails.

Replacing Millennials with baby boomers is a problem because they do not want to take on the traditional style of work and life balance. Because of this, Millennials are more than likely to resign from their high-paying positions. Graen & Grace (2014) used the word “traditional” to describe the work life Millennials try to avoid. “Traditional” means repetitiveness of tasks performed at home and work. Millennials leave their high-paying positions because their daily routines of going to work and coming home each day seems boring to them. In the work setting, Millennials become uninterested in their work routine since they have already acquired all of the skills and knowledge required for their positions. Millennials have the urge to work outside

In this article, Wisenberg discusses how the Millenials are changing the work environment through developing technology. Because the Millennials are starting to dominate the workforce, the environment has gone through drastic changes. Just as much as technology, Wisenberg notes how the Millennials are bringing more focus to a more practical, more community-oriented family and workplace as well as demanding heavier technology to fulfill these preferences. They wish to fulfill a work-life balance and to become well-rounded people who want to work for a job they love instead of for a job with good pay.

This generation watched their parent’s marriages fall apart and their mothers enter the workplace. This left the generation to spend their childhoods watching television and earning the title of latchkey kids. They had to learn to do for themselves and take care of themselves. They grew skeptical of the government when they learned programs like Social Security and Medicaid were slowly drying up and vanishing. This fostered an attitude of take care of yourself and depend on no one; welcome to the Me Generation. Members of Generation X have a just-do-it attitude and are technologically adept. With these two skills, Generation X bridges the old with the new, or the Baby Boomers with the Millennials (Gurwitt, 2013). But does Generation X know how to build a workplace that attracts, motivates, and engages Millennials while reducing multigenerational

Since this generation in unique in this respect; employers should look at ways by which they can make the workplace conducive to the Millennials if they have to

In his article Millennials in the workplace: They do not need trophies but reinforcement, Jeff Fromm makes two statements which question general and proper workplace behavior of the millennial generation. His first statement, “the average tenure of millennial employees. Two years. In the span of a professional career, two years seems to hardly make dent” (2), could state that the millennial generation is disloyal. His second statement, “Millennials base their performance on output rather than time spent on a project… they do not want to sit around the office until 5pm if their work was completed two hours earlier” (3), questions proper work ethic reflected in the performance of the millennial generation. Even though the millennial generation

Although many millennials are too absorbed in technology to work efficiently, the younger generation is a vital addition to any workplace. The modern society of advancement has raised millennials to believe that a higher education and a successful career are essential early in life. Society expects millennials to complete their education and pursue bigger aspirations, such as a successful career, without taking a pause for more philosophical actions. A fast-paced world has created a societal standard of hard work and long, conventional careers in most of the previous generations. However, the increasingly advancing world around the millennial generation pressures the job-seeking recent college graduates to live at a high societal standard and obtain success through a stable career. Due to the advanced society of high career-oriented standards and the effects it has had on millennials’ aspirations, the younger generation is determined to become successful soon after graduating from college, creating a strong work ethic that is beneficial to any company despite the generation’s saturation in technology and weaker endurance in the cutthroat world of modern business.

Unsatisfied employees may be more likely to work less efficiently, and demonstrate less loyalty to their organizations. Aspects of entitlement from Millennials may also engage intergenerational disagreement if members of management are from older generations, resulting in workplace conflict. Senior workers may begin rebelling against Millennials as they argue it is the younger generation’s turn to make the same sacrifices required by the older generations, and accept responsibility for performance outcomes (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010) rather than abandoning their position when the work gets tough. Millennials do not wish to pay the same dues as their parents did with longer office hours, fewer promotions, and no work-life balance; as parental generations feel offended by the demands of Millennials, Millennials feel mistreated if they are required to accept any of the realities their parents had to

The Millennial generation has been given many names, most of which refer to the technologically savvy time they were born and are currently living in. Names such as the Net Generation, iGeneration, and Generation Next all seem to imply that this age will engender reforms and advances that would separate them from the generations before. But are these names reliable indicators of what the Millennial generation could potentially do? Evidence shows, so far, the answer is no. Millennials have developed negative social traits and attitudes that are not appropriate for the workplace, leaving many of them unemployed and in debt.