Generations Blog

Is it me, or are there certain things that shouldn’t be done is certain places? I was in a public restroom the other day and overhead a cell-phone conversation between a young applicant (on my end) and an employer. The applicant appeared to be saying the right things. He spoke with enthuisasm and made his points clearly. Things seemed to be going very well.

Then he flushed the toliet, not just any toliet, but one of those water-saving commodes that goes WHOOSH when you Continue reading “Don’t Flush the Toliet While You’re Interviewing!”

This past evening, my 14-year-old daughter ate an ice cream pop and left the stick and wrapper on the kitchen counter. I called upstairs and said “Erin, please put your ice cream stick in the trash.” After a bit of a huff, I heard her come back down into the kitchen. A short time later, I returned to the kitchen and discovered that, yes, she had put the ice cream stick in the trash but, no, she had not put the ice cream wrapper the stick was resting on in the trash as well. When I asked her to return the kitchen again, she once again returned with a huff and threw the wrapper away.

I asked, “Why didn’t you throw the wrapper out with the stick?” Continue reading “Stick and Wrapper: The Millennial Generation’s Interpretation of Instructions”

This morning, someone once again asked me about the issue of fairness that Millennial employees seem to have with the workplace. “Why,” this person asked, “do they think that everyone has to be treated exactly the same way? Any time I give someone a bonus, extra training or some other opportunity, I am told that I am being unfair to everyone else. What has happened to merit?”

A good deal of this has to do with a transformation of the word “fairness.” Where fairness in the work environment has Continue reading “Fairness and the Millennial Generation”

I was on the phone the other night with Claire, a cherry young tech support person with Qwest Communications. Together, we were attempting to fix the broadband connection into my house. As we waited for the modem to boot and reboot after every step, I struck up a conversation.

“That’s a wonderful British accent you have, ” I said.

“Thank you,” she replied. “I grew up in Leeds, just outside of West Yorkshire.” We exchanged a few pleasantries about England and the sites to see.

“Are you living in the States now,” I asked.

“Oh no,” she chuckled. “I’m in Manila in the Philippines.”

“How did you end up there?” I asked.

“Well, this is where my family is from,” she replied. “We decided to move back here a couple of years ago. One day, I’ll come to Colorado where you are. I’d like to climb your mountains.”

So here I was in Denver, receiving technical support from a young lady with a crystal clear British accent who was in the Philippines, who had grown up in England, but is at the present time working for a telecommunications company based in Colorado.

Is it any wonder that there is sometimes a gap in worldly perception between the older generations and those coming of age in today’s marketplace?

I stopped by the local McDonald’s yesterday for a snack. The voice emanating from the drive-through speaker was that of a delightful young lady. She sounded genuinely interested in how I was. Then she pointed out that I’d save a few cents if I purchased the 42 oz. Diet Coke that was on special.

When I got the the first window, she greeted me once again and took my money. We exhanged pleasantries while I sat in line waiting to reach the second window for my food. At the same time, she continued to take orders and text her friends, all with a bit of music in the background. The Boomer in me wanted to say, “you should concentrate on what you’re doing.”  But then I asked myself, “Is she accomplishing the duties assigned?” I hear from lots of managers about young workers who seem to have such a desire to keep stimulated while they work. To many of these managers, the work itself should be stimulation enough. But shouldn’t we let the employee decide that, as long as the work assigned is performed within expectations?

There are also those managers who complain about the young person who performs the task assigned and then stops without looking around for something else to do. With so many possible distractions/stimulations at young people’s fingertips, they don’t feel a need to look around for something to do. All it takes is flipping open your hand-held device. It is incumbent on managers, now more than ever, to be assertive with assigning tasks. Complaining that many young workers possess no self-initiative may be accurate. But this doesn’t get the job done. I’m finding that those effectively managing young people work harder to stay on top of what everyone is doing. Is this more time consuming? Yes, at first. But over time, the good performers adapt to those expectations and begin to self-initiate . 

It has become fashionable among Millennials to display a little underwear, especially around the waist. While some find it bothersome, this is no more troubling than tie-dye shirts were a couple of generations ago. But in an attempt to legislate this horrifying practice out of existence, the village of Lynwood, IL, a suburb of Chicago, has passed an ordinance that levys a $25 fine on anyone showing three inches or more of his or her underwear in public. Question — Does this also apply to aging plumbers?

If there is one universal way to engage today’s emerging generation of consumers, it is through technology. While this may appear obvious, the subtleties of doing so are more elusive. Regardless of the platform, there are five characteristics that all electronic marketing efforts share if they are to be successful with young buyers:

Informal personalization - Emerging consumers have come of age immersed in a world that treats them impersonally.  After all, who knows their neighbors anymore?  But on the Internet, the sites they visit address them by name, if they have been willing to share that name on a previous visit. If they are willing to embrace this kind of relationship with other sites, it is incumbent upon you and your organization to do the same.  Remember the old saying?  Continue reading “Millennial Generation and the Big Click”

For more than a year, I have been informally polling the Millennials in my audiences. I simply ask them to raise their hands if they have twenty dollars or more in cash in their pocket at that point. Consistently, about five percent do. While we generally get a chuckle out of this, I have to wonder about the impact of this shift on our society. What does it mean for our understanding of money? Continue reading “The Cashless Millennial Generation: What Does It Mean for You?”

This past week, the Walt Disney Company released its new blockbuster, Camp Rock, which will be viewed by the younger half of the Millennial generation endlessly for months to come. As I watched it with my kids Friday evening, I marveled once again at the power of the Disney machine and the creativity that can take any mundane subject and turn it into a sensation.

At the same time, I found myself saddened by two things: 1. The fact that the innocence of summer camp has now been transformed into an experience that requires high dollar production numbers and 2. The downright meanness of the script. Camp Directors throughout the US must be cringing at the expectations now being created for them due to this production. It has been bad enough having to compete with iPods, cell phones, digital cameras and the like to maintain kids’ attention. Now they will be faced with the disappointment of some that the Jonas Brothers are not headlining the main stage on the last night of camp or serenading girls in the dining hall.

 Then there’s the script. As I watched my daughters watch this movie, I was dumbfounded by the cruelty written into the script for the purposes of building a storyline. This was simply Mean Girls transformed onto a Disney platform. My girls, or any other children, don’t need to see this type of viciousness illustrated once again. They’ve seen it too much of it already. I’ve said more than once that my wife and I feel like we’re competing with the rest of society to teach our kids the values we want them to have. Sadly, the Disney Company, which has produced so many socially redeeming productions over the years, has surrendered to the times and we parents are left to processing this drivel with our kids.

I had a chat with a young professional in the natural gas industry this past week. During the conversation, I asked him about his pet peeves in working with older co-workers. ”One would be the subtle comments that can be rather belittling,” he said. I asked him for an example. “Well, last week one of the senior managers here told me ‘You’re the smartest 25-year-old we’re had around here in a while,’” he replied. ”I didn’t know if he thought I was the best of a bunch Continue reading “Subtle Comments and the Millennial Generation”