The Millennial Generation
Introduction
The average American man by his 20s in the previous generations had surpassed most adulthood milestones: attained a diploma or degree from a tertiary institution, financial independence, and marriage. However, in today’s generation – Hymowitz notes – the 20s men are profoundly found hanging out in novel sort of limbos and men cliques, hybrid states characterized by responsible self-reliance, and semi-hormonal adolescence (2-3). Recent articles and web pages labeling the Millennials as faulty in respect to professional support and holistic development are not in short supply. Experts in the psychological field, on the other hand, have effectively lacked the appropriate age brackets to label this generation, with most defining them as of years 1980 and 2000. Millennials have been lately portrayed as whiners spoiled by overindulging parents who have overstocked them with undeserved self-esteem, and have unnecessarily been bestowed upon trophies by sports coaches for merely showing up. Various articles have branded this generation as faulty and narcissistic as compared to the contemporary older generations. In this review of the Millennials, the issues affecting the generation from childhood, adulthood, and professionalism will be explored.
The Good About the Millennial Generation
Burns argues that the Millennials are stocked with many positive qualities and skills to offer companies (83). Firstly, they are adept with the diversity of issues affecting the globe. The world of the Millennials is far more extensive and expansive than the previous generations as attributed to the online social platforms that allow for the establishment of relationships with individuals beyond their geographical confines. These individuals are ideal for one’s businesses to tap into as they are strategically positioned to support the global workplaces of companies (Burns 84). Secondly, Millennials are technologically savvy. By the fact that they consume enormous amounts of information, these people are capable of locating anything within a second. Quoting Tyler’s online article “they are massive consumers of information and can find details about anything within seconds” (Tyler 2). Companies and organizations specializing in research can look into employing the “Generation Y” individuals to help conduct research projects as they can easily find through and all particular important data through such sources that are nonexistent to older employees. Achievement of this, though, has to be effectively done through proper training of Millennials on how to adequately vet research things they come across (Tyler 2). Thirdly, published articles note that Millennials are excellent natural multitaskers. Studies have proved that up to 90% of 18-24-year-olds attain job satisfaction and productivity when listening to an iPod as they carry out their work. Boredom results in these individuals if they are deprived of the invariant excitement generated from computer and video games to keep their brains always busy; Tyler notes that, “For today’s young people, multitasking is as natural as eating,” (2).
Finally, Millennials have been proved to be team oriented. Their decisions are made in team environments – and as such measure themselves by their peers. Millennials communicate extraordinary amounts of information through locally and online communal groups. Peers have such a great influence on the lives of this generation. As compared to pre-cell phone generations that looked on their friends for direction and advice, the tech-savvy Millennials are continually connected to the internet allowing for the perpetual connection to peers. Tyler, thus, notes that, “With millennials, “decisions are made in a team environment,” says futurist Jim Taylor.” (Tyler 2). Further, Tyler also notes that, “They measure themselves by their peers. They will form communal tribes and communicate extraordinary amounts (Tyler 3).
The Bad News About Millennials
Recent years have been marked with discoveries in neuroscience and psychological development of humans that the frontal cerebral lobes of the brain – associated with decision-making, reasoning, and formulation of proper courses of action – continues to develop well past the late teens and early 20s. Well, this implies that the brains of the young people continue to develop as they heavily depend on technology. The arrangement of Millennials using technology while young is contradictory – a double-edged sword. Quoting Tyler: “On the one hand, this arrangement gives the adolescent new freedoms.” (3). However, Tyler is also of the opinion that, “the adolescent doesn’t have the experience of having only herself to count on; there’s always a parent on speed dial” (Tyler 3). Research has bared out that recent graduates of four-year colleges display only adequate work ethics, professionalism, innovation and creativity and problem solving and critical thinking. Only a quarter of the recent graduates displays desirable traits. Millennials show struggles at the job fronts (Wineburg 492). The Millennials Generation lacks the following qualities:
Lack of Independent Thinking
According to Wineburg, the overscheduling of Millennials’ life by parents leaves them in situations where they have no idea what to do next (487). These individuals require more direction in their places of work; they look forward to resource and expenditure controllers to assume the mother role in many ways. Thus, companies are tasked with showing care for such people, understand their goals and help them achieve maximum potential in their career paths. “Millennials may look to managers to “take on that ‘mom role’ in some ways.” (Tyler 3). Further, Tyler also notes that “we have to show that we care about the person, know what their goals are and help them with their career paths” (Tyler 5).
Lack of Discretion and Poor Work Ethics
The clear lack of confidentiality has thrilling repercussions for Millennials in their workplaces. They have no secrets, and discussions between the ancillary staff and the bosses usually deemed private will become public. The Millennial generation is unwilling to make sacrifices to get forward, nor do they understand what working means. Tyler argues that “if you give up your privacy on Myspace about everything from your musical preferences to your sexual hang-ups, it is harder to understand others’ concern for privacy invasions,” says Sherry Turkle, a licensed clinical psychologist and MIT professor” (Tyler 5). Additionally, “They get the idea one’s privacy is dispensable” (Tyler 6).
Hymowitz notes that the “Generation Y” is used to instantaneous gratification, are practically impatient and wish for things to happen as of yesterday (6). Advantageously, the impatience may make them more efficient in life and workplaces, but nevertheless, may present with a disadvantage of lacking the long-animity to accomplish complex situations. The instantaneous gratification in contemporaneousness to immoderate parental influence fosters unrealistic expectations concerning goal setting and planning and prohibits decision making and creative problem solving. Besides, the lack of realistic expectations by this generation means that they expect to change everything in the world on the first day. Lack of track records to support such statements has been pointed out as the main problem. The challenges presented in the business environment fatally crashes the entire life comments of how beautiful their lives are that they have been told. Finally, according to Tyler, “millennials suffer from poor soft skills and other basics. The overreliance of Millennials on computer software and programs that correct grammatical and spelling errors perpetuates poor written communications skills” (6). Face to face and other interpersonal interactions have been dramatically reduced by instant messaging and emails. “Soft skills, such as conflict resolution are negatively impacted by the string lack of interpersonal skills” (Tyler 6).
Summary and Conclusion
For the familiarity presented by the pre-adulthood stage, it is a representation of the momentous sociological development of a person. One cannot exaggerate that a large number of single young men and women is something entirely new to the experiences of the human race. The pre-adults of today America are an entirely different matter and can be considered as a major demographic event. The road to adulthood for the millennial generation has been lengthened by the increasingly labyrinthine labor market. Economic expansion characterizing the past decades have trans-mutated the high-end markets of labor into fierce competitive spaces for the most glamorous and exhilarating jobs. The young people are looking for careers in their jobs that allow for the expression of deep passion and talents; expecting their identities to be given shape by the careers they indulge in. For today’s Millennial Generation, the “what you do” question has attained synonymous meaning with “who you are” phrase. The pre-adulthood teenagers have quickly metamorphosed into a cultural and marketing phenomena: earning a unique psychological profile. The adolescence limbo has been characterized by numerous articles as emotional turmoil, role confusion and conflicting identity. The culture creators, parents, as well as marketers, have helped create and promote this adolescent limbo, and nevertheless have a role in dealing with it.
Works Cited
Burns, Erin. “Millennials and mentoring: Why I’m calling out ‘BullPucky’ on Generational Differences and Professional Development. Pennsylvania Libraries: Research and Practice. 1.2. (Fall 2013.): 87-91. https://Doi10.5195/palrap.2013.35
Hymowitz S., Kays. “Where have the good men gone?” Saturday, February 19, 2011. New York. Page 1-7. https://WSJ.com Web. 26th November 2016.
Tyler, Kathryn. “The Tethered Generation.” Society for Human Resource Management, 1 May 2007. Pages 1-10. Web. 26 November 2016. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0507cover.aspx
Wineburg, Raffi. “Lip service Useless for millennials.” The Seattle times. 19 June 2014. Repeated by: Ramage D., John, John C. Bean and June Johnson “Writing Arguments: A rhetoric with readings.” 10th ed. New York: Pearson Education. 2016. 490-491. Print.
