Managing the Millennials

CHAPTER 1

THE MILLENNIALS AND YOU

If we don’t like a job, we quit, because the worst thing that can happen is that we move back home. There’s no stigma, and many of us grew up with both parents working, so our moms would love nothing more than to cook our favorite meatloaf.

—Jason Ryan Dorsey (28 years old)¹

 

Have you noticed a recent change in your workplace? Young people—particularly members of a new generation of workers that we refer to as Millennials—are joining our workforce. Are you ready for them? And have you noticed that they are a little different than you? You might even think they are strange or that they do not quite have “it” together. Maybe they sometimes show up to work wearing flip-flops, or they have iPod headphones hanging from their ears. And perhaps they just sit at their desks waiting for someone to give them something to do. Let us be the first to tell you that the invasion of Millennials will soon become a flood. In 2006, Millennials comprised 21 percent of the workforce—nearly 32 million workers.² Over the next decade they will be all in! Successful managers will be the ones who understand, appreciate, and learn to work with the differences in values, work-life priorities, and expectations they bring.

The Millennial flood has become front-page news—virtually every form of media is talking about it, from mainline television news channels to newspapers to niche magazines and journals. USA Today had this to say on the topic: “Businesses are struggling to ...