The plight of Millennials in the workplace
Millennials are often unfairly labeled as lazy and self-obsessed, but enjoy much less job security than previous generations.
Lazy, pampered, self-obsessed, unreliable, and disloyal are all labels that have been, sometimes unfairly, pinned to the backs of millennials in the workplace.
A millennial is roughly defined as a person born between 1980 and 1990, which means that most of them grew up in an age of cell phones, CDs, car seats, iPods, and burglar bars.
With such a drastically different childhood than those of the children of the 70’s and early 80’s, it is no wonder that many employers have no idea how to deal with the selfie snapping, rapid texting, avo-eating and cross-fit doing youngsters in their offices.
Economy
But let us look at the economic reality of the workplace this generation entered.
Most of them, on good advice from parents who were generation X or even Baby Boomers, studied some form of degree after school – only to enter a workplace where being an attorney, an accountant or an engineer was no longer good enough to get you noticed.
With the prevalence of online information, most of what this generation spent four years studying, is now redundant and employers are looking for experience even for entry level jobs.
Enter the unpaid or shockingly low paid internship – where qualified millennials are forced to work for ridiculously low salaries just to get a foot in the door.
Living with parents
You ask why millennials are still living with their parents?
The answer is easy – you try to pay rent, buy food, have reliable transport, and have enough money left for electricity and airtime so your boss can reach you on your cell phone at all hours when you are earning, for example, R5 500 per month.
In comparison, a person starting out in their career in the early 80’s could easily afford a starter-home and vehicle within the first few years of employment, not to mention nowadays unheard of benefits like medical aid and pension schemes.
Myths
In a recent study completed in the United Kingdom, many of the myths surrounding millennials in the workplace were dispelled.
According to this study, millennials are not more likely to jump from job to job than the previous generation at the same age, they are not more likely to take sick days and have much less job security and very little chance of being promoted when compared with previous generations.
That there are challenges in multi-generational workplaces is a fact, but the upside of having a dynamic team of workers from different backgrounds cannot be ignored and their loyalty deserves to be rewarded.
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