Like almost any other week, I noticed a number of postings about the millennial generation. As in the past, the articles talked about their attitude of entitlement. Everything is supposed to be handed to them. One article discussed how they won’t remain at jobs for long due to their searching for something better. One gentleman was quoted that money was not enough to keep him working. He needed to feel as if his work did more than pay the rent. The comments of the readers, quite often, ripped apart the generation as being lazy. Constant complaints about how they show up to work late and cannot understand why they boss is upset.
Some of the articles even speculated that the generation to follow, Generation Z, or iGen. The author talks about how tied to technology they are and that the country, and world, are in deep trouble with the next few generations. To read all of these different writings, one can only be worried about where it is that we are heading.
I am happy to report that I do not hold these feelings of despair for our future. I have high hopes, and at the same time some questions for those that are unhappy with the group now currently in their 20s. This comes from a few different places for me. I work in education and I see the future. The students of today are no different than those of my time. They are eager to learn, the want to see what new things they can come up with, they succeed, they fail, and they are typical teens. I also work with the youth in our church. I am in the middle of a retreat with 60 sophomores. In this group, I see artists, mathematicians, English majors and writers. I have talked to both young men and women interested in the sciences and moving our country forward. This is a great group of students who I feel are more the norm than those about whom the negative comments are written.
As I see these young people, both in the schools and other places, I find that the teens may use technology more today than in the past. Their learning is actually tied to it. So, yes, they are different – or are they. When I was in school we used overhead projectors, teachers had Walkman’s and maybe even CD players in the class. Some films were even on VHS tapes. The difference isn’t that the students are using the latest technology to learn; the difference is what the latest technology is. That has nothing to do with the students.
I am happy to tell you that they can also put down the technology when given reason to do it (okay when it is collected). Once they are without the devices and you have the time to get to know them, one can find excitement in listening to their plans. Generation Z may even have bigger plans than my generation. What is more, they care. They actually are taking the time to care about the planet and what is happening to it. They care about each other. Yes, I know it is hard to tell when their faces are shoved into a smart phone or some other device. Just take it away and talk to them. But then again….it would mean that we too would have to put down the technology in order to make it a conversation. Yes. We need to set the example.
This leads me to the comment about the Millennials. I understand that many of my generation are not happy with this new crop of workers. However, I have to ask who taught them to be this way. Nobody takes the credit or the blame for their attitudes that so many complain about. It is not like these people came out of the womb with this sense of entitlement. It had to be taught. Who showed the 20 somethings that work should not just be a paycheck but more…much more. While some of it might have been taught from peer-to-peer, the first one had to learn it from outside of their generation.
Perhaps we are not complaining about the Millennials, but instead we are criticizing ourselves for the way we raised the. Oh wait, I didn’t raise one. Instead of complaining we should be accepting the fact that they listened. They listened to the grown-ups who would come home every day complaining about their job. They heard adults speak of how much they hated working for a company that did not value them. Their ears took in when parents and teachers alike told them that they could be anything they wanted. They accepted that they truly could follow their heart.
We have expectations for this group, but did anybody ever lay out those demands? Did we ever tell them during the informative years that this is what employers would be expecting? We taught them to be a certain way, and now we complain that they are following the expectations given them, or maybe lack of expectations.
I will admit that television shows did not help. We showed them young people auditioning for a show and weeks later having a record deal. We showed them people earning big money on YouTube. These are things that their generation did not invent. They took the inventions of the ones before and capitalized on it. They were shown that life could be easy and wanted that.
However, in the end, after working with younger people than myself, I am happy to report that these Millennials and Generation Z people are not the norm. The norm are the people no different than their parents. They will work. They will discover. They will move us forward, and I will be happy to walk with them.
Thank you for meandering with me.