In my final semester of college, I took an online Career Development class to prepare me for job searching post-graduation. The last segment of the course was on how millennials are viewed in the workplace by older co-workers. The professor posted two videos; one was a SNL skit basically showcasing the generation’s arrogance and inability to take any form of criticism, as well as another video for employers of millennials on how to deal with the 20-somethings that was borderline ridiculous.
And, I confess, truthful.
Like most people, I spend a lot of time on YouTube. Before book reviews and other bookish content became more prominent on the site, I watched a lot of people’s daily vlogs. Eventually I stopped, because it became obvious to me that some of these “vloggers” found their lives to be totally exciting when, in reality, it was no different from my own uninteresting day-to-day life.
On the millennials’ inability to take criticism, I understand why older generations say that. Children now are rewarded just for showing up, even if they never actually did any work or took on any big responsibility. I know this happened with me. I was never good in math, but I always did my homework and turned it in on time. And I definitely never asked or expected my parents to do it for me. But my math teachers gave me passing grades on my effort alone. In hindsight, that might not have been a good thing for them to do.
While it is wonderful that parents and teachers want to preserve a child’s developing self-esteem by rewarding them for good deeds, constructive criticism is just as healthy as praise. No one likes to hear negativity directed at him or her, but millennials especially don’t take it well. I have noticed in many people my age that if a friend kindly suggests that something he or she did could be improved, the other person will immediately shut down and refuse to admit any mistake. Or they will always think themselves to be right and everyone else is wrong.
But, in the defense of my friends and myself, not all millennials are like that.
I did not complete four years of college, get inducted to two national honor societies, and graduate Magna Cum Laude just by “showing up.” I never expected these things to be handed to me. I studied hard in my classes, and I often worked two on-campus jobs every semester. I was taught to never demand things I didn’t earn. Beggars can’t be choosers, but I know my worth.
Millennials are also criticized to want a social life as much as a work life, if not more so. This is true. I have seen people I know deliberately blow off work or classes to go to a concert or party. Though one professor I had actually applauded millennials for this. She said we strived to have a balance between work and personal life, something her generation lacked. I personally would never put socializing ahead of making money to support myself so I can have the kind of social life I want, but I would also never put work ahead of my health.
I would also never expect to be promoted over someone who has worked longer at a company than I have, such as one of the workers did on the CBS sitcom The Great Indoors, which portrays the stereotypical millennials in today’s workforce. I have not witnessed this myself, but if it is being shown on TV or in a YouTube video played in training sessions, then it apparently must be happening somewhere. Knowing that really bothers me.
If things like this are truly happening, then people like myself are in trouble. We will be stereotyped once we walk through the door and sit in our cubicle. Our bosses will have unfair expectations of us because we were born in the 90s. They will expect all of us to be delicate little creatures that cannot be told we are doing something wrong and never learn from our mistakes. They will see us as nothing but children needing to be coddled when we desperately want to prove ourselves as adults. We will be laughed at, though not to our faces in good-natured teasing.
If you are a millennial and you think you deserve a promotion for simply showing up to work every day, get off your high horse. Just because you printed something out for your boss or you know your way around social media, does not mean you deserve to be a Junior Associate. If you want a promotion and higher salary, you work for it. You work all the way up until you can’t go up any further.
To the rest of us—let us show the older generations that not all millennials are overgrown, entitled children. That we are hard workers, we know our worth as individuals, and we can still teach them as much as they can teach us.
