The Secret to Immersed Millennials

Online, we see comments and articles saying things like, “Lazy Millennials” or “Entitled Millennials”, nearly every day. For some reason, the boomers think Millennials are the laziest generation to ever exist and that we refuse to work hard.

That isn’t true.

Millennials are not lazy; however, we are stubborn. We have seen how big business has abandoned the people who work there (just think of the companies that went belly up to avoid paying pensions) or near nationwide pay stagnation, and the fall of the middle class.

We read and see more information every day than any age group has since the dawn of time. We get exposed to new and challenging ideas by the minute, and it has turned us into a group that only wants to be surrounded by the best and brightest because that is the sort of stimulation we get online.

So, here is how you engage this group that is willing to risk it all, to live on the knife-edge that is new world of tech.

You recognize them- Unlike what you might think we didn’t all get participation ribbons, and we aren’t all delicate flowers. But we have read enough psychology journals to know that an appreciative boss makes a better leader and creates more engaged employees and a more productive team.

You challenge them- Rote tasks kill us; we desire ways to automate and create more efficient systems. Ask us what we feel we can do in order to contribute more-just showing us that will encourage us to do more every day.

Make it a team game- Most of us played team sports and we loved that dynamic, we don’t want to be cogs. We want to be an individual that contributes to a win. If you can figure out how to make a challenge into something cooperative we can discover how to work together to get over it.

Focus on our learning- We, as a group, desire to learn and gain new skills. Every job has downtime on occasion, reward us for reaching that downtime at work with more knowledge and a means to grow our value.

Make sure we understand the big picture- We hate feeling like machines, so if you want us to be a successful part of a project make sure we know what is going on project wide.

Millennials are the first generation that was born allergic to boredom. Downtime has always been spent with some sort of new challenge or thing to learn on the computer. So if you want to keep us happy, motivated, and energetic keep us busy with meaningful work.