I can't handle how they all have the workplace equivalent of male refrigerator blindness. "Hey, so that thing you asked me to research? I looked in the one place you suggested and it wasn't there. So, I'm going to lunch."
NO MOFO. KEEP LOOKING UNTIL YOU FIND THE ANSWER OR COULD RELIABLY DEFEND TO ME, OUR BOSS, AND RBG HERSELF THAT YOU HAVE LEFT NOT A SINGLE FUCKING STONE UNTURNED. Then you come back to me. With some actual work product. Also, when I say your answer doesn't feel right, I am basing that on experience and hard work. Not my chakras. So respect it and listen when I say try again.
This made me lol, because I have experienced this so much lately. I'm technically a millennial, on the cusp, but don't relate to it much. I'm in management and work with a large amount of younger millennials. 80% of them are fantastic, have a great work ethic, appreciate mentorship, etc. and are not like the article describes the generation. The education is very rigorous and it's a "workaholic" industry, with a high dropout rate early on, so that may be why I don't see these characteristics as much in my field.
However, this is my biggest issue with the other 20%. I'm always willing to answer questions, but it is so frustrating when they can't find solutions for things that I can find in 30 seconds by googling, checking our intranet or using common sense. If I give you a task, it shouldn't take me longer to help you than to do it myself.
I also have a few special snowflakes. Our job encompasses tasks A-Z and they are absolutely fantastic at D, E and F so somehow they have managed to skate along with only those skills for years and get great performance reviews. I've been with the company for less than 2 years and I was flabbergasted by this. It may be company specific because I haven't had quite this experienced elsewhere. There are definitely other colleagues who value D, E and F so much they don't care, but it makes it very difficult on everyone when there are no D, E, or F tasks to do and we desperately need help with X, Y and Z, but they are completely incapable. I agree they don't need to be an expert or the best at it, but I'd like them to at least be able to figure it out with help, and I feel like they have no desire to learn (like they don't want to do it so they are going to keep doing a crappy job and hope nobody asks them again). I have staff with 1-2 years who can manage the tasks with help, so I can't justify someone with 6-8 years being incapable or unwilling to learn.
One other issue we've had is dress code. We are business casual and creative is fine, but we are supposed to be client appropriate. Our last round of interns had so many complaints, which led to HR talks, which seemed to do absolutely nothing. I don't even know how some of them could have done their jobs with as short of skirts and low cut shirts they had on (it seems so uncomfortable). One had the nerve to tell my boss she couldn't afford any other clothes, but we pay our interns decently and she was going out to lunch with people almost daily.
There are some things the generation has started to change within the workplace that I really appreciate, like flexibility, candor with superiors and companies that are willing to do more for candidates in terms of working environment, benefits and professional development, in order to attract top talent and care about company culture. However, I think companies need to have boundaries for the sake of their employees and the company's success.
I am laughing here because I have seen all of these negative characteristics in colleagues who are older than millenials (X all the way to Boomers). Especially the googling.
Can we all just agree to never hold a laptop like that? It's giving me palpitations.
Lol, I first came in to see the picture (I've come to find millennial rants tiresome) and until I noticed the hover board that could be my work. Maybe on a Friday. I've been known to hold my laptop like that.
Is it normal to need a reason to take a day off? I guess I'm just confused why he would need to tell his boss why he was taking the day off in the first place.
Didn't he take like a whole week? I do feel like that warrants more than "hey I'm going to be out all next week."
I dunno... I've always worked places where if you want/need the time off, you just request it off no questions asked or no explanation offered.
I realize this may not be standard, which is why I asked.
How do these characteristics play out in fields that are not office based? I work in education but I'm not a teacher. I haven't noticed many issues with millennial teachers when working along side them. I actually believe a lot of them are better teachers because they're more flexible and creative than the older teachers. However, I'm not in grade level meetings and staff meetings so admin and experienced teachers may feel differently.
In my specific department, the boomers need a lot more hand holding and step by step directions than the Gen xers and millennials. The boomers can't keep up with the technology and seem to have a harder time keeping up with the current research. They are exhausting.
So, as usual, the NYT has found the worst example of Millennials in the workplace that they could.
I'm probably one of the oldest people on my team. I think there are....5 people? who are older than me - most only by a 1-3 years. The rest are firmly in the Millennial camp. Youngest is 22. I'd say this demographic also stands true in our Creative department. Less so in accounting, finance, and moderately so in HR and Account Services.
This is a thing that I see a lot. Not the hoverboard, per se, though I totally hold my laptop like that and people do go zipping thru the hallway on razor scooters. But I think I've mentioned the free beer here, the regular parties and happy hours, dog days, etc.. People do generally roll in when they want (I'd say 90% of my devs don't show up before 9am), we have a flexible WFH policy (which can be summed up as "don't abuse it"), people have been known to head to the movies mid-day (with manager approval/notification), there are definitely nerf guns and cube wars (last week we turned one of our devs cube into a house with cardboard boxes, trash bins, a Kirkland Vodka bottle...), and so forth. The atmosphere is very relaxed, very informal. The motto is "Work hard, play hard." and most people take both seriously.
There is definitely a level of informality in the hierarchy as well, though less so perhaps the further from the digital dept you get. And that does play out in Manager to Employee relationships. But that's...how it works here? I mean, people aren't telling their bosses to fuck off (at least not seriously), but there's not at atmosphere of "I'm your boss, ergo I deserve respect and all my ideas are gold-pressed latinum." We're trying to solve problems and come up with cutting edge technological solutions in a generally vastly compressed timeline. Nobody has time for that bullshit.
I've also never had a problem with drive and directive. I'm a very "hands off" PM. I expect my devs and creatives to be told "We need to produce X by Y date" and then they go do it (we're agile, so we have twice-a-week 5-15 minute "stand ups" and that's about it). And they always deliver. The only one I've had to hand hold is not from the US, so there's other issues at play there. This may be peculiar to digital, though, where most people are already problem-solvers by virtue of their job.
I highly doubt this sort of work environment would be acceptable everywhere. I can't see anyone at my husband's employer zipping thru the hallway on a scooter, regardless of where they fall on the generational divide. So it's less of a generational thing and more of a work culture thing. You want to foster a collaborative, dynamic environment where people can feel free to essentially do as they please provided they get their shit done? You do you.
I dunno... I've always worked places where if you want/need the time off, you just request it off no questions asked or no explanation offered.
I realize this may not be standard, which is why I asked.
Oh I see. No I don't think that's standard, especially for more than one day off.
Ugh, that sounds terrible. If I want to take a week off to loaf on my couch & eat Cheetos, that's none of my boss's business. If I have the time available, I should be able to take it without explaining myself.
I mean, yeah, I'd I'm going in vacation, I'm probably going to be excited and talk about it, so they'll probably know, but it feels gross to need to justify my vacation days.
I am laughing here because I have seen all of these negative characteristics in colleagues who are older than millenials (X all the way to Boomers). Especially the googling.
I definitely agree with this. I also graduated in 2008 and dont take my job for granted. Neither do any of my friends. I'm sure this is somewhat industry dependent though, as my friends are in traditional professions like lawyer, banker, doctor, teacher, accountant, etc. I only know one person in tech and she does sales.
I also agree with this. At least for myself. I'm not ever going to be disrespectful to my Boomer boss and I do appreciate that she has much more experience than me, but I'm also not afraid to speak my mind in a diplomatic way.
I supervise interns and to be honest my only issue with them is that they don't fucking reply to emails! I had one intern in particular who was wonderful when he was at work, but he almost didn't get the internship because he waited like 6 weeks to respond when I offered it to him via email. Non of the interns I supervise have been American though, so I'm sure that makes things somewhat different.
This is one criticism of millennials that I find to be complete accurate. They whole, "I don't do emails, send me a text/other social media tool". Um, no dude. At the very least, you need to follow the 24 hours to answer an email policy, and other communication systems we've agreed upon during training. I'm not going to snapchat you. I'm your boss.
24 hours is reasonable. I irritated a volunteer coordinator because I check my personal email once a day- when I get home from work. If you need something sooner, text me, and if possible I'll do it on my lunch break, and if you email after about 7pm text me and I'll check my email and get back to you. Otherwise, I'll respond tomorrow- when I check my email. The fact that it was a volunteer position did add to the irritation. If I'm waiting for an email that's a different situation, but I'm not checking my email every hour on the off chance that you might email me. If constant email access is so important to you, you should have covered it in the volunteer posting, our phone conversations to see if it was a good fit, and/or the orientation.
Work email is completely different, but I don't have access at home, so it's solely during business hours- where I check it every 30min or so.
Oh I see. No I don't think that's standard, especially for more than one day off.
Ugh, that sounds terrible. If I want to take a week off to loaf on my couch & eat Cheetos, that's none of my boss's business. If I have the time available, I should be able to take it without explaining myself.
I mean, yeah, I'd I'm going in vacation, I'm probably going to be excited and talk about it, so they'll probably know, but it feels gross to need to justify my vacation days.
I pretty much just told my boss I was taking next week off. Like, not asking permission. Telling. Like "Hey, I'm flying to texas in a week. See ya."
Granted, he's OOO too, so he was like "Cool. Where are you going? Need anyone to cover anything for you?"
I dunno... I've always worked places where if you want/need the time off, you just request it off no questions asked or no explanation offered.
I realize this may not be standard, which is why I asked.
Oh I see. No I don't think that's standard, especially for more than one day off.
It also depends on how much notice he was giving for his time off. If I need a week off in June, it's no problem and there's no expectation for me to specifically state what it's for. But if I want a week off starting tomorrow (or today), I would feel weird asking without some sort of "reason" for the lack of notice.
I think I'm really puzzled as to why Treehouse dude just didn't take some vacation days? Shit, I use mental health days all the time. It's my sick and vacation time, so use the days when you feel burned out. Why lie? I'm sitting on dang near 35 days right now. You best believe I use my vacation time when I need a day or two off.
Is it normal to need a reason to take a day off? I guess I'm just confused why he would need to tell his boss why he was taking the day off in the first place.
If I'd kept reading, I could have just said DITTO.
Oh I see. No I don't think that's standard, especially for more than one day off.
It also depends on how much notice he was giving for his time off. If I need a week off in June, it's no problem and there's no expectation for me to specifically state what it's for. But if I want a week off starting tomorrow (or today), I would feel weird asking without some sort of "reason" for the lack of notice.
"I'm taking vacation in June." "Ok. What for?" "Vacation."
Ugh, that sounds terrible. If I want to take a week off to loaf on my couch & eat Cheetos, that's none of my boss's business. If I have the time available, I should be able to take it without explaining myself.
I mean, yeah, I'd I'm going in vacation, I'm probably going to be excited and talk about it, so they'll probably know, but it feels gross to need to justify my vacation days.
I pretty much just told my boss I was taking next week off. Like, not asking permission. Telling. Like "Hey, I'm flying to texas in a week. See ya."
Granted, he's OOO too, so he was like "Cool. Where are you going? Need anyone to cover anything for you?"
That's pretty much how things are where I work, too. The exceptions are probably if you have to leave suddenly mid-day. Like "hey, the kid has a fever. May not be here tomorrow, either." Or if you're brand new and still in training. *coughnewmilennialchickcough*
Of course the people featured are entitled but this highlights a different problem as well. Companies wanted you to dedicate your life to them. If you work in a place with a healthy life balance, you do not feel a need to lie to take time off. This article tries framing it as a problem with milleniels when the real problem is complete lack of work life balance.
It has also been my experience that no matter your age, you do enjoy a little positive feedback. Since the article focused on young people, they do not have a lot of life experience and want to know they are doing as expected. Newer employees need more praise until they have a good idea of what level of production and quality is expected.
Didn't he take like a whole week? I do feel like that warrants more than "hey I'm going to be out all next week."
I dunno... I've always worked places where if you want/need the time off, you just request it off no questions asked or no explanation offered.
I realize this may not be standard, which is why I asked.
Honestly, I'm here. If I've earned my vacation, it's really not your business how I spend it. If I want to sit on the couch, or garden, or build a tree-house, I don't have to justify why I'm taking vacation days. Especially if there is no policy indicating that I need to say why I'm taking it.
I dunno... I've always worked places where if you want/need the time off, you just request it off no questions asked or no explanation offered.
I realize this may not be standard, which is why I asked.
Honestly, I'm here. If I've earned my vacation, it's really not your business how I spend it. If I want to sit on the couch, or garden, or build a tree-house, I don't have to justify why I'm taking vacation days. Especially if there is no policy indicating that I need to say why I'm taking it.
I'm going to guess it's a situation like a PP suggested, the employee is either out of vacation time or didn't want to use his vacation time so he lied to use bereavement leave or something like that.
I dunno... I've always worked places where if you want/need the time off, you just request it off no questions asked or no explanation offered.
I realize this may not be standard, which is why I asked.
Honestly, I'm here. If I've earned my vacation, it's really not your business how I spend it. If I want to sit on the couch, or garden, or build a tree-house, I don't have to justify why I'm taking vacation days. Especially if there is no policy indicating that I need to say why I'm taking it.
Exactly. And I think this is less of a generational thing than it is an American thing. Western Europeans are completely unapologetic about going on vacation and completely 100% disconnecting because they are ON VACATION.
Of course the people featured are entitled but this highlights a different problem as well. Companies wanted you to dedicate your life to them. If you work in a place with a healthy life balance, you do not feel a need to lie to take time off. This article tries framing it as a problem with milleniels when the real problem is complete lack of work life balance.
It has also been my experience that no matter your age, you do enjoy a little positive feedback. Since the article focused on young people, they do not have a lot of life experience and want to know they are doing as expected. Newer employees need more praise until they have a good idea of what level of production and quality is expected.
Yes!
I had a boss once that had the attitude that you know what you're good at, he knows what you're good at, so we're only going to talk about areas for improvement.
I was extremely confident in my abilities and knew I was really good at my job. But it was soul-crushing to never ever hear that I was good at something.
Post by cookiemdough on Mar 21, 2016 10:07:36 GMT -5
If he claimed bereavement I assume he did not give a lot of notice for taking the week off. It is not like you sit on a funeral that far in advance. He should have just taken a day or something if he needed to recharge, but yes I would be annoyed if someone dropped a week vacation on me with no notice. I will never challenge what you do with your earned time, but there are things I do to ensure that things continue to run smoothly and do not negatively impact deadlines if someone is taking a week etc.
Also we generally do cards, food, flowers for losses. That is a shitty thing to lie about and it makes me question his overall maturity and judgment.
Honestly, I'm here. If I've earned my vacation, it's really not your business how I spend it. If I want to sit on the couch, or garden, or build a tree-house, I don't have to justify why I'm taking vacation days. Especially if there is no policy indicating that I need to say why I'm taking it.
Exactly. And I think this is less of a generational thing than it is an American thing. Western Europeans are completely unapologetic about going on vacation and completely 100% disconnecting because they are ON VACATION.
I wonder about this being a cultural thing. I get real irritated about having to check in with work when I'm out on vacation.
The millennials I work with aren't bad. The only thing that I've really noticed is that none of them know how to work a traditional phone system. I shared last week that the newest of the baby millennials didn't know how to dial long distance from a landline. It's things like that which catch me off guard when dealing with millennials.
Exactly. And I think this is less of a generational thing than it is an American thing. Western Europeans are completely unapologetic about going on vacation and completely 100% disconnecting because they are ON VACATION.
Yes!!!!
I have people telling me they never use all of their vacation. Whaaaaat?
I use all of my 4 weeks and my 2 personal holidays. I'm counting down to 2020 which is when I get my 5th week. See ya suckas!!!
Also there could be an equivalent article about Boomers who when you IM them want to pick up the phone and have an in depth conversation. No just tell me yes or effing no by IM! My headset isn't connected anyway because the only one calling me is you!
Or the constant wonder at my being by able to open a new program and make reasonable products within a few hours of playing around with it.
And boomers are the worst about micromanaging me. Come the fuck on!
And stop telling me you are giving me advice like in your daughter. I'm not your daughter I'm your work colleague. Treat me with the respect that you would treat a man your age.
Signed tail end of Gen-Xer
OH MY GOD YES. That needs to be a thing. Or the Boomer who emails me, calls me to tell me they sent me an email, and then walks down to my desk to talk about the email they sent. STAHP!
"Boomers unable to cope with technological advances in the workplace."
Exactly. And I think this is less of a generational thing than it is an American thing. Western Europeans are completely unapologetic about going on vacation and completely 100% disconnecting because they are ON VACATION.
Yes!!!!
I have people telling me they never use all of their vacation. Whaaaaat?
I use all of my 4 weeks and my 2 personal holidays. I'm counting down to 2020 which is when I get my 5th week. See ya suckas!!!
Also there could be an equivalent article about Boomers who when you IM them want to pick up the phone and have an in depth conversation. No just tell me yes or effing no by IM! My headset isn't connected anyway because the only one calling me is you!
Or the constant wonder at my being by able to open a new program and make reasonable products within a few hours of playing around with it.
And boomers are the worst about micromanaging me. Come the fuck on!
And stop telling me you are giving me advice like in your daughter. I'm not your daughter I'm your work colleague. Treat me with the respect that you would treat a man your age.
Signed tail end of Gen-Xer
Don't get me started on them. I would love to work with all Xers. I guess I prefer boomers to millennials, but NOT BY MUCH.
Exactly. And I think this is less of a generational thing than it is an American thing. Western Europeans are completely unapologetic about going on vacation and completely 100% disconnecting because they are ON VACATION.
I wonder about this being a cultural thing. I get real irritated about having to check in with work when I'm out on vacation.
I just don't. My voicemail and email out of office both say basically "I'm out, and I don't have access to my email."
I did, once, give a coworker my cell number to text me if one very specific thing happened so I could send a quick email. But that was really a one-time thing that is unlikely to repeat itself.
I have people telling me they never use all of their vacation. Whaaaaat?
I use all of my 4 weeks and my 2 personal holidays. I'm counting down to 2020 which is when I get my 5th week. See ya suckas!!!
Also there could be an equivalent article about Boomers who when you IM them want to pick up the phone and have an in depth conversation. No just tell me yes or effing no by IM! My headset isn't connected anyway because the only one calling me is you!
Or the constant wonder at my being by able to open a new program and make reasonable products within a few hours of playing around with it.
And boomers are the worst about micromanaging me. Come the fuck on!
And stop telling me you are giving me advice like in your daughter. I'm not your daughter I'm your work colleague. Treat me with the respect that you would treat a man your age.
Signed tail end of Gen-Xer
OH MY GOD YES. That needs to be a thing. Or the Boomer who emails me, calls me to tell me they sent me an email, and then walks down to my desk to talk about the email they sent. STAHP!
"Boomers unable to cope with technological advances in the workplace."
GET ON THAT NYT!
My boss does this. "Did you read the e-mail I just sent?" "The one you sent 20 seconds ago?" "Yes."
I wonder about this being a cultural thing. I get real irritated about having to check in with work when I'm out on vacation.
I just don't. My voicemail and email out of office both say basically "I'm out, and I don't have access to my email."
I did, once, give a coworker my cell number to text me if one very specific thing happened so I could send a quick email. But that was really a one-time thing that is unlikely to repeat itself.
Again, this is why I love cruises. I can't be reached. Because I have totally been on the road for trips and my phone is like Hotline Bling. (ask summer, because she was like WHY THESE FOLKS CALLING YOU ON FRIDAY AND YOU ARE OUT OF TOWN)
And I'm being hyper vigilant about prepping everyone for my upcoming vacations. Y'all. I won't be here, so I need y'all to know how to do all the things because I know the folks I work with and there answer will be that you can't take vacation on X days.