So Your Boss Is a Millennial
Baby Boomers will soon give way to Millennials as the largest living generation. And the workforce will surely reflect this demographic change; in fact, it has been estimated that 75% of the workforce will be comprised of Millennials within the next 10 years. As such, it is simply inevitable that your boss could be replaced by a fully digital, spry and highly-informed Millennial. So, what does this mean for you?
Be Prepared to Work Hard – Not Long
One of the largest changes that will befall the corporate world is the notion of the structured work day. The Baby Boomers were champions of obliging employees to have their feet under their desks for a rigid number of hours during any given week. If you weren’t at your desk, you simply weren’t working hard. Given that the technological landscape has evolved tremendously and can allow for remote work, Millennials are approaching work in a more democratic manner. Simply put, Millennials prefer you work hard and smart rather than put in 12-hour days. This is not to say that your boss won’t push you to work long hours, but you’ll only be working for as long as you are reasonably productive.
Increased flexibility
In addition to (potentially) working shorter hours, Millennials also value flexibility higher than nearly any other factor. The ability to have a greater sense of control over one’s personal and professional schedule is a hallmark of the working Millennial. Long gone are the days when an employee feels beholden to an employer for taking an afternoon to go to the bank; your boss approaches work as a flexible and malleable commodity. As long as you work is performed at a high level, it should make no difference if it is being performed from your desk or while fishing. The work-life balance is at the forefront of the modern workplace.
Alternative remuneration
Millennials are approaching their careers with a far greater sense of altruism than previous generations. As such, Millennials are placing less of an emphasis on monetary compensation and are seeking out employers who can foster innovation and make positive contributions to society and the environment. “To attract and retain talent business needs to show Millennials it is innovative and in tune with their world-view,” said Barry Salzberg, CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. According to the UndercoveRecruiter.com, one in three Millennials values “social media freedom” above salary. Whether or not your organization adopts these philosophies in the short-term, you can be fairly certain that most new companies may operate along these principles.
Be prepared to be surprised
Not surprisingly, there are a great deal of stereotypes surrounding Millennials and the attributes they collectively share. Some of the most prevalent charges held against them: they are entitled; they are unwilling to work hard; they are only interested in money. While these characteristics may be true about certain individuals, it is unfair to levy these claims against an entire generation. Furthermore, most of these stereotypes are entirely unfounded. Millennials have graduated into one of the most competitive job markets in recent history and many of them carry large student debts. To wit, the overwhelming majority of new graduates want nothing more than to find a meaningful and equitable job in a field that interests them. The truth is that most Millennials are committed to the idea of working hard, albeit under different conditions that the average Baby Boomer may consider acceptable. Do your best not to judge your Millennial boss before seeing that they are capable of doing.
Be Prepared for a New Boss
While job promiscuity has been on the sharp ascendancy for many years, Millennials are threatening to make the company lifer a thing of the past. A 2013 survey suggests that 45% of companies experience high turnover when hiring Millennials, at a rate of 2:1 when compared to Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers. Furthermore, roughly 60% of Millennials are leaving their respective employers in less than three years and, according to a Deloitte survey, 70% of Millennials envision working for themselves at some point during their careers. It goes without saying that traditional work structures are threatened by these numbers and companies begin to feel insecure with such turnover. If your boss is indeed a Millennial, it may not be unusual for you to find yourself without one within a couple of years.
Every generation looks down at the next and likes to make sweeping generalizations about its principles and values. And my generation is no different. As my parent’s generation slips off into retirement, my children will begin running the world. And they are arriving in historic numbers. Whether you are being managed by a Millennial or managing a team of them, they are sure to bring sweeping changes to how you approach your work but most important of all is how you turn those changes into positive opportunities for career development.
by Joe Issid