Why Millennials Keep Dumping You: An Open Letter to Management - Polidicks

[b]Why Millennials Keep Dumping You: An Open Letter to Management[/b] Via [url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-millennials-keep-dumping-you-open-letter-lisa-earle-mcleod]LinkedIn Pulse[/url] ____________________ [quote][img]http://i.imgur.com/e1y92HI.jpg[/img] [i]This post was cowritten with Elizabeth McLeod, a millennial and cum laude graduate of Boston University, and daughter of Lisa Earle McLeod.[/i] Attracting and keeping top millennial talent is a burning issue for leaders. Millennials are 35% of the workforce. By 2020 they’ll be 46% of the working population. Some of our most successful clients — organizations like G Adventures, Google, and Hootsuite — are filled with millennials who are on fire for their jobs. Yet many organizations struggle to attract, and retain, top millennial talent. One of us, Elizabeth, wrote this letter, to share insights about what top-performing millennials want and how leaders can ignite the “energy of a thousand suns.” An Open Letter to Management: You hired us thinking this one might be different; this one might be in it for the long haul. We’re six months in, giving everything we have, then suddenly, we drop a bomb on you. We’re quitting. We know the stereotypes. Millennials never settle down. We’re drowning in debt for useless degrees. We refuse to put our phone away. We are addicted to lattes even at the expense of our water bill. Our bosses are not wrong about these perceptions. But, pointing to our sometimes irresponsible spending and fear of interpersonal commitment isn’t going to solve your problem. You still need us. We’re the ones who’ve mastered social media, who have the energy of a thousand suns, and who will knock back 5-dollar macchiatos until the job is done perfectly. I’ve worked in corporate America, administrative offices, advertising agencies, and restaurants. I’ve had bosses ranging from 24 to 64. I’ve had bosses I loved, and bosses I didn’t. I’ve seen my peers quit, and I’ve quit a few times myself. Here’s what’s really behind your millennials’ resignation letter.[/quote] Not news per se, but pretty damn interesting note that can resonate on all of us.

[quote]We know the stereotypes. Millennials never settle down. We’re drowning in debt for useless degrees. We refuse to put our phone away. We are addicted to lattes even at the expense of our water bill. Our bosses are not wrong about these perceptions. But, pointing to our sometimes irresponsible spending and fear of interpersonal commitment isn’t going to solve your problem. You still need us. We’re the ones who’ve mastered social media, who have the energy of a thousand suns, and who will knock back 5-dollar macchiatos until the job is done perfectly.[/quote] "We're shit at things and bitch a lot and we know it but you better not acknowledge it to me or we'll post bad things about you on twitter before we reach out ~~hidden potential as the next greatest generation" Nice. No wonder people who actually put their nose to the grind stone, millennial or no, think badly about y'all. Maybe it's because you're actually shit and somehow tricked yourself into thinking that's okay because you're special, somehow, in your own mind.

Though I think this is a little bit [I]too[/I] sassy, as a millennial I can honestly relate to a lot of the points brought up in this. [editline]17th October 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=evilweazel;48919774]"We're shit at things and bitch a lot and we know it but you better not acknowledge it to me or we'll post bad things about you on twitter before we reach out ~~hidden potential as the next greatest generation" Nice. No wonder people who actually put their nose to the grind stone, millennial or no, think badly about y'all. Maybe it's because you're actually shit and somehow tricked yourself into thinking that's okay because you're special, somehow, in your own mind.[/QUOTE] You sound like you've got someone more particular in mind and are projecting what you see/believe onto this article.

[QUOTE=evilweazel;48919774]"We're shit at things and bitch a lot and we know it but you better not acknowledge it to me or we'll post bad things about you on twitter before we reach out ~~hidden potential as the next greatest generation" Nice. No wonder people who actually put their nose to the grind stone, millennial or no, think badly about y'all. Maybe it's because you're actually shit and somehow tricked yourself into thinking that's okay because you're special, somehow, in your own mind.[/QUOTE] If you think you read that without bias, you did not.

It's probably: A) The poor pay with inconsistent hours, to the point you don't know what your hours the next week are going to be until that Sunday night, and never enough hours to move you to full time status and thus benefit you, making you seek insurance out of your own pocket on a marketplace. These jobs also tend to have you work a few nights and then a few days, or will put you on weekends, so that you are going to have a hard time getting another job that won't have conflicting hours or even just having a social life. B) The jobs with no growth potential because they higher in new management instead of promoting staff that are actually familiar with day to day operations, or don't offer actual pay increases to match responsibility increases. C) The jobs that bring you in above average for your field but immediately put you in salary and then make you work 60+ hours a week ( or you'll be let go for being a poor performer ) and maybe possibly offer you a bonus or a matched 401K if they feel they made a lot of money and can't justify not doing it. Being in the 18-30 age group sucks because employers know we're desperate for a job that pays well enough we aren't hemorrhaging money by working there, and will tolerate a lot of abuse in the process, since those useless degrees we were predominately pressured into getting by the education system at large weren't cheap.

So wait is this basically saying "yep we're a bit slow and lazy but we stay the extra hours to get the job done anyways to make up for it and yes we bitch but you need us so suck it"?

To this day I don't know what exactly 'millennials' are supposed to be besides "those damn kids with their new fancy gadgets, back in my day we [...]"

[QUOTE=apierce1289;48919876]So wait is this basically saying "yep we're a bit slow and lazy but we stay the extra hours to get the job done anyways to make up for it and yes we bitch but you need us so suck it"?[/QUOTE] No, not at all.

[QUOTE=proch;48919949]To this day I don't know what exactly 'millennials' are supposed to be besides "those damn kids with their new fancy gadgets, back in my day we [...]"[/QUOTE] People who became of age to enter the workforce after 2000. So pretty much everyone born after 1985. [editline]17th October 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Kogitsune;48919852]It's probably: A) The poor pay with inconsistent hours, to the point you don't know what your hours the next week are going to be until that Sunday night, and never enough hours to move you to full time status and thus benefit you, making you seek insurance out of your own pocket on a marketplace. These jobs also tend to have you work a few nights and then a few days, or will put you on weekends, so that you are going to have a hard time getting another job that won't have conflicting hours or even just having a social life. B) The jobs with no growth potential because they higher in new management instead of promoting staff that are actually familiar with day to day operations, or don't offer actual pay increases to match responsibility increases. C) The jobs that bring you in above average for your field but immediately put you in salary and then make you work 60+ hours a week ( or you'll be let go for being a poor performer ) and maybe possibly offer you a bonus or a matched 401K if they feel they made a lot of money and can't justify not doing it. Being in the 18-30 age group sucks because employers know we're desperate for a job that pays well enough we aren't hemorrhaging money by working there, and will tolerate a lot of abuse in the process, since those useless degrees we were predominately pressured into getting by the education system at large weren't cheap.[/QUOTE] A) the article isn't talking about those kinds of jobs. Millenials do not exclusively work in entry-level retail jobs, only a fraction of millenials do (the youngest, mostly) and as jobs they are stepping stones at the most (in providing work experience). B) management requires knowledge of managerial practices and lots of training for those who have not already been trained; of course they would rather hire someone already trained and knowledged in management. There has actually been debate in academia about making management recognised as a profession, like chartered accountants or medical doctors. I don't know about the second point as promotions do actually happen a lot (and you're probably still thinking about those entry-level retail jobs, which aren't relevant), however performance and responsibility-based reward/remuneration systems are (wrongfully) controversial in many parts of the world because they undermine egalitarianism (trade unions wouldn't like that to happen would they). C) isn't exclusive to millenials, and there always are other jobs available.

[QUOTE=evilweazel;48919774]"We're shit at things and bitch a lot and we know it but you better not acknowledge it to me or we'll post bad things about you on twitter before we reach out ~~hidden potential as the next greatest generation" Nice. No wonder people who actually put their nose to the grind stone, millennial or no, think badly about y'all. Maybe it's because you're actually shit and somehow tricked yourself into thinking that's okay because you're special, somehow, in your own mind.[/QUOTE] I dunno how you got that from the article, lol. What I gathered was far more along the lines of "I don't care about your focus on making money, I care about feeling like I've made a difference to our customers". Like half the article seems to be focused on that particular point.

[QUOTE=Kogitsune;48919852]It's probably: A) The poor pay with inconsistent hours, to the point you don't know what your hours the next week are going to be until that Sunday night, and never enough hours to move you to full time status and thus benefit you, making you seek insurance out of your own pocket on a marketplace. These jobs also tend to have you work a few nights and then a few days, or will put you on weekends, so that you are going to have a hard time getting another job that won't have conflicting hours or even just having a social life. B) The jobs with no growth potential because they higher in new management instead of promoting staff that are actually familiar with day to day operations, or don't offer actual pay increases to match responsibility increases. C) The jobs that bring you in above average for your field but immediately put you in salary and then make you work 60+ hours a week ( or you'll be let go for being a poor performer ) and maybe possibly offer you a bonus or a matched 401K if they feel they made a lot of money and can't justify not doing it. Being in the 18-30 age group sucks because employers know we're desperate for a job that pays well enough we aren't hemorrhaging money by working there, and will tolerate a lot of abuse in the process, since those useless degrees we were predominately pressured into getting by the education system at large weren't cheap.[/QUOTE] Your avatar makes your comment 10x funnier :v:

A lot of the rationale she uses in this article seems rather weak to me, but there's one point I agree with her on. And that's the part about how companies tend to treat their employees like a number rather than a person. If you treat your employees like a cog in a wheel instead of an individual you shouldn't be surprised that they have no loyalty to you, and jump ship the moment they find greener pastures. That's just common sense.

[QUOTE=Melkor;48920129]A lot of the rationale she uses in this article seems rather weak to me, but there's one point I agree with her on. And that's the part about how companies tend to treat their employees like a number rather than a person. If you treat your employees like a cog in a wheel instead of an individual you shouldn't be surprised that they have no loyalty to you, and jump ship the moment they find greener pastures. That's just common sense.[/QUOTE] You're value is not as a person. It's as an employee. Your life is only as valuable as the fiscal value generated by your actions. That's just how we've defined "Worthwhile".

[QUOTE=Melkor;48920129]A lot of the rationale she uses in this article seems rather weak to me, but there's one point I agree with her on. And that's the part about how companies tend to treat their employees like a number rather than a person. If you treat your employees like a cog in a wheel instead of an individual you shouldn't be surprised that they have no loyalty to you, and jump ship the moment they find greener pastures. That's just common sense.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=HumanAbyss;48920270]You're value is not as a person. It's as an employee. Your life is only as valuable as the fiscal value generated by your actions. That's just how we've defined "Worthwhile".[/QUOTE] Meanwhile look at millennial-heavy tech companies like Google and Amazon. Their culture is all about fostering their talent as individuals and allocating them to projects where they feel like they're making a difference. It's totally anathema to traditional management structures, yet it works. I feel like people who read the article as 'we're lazy deal with it' or some variation along those lines are really missing the core point, which is that millennials aren't inherently lazy or disloyal, they just have different expectations going into the job and an employer that doesn't meet those expectations is going to have difficulties. It's not even higher expectations, just different ones, a cultural gap across generations that older members of the workforce should come to terms with and try to understand.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;48919996]B) management requires knowledge of managerial practices and lots of training for those who have not already been trained; of course they would rather hire someone already trained and knowledged in management. There has actually been debate in academia about making management recognised as a profession, like chartered accountants or medical doctors. I don't know about the second point as promotions do actually happen a lot (and you're probably still thinking about those entry-level retail jobs, which aren't relevant), however performance and responsibility-based reward/remuneration systems are (wrongfully) controversial in many parts of the world because they undermine egalitarianism (trade unions wouldn't like that to happen would they). [/QUOTE] I'm in the (dying) paper industry and have gone over two years without so much as a raise. Promotions actually [i]do[/i] not happen a lot and it'd be a decade before I see one. Not at a going-rate sort of thing, I'd actually bet money on it.

[QUOTE=Xanadu;48920551]I'm in the (dying) paper industry and have gone over two years without so much as a raise. Promotions actually [I]do[/I] not happen a lot and it'd be a decade before I see one. Not at a going-rate sort of thing, I'd actually bet money on it.[/QUOTE] Hey, a newspaper buddy! My advice? Try to hop on a niche publication, or move to magazines or web journalism. I'm currently working for a college-focused daily, writing architecture/A&C, and it's one of the best moves I've ever made. I'm actually really excited for the startup culture in print and digital media right now. The millennials are getting tired of the established dailies/weeklies and the big monolithic publishing corporations, and they're changing it. My city's got something called the Mercury, which is a non-profit local interest weekly, and it's fantastic. They make a point to pay their writers and journalists really well, because they got stiffed by E.W. Scripps for years. And that's not even considering things like The Awl, which are absolutely insane and filled with creativity. As journalists, we're remarkably versatile. Even if the newspaper industry overall is dying, we're finding ways of keeping the best parts alive.

[QUOTE=catbarf;48920498]Meanwhile look at millennial-heavy tech companies like Google and Amazon. Their culture is all about fostering their talent as individuals and allocating them to projects where they feel like they're making a difference. It's totally anathema to traditional management structures, yet it works. I feel like people who read the article as 'we're lazy deal with it' or some variation along those lines are really missing the core point, which is that millennials aren't inherently lazy or disloyal, they just have different expectations going into the job and an employer that doesn't meet those expectations is going to have difficulties. It's not even higher expectations, just different ones, a cultural gap across generations that older members of the workforce should come to terms with and try to understand.[/QUOTE] No that's what I understand. It's that I don't have a job at google, and I don't work in a field that google is going to hire for, so I am not a person who gets to experience that job culture. I'll have to go create that in my own industry, which I don't see happening as I'm not likely to overturn any giants. I do have different expectations. And employers other than the special ones you mention and surely some other ones, want to tell you to shove it, and get with their expectations.

[QUOTE=woolio1;48920659]Hey, a newspaper buddy! My advice? Try to hop on a niche publication, or move to magazines or web journalism. I'm currently working for a college-focused daily, writing architecture/A&C, and it's one of the best moves I've ever made. I'm actually really excited for the startup culture in print and digital media right now. The millennials are getting tired of the established dailies/weeklies and the big monolithic publishing corporations, and they're changing it. My city's got something called the Mercury, which is a non-profit local interest weekly, and it's fantastic. They make a point to pay their writers and journalists really well, because they got stiffed by E.W. Scripps for years. And that's not even considering things like The Awl, which are absolutely insane and filled with creativity.[/QUOTE] I don't write though, I do bindery labor and print and you'd be hard-pressed to find a place that isn't a sweatshop so I got lucky. My best bet is just having two straight years efficient press experience and running with it out of state, but still, try finding another bindery that doesn't suck to work in

[QUOTE=Xanadu;48920704]I don't write though, I do bindery labor and print and you'd be hard-pressed to find a place that isn't a sweatshop so I got lucky. My best bet is just having two straight years efficient press experience and running with it out of state, but still, try finding another bindery that doesn't suck to work in[/QUOTE] Oh... Geez. That's terrible. You really are in a dying industry.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;48920660]No that's what I understand. It's that I don't have a job at google, and I don't work in a field that google is going to hire for, so I am not a person who gets to experience that job culture. I'll have to go create that in my own industry, which I don't see happening as I'm not likely to overturn any giants. I do have different expectations. And employers other than the special ones you mention and surely some other ones, want to tell you to shove it, and get with their expectations.[/QUOTE] Sorry, I could have phrased my post better- I wasn't trying to call you out or anything, and you're right that there are a lot of companies still firmly stuck in the 'old world' attitude of management. I just wanted to highlight that there are companies actively courting millennials and they're doing a phenomenal job in contrast, showing that it's not just that millennials are lazy and difficult as some allege. [QUOTE=Xanadu;48920704]I don't write though, I do bindery labor and print and you'd be hard-pressed to find a place that isn't a sweatshop so I got lucky. My best bet is just having two straight years efficient press experience and running with it out of state, but still, try finding another bindery that doesn't suck to work in[/QUOTE] I work for the federal government and our print shop has gone from four presses to just one over the past few years, but they've been working hard to make sure nobody is out of a job. Perhaps consider a job in DC? There are loads of agencies still producing reports and publications on paper, and I doubt you'll find better job security anywhere else.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;48919996]and there always are other jobs available.[/QUOTE] no

[QUOTE=Kogitsune;48919852]It's probably: A) The poor pay with inconsistent hours, to the point you don't know what your hours the next week are going to be until that Sunday night, and never enough hours to move you to full time status and thus benefit you, making you seek insurance out of your own pocket on a marketplace. These jobs also tend to have you work a few nights and then a few days, or will put you on weekends, so that you are going to have a hard time getting another job that won't have conflicting hours or even just having a social life.[/QUOTE] A lot of entry level jobs have "on-call shifts' where you are expected to come in on a moment's notice. No pay for the time that you are left waiting for a response. Employers are capable of making demands of their employees now which would have been impossible before for lack of an enabling technology (cell phones). I think we will need to see some sort of reform in the coming years.

[QUOTE=Kogitsune;48919852]A) The poor pay with inconsistent hours, to the point you don't know what your hours the next week are going to be until that Sunday night, and never enough hours to move you to full time status and thus benefit you, making you seek insurance out of your own pocket on a marketplace. These jobs also tend to have you work a few nights and then a few days, or will put you on weekends, so that you are going to have a hard time getting another job that won't have conflicting hours or even just having a social life.[/QUOTE] entry level schedules are a fucking nightmare time for some anecdote action i have to close the restaurant tonight, which means i'll prolly be there until 1 or 2 AM which i'm fine with, but i'm also scheduled to open the restaurant tomorrow, meaning i'll get home by 2 AM at the earliest, leaving me with <6 hours max leisure time until i need to be up again at 8 tomorrow morning should be illegal tbh

Entry level in my field means your a glorified shift manager for most companies making sure workers don't screw everything up, I really don't want to go down that route but luckally I can move out of that after a while [editline]17th October 2015[/editline] Like seriously every company hiring engineers is going to want them to be process engineers

[QUOTE=Lord of Ears;48924317]entry level schedules are a fucking nightmare time for some anecdote action i have to close the restaurant tonight, which means i'll prolly be there until 1 or 2 AM which i'm fine with, but i'm also scheduled to open the restaurant tomorrow, meaning i'll get home by 2 AM at the earliest, leaving me with <6 hours max leisure time until i need to be up again at 8 tomorrow morning should be illegal tbh[/QUOTE] It should be. In my first job I worked in a warehouse, employed directly by them and I done a shift where I worked until 12am or something and they expected me to be in again the next by 9am but by law there should be 11 hours between shifts. I rolled in at 12pm and asked my manager what to do and he had the right arse with me and told me to go to the warehouse office so they could assign me something to do. [URL]https://www.gov.uk/rest-breaks-work/overview[/URL] I'll never be a slave to working hours that I'm not supposed to be doing. I value my free time more then earning money.

[QUOTE]Our bosses are not wrong about these perceptions.[/QUOTE] oh fuck off [editline]17th October 2015[/editline] hoo boy this sure smells like an elite daily article

All I've gathered from this 'entitled millenials' bollocks is that everyone's an arsehole. Also, there's a minority of an older generation out there that resent the younger generation and a minority of the younger generation that resent the older generation. Still I've been on the receiving end of all that lazy, entitled and selfish crap and it's horrible. I feel like most of the older generation just refuse to admit mental health is a thing.

It's sorta funny because this is the exact reason why Bernie is so high in the polls. People, especially the younger generation are fed up with the older suits making the calls with no regard to the human condition. People are tired of working for people who make 5-6* as much as they do, all the meanwhile being called lazy and ungrateful for getting to work for them. It's not just that, though, employers look at employee wages to cut costs and will nickel and dime you out of any wage they decide you don't deserve. Prior to the 2000s work was much more relaxed, but now people are driven to the bone, and work to the point where they don't get any sleep, or even worse, time with their families. There's not many other options, and in the course of wanting to end up with jobs that aren't so sorry in regards to the treatment of workers, people go to school. There really needs to be some serious reform for jobs, especially in regards to shifts and the pay gap.

[QUOTE=Kogitsune;48919852]It's probably: A) The poor pay with inconsistent hours, to the point you don't know what your hours the next week are going to be until that Sunday night, and never enough hours to move you to full time status and thus benefit you, making you seek insurance out of your own pocket on a marketplace. These jobs also tend to have you work a few nights and then a few days, or will put you on weekends, so that you are going to have a hard time getting another job that won't have conflicting hours or even just having a social life. B) The jobs with no growth potential because they higher in new management instead of promoting staff that are actually familiar with day to day operations, or don't offer actual pay increases to match responsibility increases. C) The jobs that bring you in above average for your field but immediately put you in salary and then make you work 60+ hours a week ( or you'll be let go for being a poor performer ) and maybe possibly offer you a bonus or a matched 401K if they feel they made a lot of money and can't justify not doing it. Being in the 18-30 age group sucks because employers know we're desperate for a job that pays well enough we aren't hemorrhaging money by working there, and will tolerate a lot of abuse in the process, since those useless degrees we were predominately pressured into getting by the education system at large weren't cheap.[/QUOTE] or in other words, "me and my friends when facing the world of jobs"

I expected this article to be dumb but I agree with the points. At my job I'm constantly surrounded by people that really don't give a shit and mostly tow the line, and it irritates me so much. My job doesn't lack as much on the other points (though really I don't make a difference in anything at all even ROI), but lazy peers I cannot tolerate at all