I’ve been told I think like a Millennial and that I ‘totally get Millennials’. As a Boomer, I am very proud of this accomplishment. It’s not easy for people my age to think Millenniall-ly, I had to work at it.
Do you think like a Millennial? Here are some simple tests:
1. Is work something you ‘go to’ or something you just do? Younger workers view work as something you do — anywhere, any time. They are experts at time shifting, asynchronous communication, and multi-tasking. They see no reason why they can’t use Facebook at work and take work calls at home. It’s just life.
2. When faced with a problem, is your first resort to check the manual or just dive right in? Gen Y knows they can find out the answer to anything anytime anywhere. Their first response to a question they don’t know is to Google it. Lack of information is never a problem, because they know how to find out.
3. Do you prefer face to face communication or electronic? Gen Y uses all the tools, email, IM, text, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and more. If it can be handled electronically, why should we meet?
4. When you describe Millennials as ‘entitled’ do you mean it as a criticism or a compliment? What many Boomers think of as unjustified arrogance, Millennials believe is earned.
5. Do you feel loyal to the company or to your co-workers? Millennials have no sense of loyalty to a firm, but they do feel passionate about their team. They are collaborative to a fault.
6. Are you striving to make a mark or to make a difference? Gen Y’s core value is to fight for what they believe in. They want to do well by doing good, not wait until they’ve done well to do good.
7. Do you laugh at or with Ryan Howard on the Office? Ryan is caricature of what Gen X thinks of Millennials — overly technology laden, surly, and arrogant. Yet Ryan’s humor is some of the most subtle on the show (in fact many of the episodes were written by BJ Novak who plays Ryan). Ex: “I miss the days when there was only one office party I didn’t want to go to”.
8. Do you embrace or distrust the term ‘Millennial’? Millennials really hate being labeled at all. They chafe at the expectation that just because they are young, they are totally up on all things ‘Millennial’. They prefer not to be thought of as part of a generation, but as an individual.
9. Do you think of a day as 12 hours or 24 hours? Millennials think of time as a resource to be allocated as needed, not by a clock.
10. Is your glass half empty or half full? Millennials are notoriously civic-minded and optimistic. It’s no coincidence that Obama and Pepsi both made optimism cornerstones of their brands. No matter that the average Millennial carries $24,000 in college debt and is most likely underemployed. They see a better world coming.
