Millennials…..God Help Us.
A while ago, one of my younger brothers (a VP at Qualcomm) sent me an excerpt from a body of work intended to help the Qualcomm folks deal with this hideous mob of petulant children infiltrating the workforce - The Millennials. It contains summarized descriptions of generational characteristics from the WWII era to present day. We start with The Veterans (The Greatest Generation!) and we slide slowly downhill from there with Baby Boomers, faster still with Generation X, and then we really start picking up speed to start swirling down the toilet bowl at a breakneck pace with The Millennials! Here’s the PDF - read it and weep:
http://onyxconsulting.com/docs/WorkforceGenerations.pdf
After Charles and I read this over, we exchanged a look of amazement. Here were all the observations we’d been voicing to each other regarding many of the interviews we’d conducted over the years. It also illustrated a commonality amongst the bad hires we’d made when a “true” millennial slipped into Onyx under the wire. This prompted me to learn more about this plague upon our nation. Here’s another article that accurately describes our observations of these bed-wetters:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml
The more I learned (and confirmed), the more I realized the challenges it foretold for our own growth. The pdf from my brother attempts to focus on the positive attributes of the millennials. A 16,000 person corporation has to grimly accept that there’s no way around this generation. They absolutely can not avoid them and therefore must figure out how to make the most of things. The study makes a very transparent attempt to wrap a bow around a giant shit sandwich of useless individuals obsessed with their own short term gratification. Citing as positives, they say Millennials are “plugged-in, tech savvy, interested in meaningful work over income, hold multiple interests” blah blah blah.
I say take the damn bow off and call it like it is. Millennials are “overly fascinated with shiny things that light up and go beep, lacking survival skills due to parental “mollycoddling”, jacks of all trades but masters of none, unable to focus or complete projects from beginning to end.” In short, a generation of candy-assed wimps.
So why am I sharing this and, do I ever have anything positive to say? Well, I’m venting - come on! And yes - I do have something positive to say. I try to conserve my positive energy for my loved ones, my employees and my customers - but here goes: We are in the fortunate position of being able to refuse acceptance of this generation - for now.
Roughly one in three people we hire below the age of 26 have actually been raised properly and were telling us the truth about all of their wonderful convictions, work ethic, drive, ambition, accountability etc when we interviewed them. The other two are either fired quickly, or they manage to fool us for several months of painfully wasted time and money. The staff has actually become instrumental in helping sniff out the phonies who sneak in. Of all the resumes and interview’s we endure, I’d say (within our industry) there’s roughly one genuine, hardworking individual for every two-hundred bullshit artists I sift through. That’s better than ZERO! I have the utmost respect for the ones we have managed to find and a debt of gratitude to their families for doing a fine job of raising them. They are the reason I haven’t collapsed in a pile of despair! There is hope - and who knows, maybe this trend is largely industry specific, but somehow I doubt it. As I mentioned before, Qualcomm HAS to embrace them. Fortunately, we don’t and we won’t. THERE - there’s the positive side! Savor it.
So here at Onyx, we have resigned ourselves to the painstaking task of sifting this rubble on a non-stop basis so that we may grow our company one person at a time with the least amount of compromise possible. It is an all-consuming task. We do it relentlessly, and we do it better than our competitors - and that, my friends…….is why we are so good.
Now - I’m going to go check my blood pressure, soak my head, hug a tree or two and get ready for more interviews this week. God Bless America.
P.S. Jared Diamond is the author of one of my top 10 all time favorite books “Guns, Germs and Steel”. He wrote another book called “Collapse”. This book details how civilizations fail. It asserts the average life span of a democratized society is approximately 200 years. Clearly our Republic is more democratized with every new day. I would name the Millennials as the 80 Million horsemen of the apocalypse. Not an uplifting read, but very informative. Sunshine and lollipops for everyone!
July 14th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I liked this blog posting. I totally can relate to the “millenials” in the job market. Before I worked as a teacher I was a civil engineer survey technician, PC Technician, Sandiwch Maker, Autocad drafter, stock boy, bag boy, and I am sure there are more. I know the meaning of a dollar [or I used to.... my money is not going as far as it used to] When I was working for the Civil Engineering firm, I made the mistake of getting a job for my younger brother. He also exuded the “entitlement” complex. I really don’t know what it is. We are only two years apart, but I have been working since I was 14, moved out at 18, bought my own first car, paid my gas, paid for school….etc… Yet I remember my friends all doing the same, [the working middle class ones] , my brothers crew were always ok just getting by. It used to irk me so bad, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get over it… where was the work ethic, where was the sacrifice for the client who ultimately paid our bills ? It was… “life is too short……. yada yada yada…” But I digress…. I thought the presentation was pretty accurate… and this is not an isolated European and US thing… it reared it’s ugly head during my tenure in Thailand, and even parts of Cambodia.
Just my 2 cents,
Ian Trimble
July 19th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
As a teacher of these millenials for the past 12 years, I feel do feel partly responsible for being a part of an industry that coddles to the kid who doesn’t get the homework in on time. But administrators, unwilling to deal with parents, who then discipline teachers for teaching kids a lesson, create an environment in which kids do not learn the necessary life skills. Add to that the majority of colleges with numerous attendance-optional courses and you have graduates with little chance of surviving in a traditional workplace.
That being said, I am skeptical of giving employees everything to make them happy. That’s not capitalism, that’s utopia - and utopias never succeed. What then?
I think that employers DO have to realize that it is now their responsibility to do what the parents and schools did not do - teach work ethic. What the hell? Can that even be taught?
The answer is yes and it’s probably not as daunting a task as you might think. Let me be clear - many, if not most candidates that are qualified for a position but do not have the requisite work ethic to go along will NOT be able to learn these skills - at least not on a reasonable time for an employer. But many CAN and, in fact, are WILLING to. They may already exhibit the traits necessary to make work ethic success just a few steps away.
For example, if they are proficient in a certain area, they likely have discipline to stick with something. If they were part of a winning team in high school or college, a sense of perseverance and respect for authority is already there (along with a number of other skills too.) Good grades are also signs of goal setting and achievement.
So how do you find the right candidate? Because most first jobs for teens do not enforce important work skills, the less time in the workforce, probably the better. That is unless a previous job allowed the candidate to develop and demonstrate a high degree of success.
The best strategy would be talk to teachers and coaches and ask the following questions:
1. Is he trainable and willing to listen to authority?
2. Does he have common sense?
3. What were his worst flaws, why do you think he had them and do you think with patience I could help him correct these?
4. Was he punctual in attendance and turning in assignments? (if needed) Do you think this can be corrected?
5. Was he mature for his age? Examples.
6. Does he seem like the kind of person who might want something for nothing? Do you think he ever cheated?
7. Here’s my situation and who I’m looking for (EXPLAIN IT). If you were me, would you hire him?
8. Tell me about his integrity.
9. Did he EVER whine or was he a go-getter? Explain.
10. How did he respond to challenges and long assignments (This could be two different answers)?
(AND THE BIGGIE):
11. Was he appreciative of, loyal to and respectful of
a. learning
b. being corrected
c. the overall system (specifically, the school, the team, etc.)
d. America
7d sometimes puzzles people. Can’t someone be patriotic and a lousy employee? Can’t somebody be unpatriotic and a good employee? Yes to the first question and a qualified yes to the second. Qualified in that, the person may do well in the short run, but can they be trusted to be loyal to your organization if they aren’t loyal to the nation that is providing them with the greatest opportunity in history? Think about it.
I save this question for last, in case whomever you’re talking to gets turned off by it or thinks you’re from the Department of Homeland Security. So, if they don’t want to answer, you’ve gotten everything else you need.
Most of these are Yes and No questions but you can make them as open ended as you want. No self-reporting inventory or profile filed out by the candidate will provide you with as the answers you’ll get from authority figures who know him well.
So, expect an imperfect employee. But if you are willing to work with certain millenials beyond what you might have done for your first 1348 employees, setting clear expectations and clear consequences short of termination, they demonstrate a tremendous loyalty and malleability that might not have come from other employees and will save you from having to continuously undergo the search for the right candidate.
Feel free to contact me with your input or request.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Terry is a customer I met awhile back who has a much more optimistic view than me - obviously. I’m grateful for his perspective as it’s helped bolster me for more to come. Hey - if he can sit in a classroom and teach these little bastards all day long, I can suck it up and keep searching through them for the high achievers. Thanks for the very in-depth response Terry.