Here is a really interesting segment that was broadcast on 60 minutes and was passed on to me. It gives some good insight into my generation. If the video below is slow to load up, here is the link to the story.
About the Author
More By This Author
- A Need for 'Higher Education': Interview with Author Kenneth Jedding (1 comments)
- Dear Potential Employer,
- Potential Employer FAQ's
Sean Aiken » view all
I hate to think that this image of “Millenials” is what employers think when they receive my resume or have me in for a job interview. I wrote a guest post about this exact story for Businesspundit.
Hopefully, the bad opinions of our generation in the 60 minutes special won’t stay true for all the recent college grads.
The guest post is at http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/not_built_for_business_are_we_the_greatest_generation.php if anyone is interested.
I’m proud to be of a generation that seeks to improve the quality of jobs and workplaces. Better work can be done in an environment where people are respectful of each other, and each individual’s development is prized. Our generation is better educated in psychology and in what it takes to motivate people to do well. Happy people do better work. So why should we settle for old-school work places?
I was very interested to see this video and to realize that it isn’t just me who feels this way!
Our generation will revolutionize the system- we’re the google generation and we’re powerful!
Funny, this piece about millennials – I guess I am right in the middle of this generation – 1985 – and I guess I recognize some of these characteristics in myself. I put myself first, and I too share in the mythology of “the dream job” – but my dream job isn’t defined by pizza and foosball. I like to keep my silly fun and my work separate – if I had to work in that Zappos office I would probably walk, and if my shrink-talking-boss gives me a participation award, I would probably need to see a real shrink to cope with it.
I really don’t begrudge anyone else who finds that kind of work environment truly stimulating, but I hope that this does not become the dominant corporate culture – I want to be challenged, I want to be told when I mess up, and I want to have fun and wear silly hats with my friends and family, but work in my office.
why should i live and breathe the company, stay late without overtime, and sacrifice my weekends? what loyalty do i owe, or receive in return? on the contrary, all my jobs till now have used me, with broken promises. and do i want a coronary by age 35? when school and government programs stress and build you up towards a healthy, balanced lifestyle, is it not natural to have a shock when suddenly some business entity seems to want to own you, and for their profit, not yours? i thought the baby boomers were supposed to change things, but it turned out the 60s were just a phase and by the 70s and 80s they’d suited up. i’m not devaluing hard work, but i believe in work hard play hard, and i just think it’s so important to refocus on what’s important in life, and especially after what’s happened in the states and world economy recently, due to greed and inflated egos, a more sane and balanced approach to ‘corporate america’ or how we approach work in general (we live to work not work to live – which is the right) should definitely and vitally be a priority. absentee parents, school shootings due to social alienation due to loneliness due to breakdown of communities and family units – surely these are not all rash and selfish things to be concerned about and want to change. look at sweden and most of europe – sweden’s philosophy is ‘just enough’, for everyone, and most in europe have managed to balance work and life and family effectively (they may not be world leaders in business, finance, economics, blah, blah – but does it matter? they’re happy! and look whose economy’s in the pitts now) – whereas in north america we seem to be born with ‘workhorse’ or ‘corporate slave’ stamped on our foreheads. and it makes me so mad the comments these ignorant ‘older, wiser’ people are making in this clip, as they’re just reinforcing the status quo. (and who can afford to live on their own in the city these days?? most entry level jobs pay squat, nevermind unpaid internships often being a pre-requisite.) i do know that many millenials truly are spoiled and selfish, but they seem to be making us out to be the bliss generation, where no hardship has ever touched us, and that is just not feasibly possible – me being an example of someone who’s been through the ringer. anyhow, i hope the snotty ones only make things better for intelligent creatives like me.
what with the state of things now, who knows if anyone’s got a choice in things really, and i project it’s the britney spearses that will have to change their acts, unless the world goes completely mad and the lowest common denominator becomes ‘it’, even moreso than it has already.
and here here both bennett and reluctant, i don’t want to be talked down to and patronized, and i do crave challenge and development, but i definitely, definitely do not want to have to cope with the archaic, stressful system of days of old, that are still in place in most offices today. the wonder years dad will not be me, nor will i further line AIG’s coffers. and yet sadly, some of us still have to be garbage collectors and work in sewage plants – that’s where the ‘dream job’ philosophy’s failed us. but all in all, i think after all these botch ups, a healthy cynicism and a ‘what’s in it for me’ are only smart, especially when another new trend is to ignore what the equality movements fought for in the 60s, and 90s PC, the other side of the storm is ugly and basic.
anyway, that’s my rant, sorry. :/ godspeed.