I saw this piece from 60 Minutes this morning on “Millenials” (below), and I’m fearing for the future. Maybe it’s set the tone for the whole show. Who knows. All I know is I fear a future full of young adults who all act and think like they’re 9 years old. I can live with them acting and thinking like 17 year-olds (like I do. After all, I live in Los Angeles), but 9? Yeesh…
Our plans for Memorial Day just couldn’t come together. Apparently, we need to learn to plan ahead, even slightly.
I tell the tale of chaperoning a field trip. Great trip, strange trip back…
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Dan,
I love the show.
I think you completely missed the point of the show you were talking about. The show was about giving people incentives to stay at a job so it doesn’t it turn into the movie Office Space. Yes, I’ll agree the letter to mom is a bit to much but nobody I know wants to work for employers who don’t give a damn about you. The incentives are there to let the work force no they are doing a good job. Think about Google and how much money they make, it is because they have a workforce that actually like going to work.
In regards to staying at home with your parents after college, some kids can’t afford to move out right away even after a few months. Finding a job can be tough especially if you work in a field such that is not law related. I went to college TWICE and still can’t move out and I am 30, (don’t laugh). In fact I am going through bankrupcty right because now I had to use credit cards to get by during lean times by so I could pay my car and insurance payments so I could get to work so I could have the experience to get a better job. Happily I am finally on the right track and hope to finally get out for good soon.
Well anyway keep up the good work and I will keep on paying the 4 bucks a month.
Thank goodness we live in an era where outsourcing overseas is so easy. Frankly, I can find a ton of talented people who will work hard and don’t need to be babied. Let the brats remain unemployed.
Kent has an interesting point, but outsourcing probably won’t be in his children’s best interests in 10 – 20 years.
I personally agree with Dan’s stance even though I am only 21. I want to work in an encouraging environment but I don’t want to receive awards and hugs. To me that is somewhat insulting.
Great show Dan, I agree with your point of view completely. I recently left a job at a web company where we had some of the “incentives” mentioned in the 60 minutes piece; back rubs every 2 weeks were the only thing I actually enjoyed.
For Halloween we had to go to work in costumes since there was a contest. The CEO had us parading around the neighborhood every year too. The thing is that it wasn’t really optional, you HAD to do it or you were not a team player so I really felt pressured to participate in all the activities they thought were “motivating”. I’m not against having an environment that is fun and relaxed (I’m a photographer!) but some of this stuff takes it to the extreme.
I am a Gen X’er so that is probably the reason I didn’t enjoy the gimmicks etc. Anyway, I guess I just can’t believe some of the “millennials” are like this. Like you said…a note to your mom????……wow”
Keep the great work coming and thanks!
A note home to your mother? Holy crap, this is serious. I guess we have similar issues here. Like Mau, I work for an organisation that organises “fun” events, but my definition does not extend to activities I have no choice in in order to, in the eyes of management, “bond” with my co-workers.
We are also on a “wellbeing” week at present, tai chi and yoga classes, stress management classes, nutrition advice etc. For the love of god, JUST PAY ME MY WAGES AND LEAVE ME TO GET ON WITH MY JOB!
Thinking this through, I actually think there is a more serious problem, certainly there is in the UK – it is the children of these millennials – the ones that do leave home! We have a generation of kids here, born to parents who believe it is wrong to say no to children, to make them competitive, allow them to play with toy guns or to discipline them and generally abdicate responsibility for their childrens moral behaviour to the school system.
Now, these kids believe that they have an absolute right to whatever they want, have whatever they want, and woe betide you if you say no. They usually get whatever they want at home and they often react violently to anyone who challenges them – there are countless examples here of rabid pack-like behaviour by these kids to people who, for example, tell them they should not be breaking car windows – a few I can think of here last year are a father kicked to death outside his house by 10-13 year olds for telling them off for breaking windows and a guy stoned to death for asking them not to throw stones at him and his young child while they played cricket. There was another case of a mentally disabled guy who was chased by a mob of kids across an estate and eventually kicked to death. Because they wanted to film it on their mobile phones, that kids now days believe they are entitled to by about age 6 or 7.
We have to get a grip on this, and sending notes home to your mother is not the way to do it. Any suggestions?
Listened to all of the show now. It’s funny that my wife and I say we would love to live near the ocean, yet I wonder maybe if we did we would just not think of it for days out etc. I mean, it’s got to be the easiest guaranteed succesful trip out for kids where you live – maybe go ride the bikes on the front in Santa Monica or go look at the boats in Marina Del Ray? I’m sure there are other places I have not been (most places) but it does seem to me that living in a sunny climate must make organising things to do that don’t cost a fortune in LA must be easier than many places.
I agree with a lot of what Dan said about people in my age group. I was raised differently though as the youngest of six girls. There are a few of us likeminded people out there but I understand that to be able to make generalisations people may have this impression of my generation.
Am I completely blind and just missing the section of the website that instructs us how to make a link for the Bitterest Pill on our websites?
Duh! I just realised that it is called “Affiliate Program”
Dan, I will have to watch the “60 Minutes” piece but wanted to jump in here because the company I work for has done a lot of research on Millenials in the workplace – and from what I understand from your podcast, “60 Minutes” only has a small sliver of the picture. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of sending notes home to Mom, but there is a definite understanding in most corporations that what has worked in the past to retain a talented workforce is not going to work the same way with the current corp of youngsters. Some of the major reasons are that unlike many of their older colleagues, they don’t view staying at an organization for the bulk of your career as a goal; they aren’t generally motivated by title promotions; and they are interested in a variety of different and changing work responsibilities rather than settling into a straight-forward work trajectory where they move straight up a defined “ladder” of success.
Continued feedback on job performance is also a desire of theirs – but it’s also something that crosses generations. As I said, I have never heard of someone asking to have notes sent to their mother. I tend to think that “60 Minutes” latched on to a few mentions of that (of course will reserve judgment til I watch it) and decided that was a trend. I have several millenials working for me, and not one has made that kind of request. But they do ask how they are doing on a regular basis, and appreciate conversations about what they can do to expand their skills in order to gain more responsibility (and of course pay increases.)
Thanks! Nice post! 🙂
“I fear a future full of young adults who all act and think like they’re 9 years old. ” – Well my son is 9 years old, and god thanks he behaves in many thinks like a 17yr old. But in principle I agree: One part of the young people is becoming “fun” people with no concern about anything, fortunately others are doing much better
Wow what an interesting clip from 60 Minutes.. thanks for sharing with us!:)
This is a curious blog topic. I’m 41, I have four children, and none of them are out of primary school. Its super hard to say no to them. But that’s not the point. The point is this: our western culture is still largely based on the idea of academics and career decisions. How on earth could it be any different when our education traditionally is modeled around leaving ‘crafts and music corner’ behind so you can make time for math and history. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t imply for one second that children are better off not knowing where they came from or not understanding long division. But you have to admit, those can be pretty boring subjects to lots of people: not because they involve concentration or focus, but rather because they’re disciplines defined by industry and commerce and not by ‘out-of-box’ thinking. The model is quickly changing – music and arts are gaining ground in our schools – and the reason this 60 Minutes piece is perhaps alarming or enlightening is because we as an older generation still wonder if its appropriate.
Just look at history: schools basically existed because it allowed parents to not only educate children, but to also keep them out of factories and off the streets pedaling baked goods. So then, what curriculum would they offer at school? Well, if the state was paying for that school, you can sure as hell bet it wasn’t drum lessons and costume jewelry-making. How on earth would that education earn someone a place in their community’s workforce and economy? What folks fail to admit is that fostering these types of creative, innovative and liberating pursuits is entirely beneficial to future success, such that adapting to increasingly complex and diverse problems or situations comes much more easily as a result of developing a broad sense of themselves and expressing their thoughts, vs regurgitating largely what was made available in a textbook. Childlike as that may seem, but heaven forbid we’d praise someone for dismissing their own viewpoints because it was never encouraged in the first place.
Nice site! 🙂
TNX