A few years ago, I attended a workshop where Millennial-generation expert Jason Dorsey spoke about Millennials in the workplace. Jason is considered a leader in multi-generation research with an emphasis on Millennial and Gen-Z generations. If you have never heard Jason speak, you should really get yourself invited to one his speaking engagements.

According to Jason, there are approximately 83 million Millennials in the US. They are the largest generation of employees and consumers.

I walked away from the presentation both informed and entertained. Included in my newly found knowledge included the following:

• Millennials do not consider themselves adults until they reach the age of 30.
• Millennials consider 9 months at a job long-term.
• Millennials are heavy users of tech support despite growing up with technology (they are heavy users of technology, but not necessarily technical).

Obviously, these are generalities; and of course, there are many exceptions to the above. Generalness aside, I found Jason’s expertise to be very helpful in understanding a Millennial’s perspective on the world, which is vastly different my Gen-X experience.

Since attending the workshop, I deliberately changed my approach with my Millennial co-workers. I experienced improvement in my personal relationships with them – to say nothing about restoring some mental sanity. Then something happened that made me realize that may not be the best approach: one of my Millennial co-workers was asked to handle a situation with a Baby-Boomer outside our organization.

At the time, this particular individual worked for me for me for around 6 months.  I changed my normal leadership approach to accommodate his Millennial tendencies - provided contant praises and affirmations, ignored his horrendous grammar, and rose above his lack of communication tact.  As silly as those things may seem to a Gen X or Baby Boomer, it actually provided for a better working experienc with him.

Unfortunately, our business associate didn't the get memo that he needed to treat our Millennial, well, like a Millennial.  The conversations started out like any normal business discussion; but at the first sign of conflict, our Millennial quickly showed he couldn't handle it.  At first, he couldn't believe that the business associate didn't agree with him. (Disagree with a Millennial and see what happens.)  He failed to see that there could be another perspective.  He doubled-down and started becoming emotional.  Our business-savy associate quickly pounced leaving our Millennial speechless, but not without something to say going down.  Needless to say, that converation was over, and our organization was left with a demeritorious blow to our reputation.

Certianly, not all Millennials are like mine was that day.  Because the Millennial generation is largely homogeneous, any Millennial who shows even a twinkling of a exceptionalism and ambition can become very successful among the crowd of Millennial mediocrity.  I don't blame Millennials for who they are.  The blame fully rests on their parents and our society for proliferating these behaviors:

This is an old post, but I have it here because I feel it is still relevant.

By no means is this an endorsement of Bernie Sanders in 2016 - and certainly not in 2020 nor 2024 or whenever that guy finally decides to quit politics!

My point is that the DNC process of nominating a presidential candidate is rigged. Even though I do not associate myself with DNC policies, it is alarming, nonetheless, that this corruption exists in the highest level of a major political party in America.

Voters had a huge opportunity to stick it to the the corrupt members of the DNC. Ironically, it was Donald Trump who stuck it to the DNC. They now have a modified, but still ripe-for-corruption nominating process.