From The Boston Herald
Three agonizing minutes. That’s how long I stood at a Dunkin’ Donuts cash register the other night waiting for an employee to make eye contact with me. This is not an exaggeration. I timed Tim with my cell-phone clock, absolutely fascinated that he was counting money inches away from my face, but did not acknowledge my presence.
Heck, he was busy. I was tempted to walk out muffinless, but Tim’s name tag kept me intrigued. It read: “Shift Leader.”
The Era of Customer Service died long before I was snubbed at the doughnut counter, but this guy kicked up the apathy factor to a new level. He even seemed annoyed when another employee broke the silence and hooked me up with my late-night snack.
Tim totally fits the self-absorbed stereotype of “Generation Y,” since renamed “The Millennials,” those early 20-somethings who think the workplace is an extension of college – where you can show up late with uncombed hair and ragged sweatpants without anyone raising an eyebrow. Their motto: “Don’t bug me – it’s not my job!”
My quote after the jump…
Marketing analyst Marian Salzman recently told “60 Minutes” that today’s managers need to adopt a special approach to their Millennial employees.
“You do have to speak to them a little bit like a therapist,” she said. “You can’t be harsh. You cannot tell them you’re disappointed in them. You can’t really ask them to live and breathe the company. Because they’re living and breathing themselves and that keeps them very busy.
“These young people will tell you what time their yoga class is and the day’s work will be organized around the fact that they have this commitment,” added Salzman, whose company sells $3,000 reports on Millennials to human resources departments.
Noting that the new bumper crop of entry-level employees – estimated to be 80 million people – will soon dominate the workplace, Radar Magazine is calling on Generation Xers (people in their 30s and early 40s) to revolt against the invasion.
“Consider the stress of having to juggle a 30-hour workweek while simultaneously maintaining Facebook, MySpace [website] and Flickr accounts,” writes Robert Lanham. “It’s enough to make your head spin! And maybe the Millennials never faced Hitler’s forces on the beaches of Normandy, but had they been around in 1944 (and had the technology existed), you can bet they would have blogged about it.”
Obviously, employers have no other choice but to sort out the lazy Millennials from the hard-working Millennials. I know a “kid” who just told his boss he was leaving in the middle of the day so he could sample some appetizers for his upcoming wedding. Deadlines be damned – and ditto for the rescheduling option – he tasted those pigs-in-a-blanket on company time.
What was Appetizer Boy’s punishment? His supervisor rolled his eyes.
But I also know a 23-year-old (who can’t find a job in his field) who is now working for a company for free to get some experience. He paints houses on the weekends for rent money.
The most ridiculous thing about this generational profiling is the one-size-fits-all net that’s cast over millions of people. Some media outlets define Millennials as being born from 1980 to 1995. Others say it is from 1982 to 2002. The latter calculation places my 6-year-old boy in the Millennial camp.
Can the workplace analysts really project his work ethic 16 years in advance? Just to make sure my son doesn’t become their self-fulfilling prophecy, I’m going to take him to the doughnut counter to be ignored.
