Comments on: More on the Millennial Worker

By: Nicole

Nicole — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:57:44 +0000

Don’t training and knowledge lead to a productive worker? It did for me. Whenever I got back from training I worked twice as hard to try and apply what I had learned - may just be my personality - I get very excited about learning and applying my new skills/knowledge - otherwise I lose them pretty quickly

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:21:26 +0000

I agree, one shouldn’t generalize; but I think there are differences that go beyond the “Core” one’s you speak of. The “social” environment (for example) in the office is new.

So how do you motivate/inspire the “millenial” worker to perform? Training and knowledge are great, but what about production?

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:27:00 +0000

Simon, I agree that you can’t make generalizations, but I find more young people asking for training than I do established employees - maybe it’s where I’ve worked…

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 03:38:21 +0000

I’m always a little sceptical about these articles that say “Millenials” [or Xers or Boomers] want such and such. Pretty much all those things on your list are actually standard across generations (or, at least, when I was studying industrial psychology over a decade ago, the research pointed out that workers wanted flexibility, development, rich experiences more than a big paycheck).

That said: instant results and technology might be things that Millennials value more than other generations.

I certainly don’t think those are bad points; I think they are good ones. But painting them all as things that are only, or especially, relevant to Millennials, I’m not so sure about.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:26:40 +0000

That’s possible too - but I’m in the “I won’t stay” club - which I guess is something I have in common with many other Millennials.

By: sharon

sharon — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:42:34 +0000

You wrote: “There is always this mentality among employers that if you train someone to do something new, theyâ€™re going to leave and do that something somewhere else - and that is a risk, but at the same time, if Iâ€™m not allowed to learn something new (which I am!) then Iâ€™m going to look elsewhere.”

Or, as one of my former (software engineering) bosses used to reply, “What if you don’t train them and they stay?”