Meet the New Millennials
As the work force gets younger, expectations get higher.
May 18, 2007— -- When it comes to talking about work and the latest generation of employees, 57-year-old employer Elliott Masie does not mince his words. He said today's young workers act as if they are "entitled" and are "somewhat spoiled."
Masie, a member of the baby boomer generation, heads his own company. Every day he faces the challenge of managing much younger workers; members of the millennial generation -- those born after 1981.
"We recently had to tell a young woman employee that this was not an underwear optional workplace," he told ABCNEWS.com. "This generation needs to be deeply coached about wardrobe, and a lot of them are used to getting up at 10 or 11 a.m. Forget about them showing up to work at 8 or 9 a.m."
Masie knows more than most about the new generation of workers. He manages an international think tank that specializes in learning, technology and workplace productivity. The Masie Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., employs what the company calls "extremely tech-savvy" young people.
Masie has studied as well as employed so called "millennials."
"They grew up with an 'everyone gets a trophy' sense of entitlement," he said. "They are members of a generation that thinks it should get a trophy just for waking up in the morning."
Such entitlement can reveal itself in strange ways.
"I had a human resources manager call me about a worker who received her performance review only to have her mother call up and complain that 'she's better than that,'" he recalled. "The HR manager was shocked and asked the mother why she was calling about her daughter. The mother responded, 'Because I've done so throughout my daughter's life.'"
"They are what their parents wanted to create," said Masie.
Manpower, one of the nation's largest employment services companies with headquarters in Milwaukee, has studied the work habits and career goals of American workers. A company review of generational diversity points out that for the first time in history, four generations are working together. It identifies them as follows:
The traditionalists -- workers born before 1946 who respect authority, place duty before pleasure, delay gratification and avoid challenging the system.
