Episode: 278

Episode Title: Facing Down the Stereotypes

The negative stereotypes about Millennials have followed them into the workplace—but they’re just not true. Here’s why, coming up next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 278 show:

Hi and welcome The Perna Syndicate! We’ve been talking about Millennials all week, and today I want to discuss the negative stereotypes they’ve faced down at work. One of the worst is the idea that they are, in a word, lazy. 

I’ve never believed this, I’ve never seen this—and research shows it’s simply not true of their generation as a whole. Last year, Manpowergroup reported that over a quarter of Millennials work two—or more—jobs. 73% work more than 40 hours per week, and almost a quarter work more than 50 hours. Lazy? I think not.

Another challenge Millennials experience on the job is when seniority is used to shut down a debate. When people use an argument based on authority or age, it’s no longer about the facts—just the power struggle. It’s the whole “because I said so” answer, now extending beyond the parent-child relationship and into the workforce. And it’s not going to move us forward.  

Instead, teams should work together to reach conclusions supported by sound data and reasoning. As Myles Hunter of TutorMe says, wisdom is not necessarily a function of age.

There’s a lot that all working generations can learn from each other, but we’ll miss out on it if we view each other through the lens of popular stereotypes. Just like “OK Boomer” isn’t a constructive way forward, neither is assuming that younger-gen professionals are lazy or unengaged at work. We can do better!

The stereotypes that Millennials have dealt with have given them a strong motivation to make things better for the next generation entering the workforce. We’ll talk about it tomorrow on The Perna Syndicate…see you then!