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It could be a must-have tool for those working with so-called “millennials,” or persons born between the early 1980s and early 2000s: a book that not only explores who millennials are, but how they think, their approach to work, and how they want others to view them.
You Raised Us – Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Workplace Teams also helps provide a roadmap for enhancing intergenerational communications, says author Lauren Stiller Rikleen of the Boston College Center for Work and Family, who believes millennials have been the subject of myths and misperceptions.
“The research certainly re-affirmed my initial hunch that the reputation of millennials is inaccurate, that all these words that have been used to describe them – entitled, lacking a work ethic, not being loyal in the work place – just weren’t true,” says Rikleen, a nationally recognized expert on the diverse and multi-generational workforce who is the center’s executive-in-residence.
As the mother of a 24-year old daughter and 26-year old son (both BC alumni), Rikleen – who along with her husband Sander is a BC Law graduate – was more than familiar with millennial traits. But when she travelled around the country in her role as a consultant and speaker, the Q&A sessions always seemed to focus on the younger generation in the workplace – and the questions and comments were always negative.
“I was surprised at the negativity because millennials always seemed to me to be a remarkably talented generation,” says Rikleen, a lawyer who, after two decades as a partner in a law firm, left to establish the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership and is a founding member of the Council for Women of Boston College. “So I decided I wanted to explore it further and started doing some research, and realized there was enough there to consider a book.”
Rikleen spoke with millennials whenever she could while creating and distributing a survey that drew more than 1,000 responses, with questions like: “Are you aware of your reputation as being entitled?” “What does that word mean to you?” “Do you think your generation is entitled?” “What do you think about job loyalty?” “What do you think about your reputation for not working hard?”
She also questioned millennials about their views on workplace dress codes, relationships with their families, and anything else that might have a potentially negative influence on their reputation.
“I have come to the conclusion that we misread their self-confidence and self-respect as being entitled,” says Rikleen. “And the irony is that as parents of millennials, we raised this generation to have a lot of self-respect, to be confident in their skills, to speak up and to assert themselves as they move into their careers.
“Nonetheless, having told our own kids these messages at home, when these same qualities arise in the workplace we call it entitlement.”
Rikleen says millennials’ reputation for not wanting to work hard stems from what she describes as “a much healthier attitude toward work-life integration than other generations have. I think they have learned the lessons from watching their parents’ generation and Gen Xers in the workplace who seem to be working way too hard relative to what they’re sacrificing, and the millennials have come away saying, ‘I’m not going to sacrifice my family life the way other generations did. I don’t want to have to give up my own physical health and not be able to exercise or see friends. And I want to be able to use technology effectively to free up that time.’
“So they become frustrated when they see shortcuts and opportunities for efficiency that they can’t effectively implement because other people in the workplace lack the understanding of technology that they have and are uncomfortable using tools to allow technology to be more than a tether. So it’s not that they don’t want to work hard, they just want to work smarter.”
Rikleen, who has written two other books, Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law and Success Strategies for Women Lawyers, says this project posed challenges not only with finding time to write, but also culling all the data together into something comprehensive and page-turning.
“There’s so much information out there,” says Rikleen. “So I’m trying to take a lot of research and bring it together in a way that’s very interesting. That’s why I was excited that my survey respondents included a lot of anecdotes, which adds some richness and real life context behind all of the data and information.”