March 12, 2014--Millennials

I have a friend who is interested in the cultural differences between the waves of generations that have come of age since the end of the Second World War.

The first of these are the Baby Boomers, those born within the decade following the War. Then there was the Silent Generation, the Beat and 60s generations, and closer to now, Generation X and Generation Y, or the Millennials.

My friend is especially interested in the most recent generation, in part because he, in his mid-50s, is still pursuing a career and, on some days, will acknowledge he is beginning to feel a bit passed by by his Millennialist colleagues.

He says that his vast experience counts, but takes note of the fact that in his last two or three jobs (he has moved around quite a lot) those above him in the corporate hierarchy have been turning more and more to these 30- and even 20-somethings for their ideas and creative energy. In fact, to make the workplace comfortable for them, senior executives are reshaping the corporate culture and redesigning the physical workspace. My friend is not happy about this either. He likes his office with a partition and, if possible, even a door.

None of this is making him feel good about himself. In fact, he is beginning to sound depressed.

I am older and, though I am no longer traditionally employed, to tell the truth, I am also not all that happy about these changes. While he is struggling in a Generation-X/Generation-Y work world, I am still hung up on and struggling with (and against) the cultural shifts brought about by the huge population of Baby Boomers.

But, like my friend, I am trying to learn and get comfortable in the new world of smartphones and apps, selfies, hook-ups, tweets, and C.E.O.'s presiding at shareholder meetings in jeans and T shirts. Thank you for that Steve Jobs.

As part of the struggle to learn and understand, as an alternative to complaining and feeling sorry for myself, there were a couple of nuggets of helpful insight in Sunday's New York Times Business section.

The first was a front page story about successful teenage app creators. Some as young as 11 and 12 who are thinking about dropping out of high school to establish start-up businesses. As one said, Lebron James went right from high school to the National Basketball Association, so why not me?

There's even a TED-Talk affair underway in California pitched to these kids. And then there is the annual "Under 20 Summit." At the recent one, there were 350 attendees from ages 9(!) to 19. And there are some venture capitalists who are encouraging them to follow their dreams and talents. They can always finish high school later, they advise, and go to college if they subsequently dream about becoming accountants.

A staff member from one of these enabler organizations, the Theil Fellowship, which each year offers $100,000 each to 20 young people to help them pursue their innovations or businesses, said that college is not necessarily bad but reminds these youngsters that having a degree doesn't "insulate people from economic tumult." He coaches them "to strike while the iron is hot."

The president of Theil says that "The safe career track is totally broken." Even lawyers are laid off and some janitors have Ph.D.'s. Young people "need a greater sense of urgency than in the past [and] college has an infantilizing effect; it's an extension of adolescence."

Whatever one thinks about this, with the reality of members of the Gen-X and Z Generations streaming into the workplace, they must be accommodated.

About that the second piece in the Times was an interview with Jeff Lawson, C.E.O. of Twilio, a "cloud communications company" based in San Francisco.

When asked if he tries to create the kind of corporate culture that facilitates creative disagreement, he said--

We don't wait until the annual performance review to give feedback. You never want to have a surprise. This is especially important with Millennial workers, who really want feedback. They want to always be learning, always be growing, and they're looking for constant feedback. It's not that they're looking for constant praise, but rather they want to keep score. They want to know how they're doing. 

Part of it is the short cycle of Internet feedback, and people who grew up with the Internet just expect quick feedback on things. That's just part of the changing ethos. [Emphasis added.]

I don't know about you, but I dreaded those annual performance reviews and am quite happy when things unfold slowly. I suppose, I hope it's good that the world is soon to be in their hands. But . . .