The Search for the Stereotype

I do not find it hard to believe that a search far and wide for workplace Millennials ended up in the same place as many other Millennial commentaries: at a stereotype. Certainly, when you are actively searching for the stereotype, you are going to find it.

It is again unfortunate to read an article about members of the Millennial Generation that leaps to wholesale conclusions about the entire generation. It is even more unfortunate that Catherine Waxler’s September 19 commentary, “The Millennial Outlook,” once again comes from someone who is not a member of the generation, merely an outsider following what has become the “Boomer line” on Millennials. (To stay true to avoiding stereotypes, not all Boomers would agree).

A read of blog rolls is indicative of the negative impressions that some members of older generations have of the Millennial Generation in the workplace. It is not as though Millennials themselves are commenting on their own colleagues in the workplace in a negative manner. Using personal anecdotes of angry co-workers should not amount to a negative pallor being cast on entire generation.

The quantitative research does not side with the assertions made in Waxler’s article nor do other forms of qualitative research. One study, in particular, found that the Millennial Generation takes themselves quite seriously in the workplace. In the study, Millennials at Work: Myths v. Reality, 67 percent of Millennial respondents agreed that formalities in the workplace were important for career success. Millennials also do not take the jobs they have for granted: 56 percent of Millennials feel that the jobs they do have are a privilege, not a right. This mirrors, not diverges, from the attitudes that Boomers and members of the Greatest Generation have of their employment status.

Despite merely these attitudinal measures, Millennials also have a financial impetus for appreciating their work: they are in massive amounts of debt, especially those who had to take out loans to pay for their college education. Thanks in no small part to the skyrocketing cost of college tuition, predatory credit and lending practices, lack of financial education, and a consumer-driven economy that gives little regard to the importance of saving, Millennials are widely regarded as the first generation not predicted to be “better off” than their parents, and many Millennials are under constant economic stress. In a survey commissioned by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, 47% of the respondents stated that they were living one paycheck away from having to use credit cards or getting money from relatives to make ends meet. This certainly does not exude a feeling of entitlement, but rather a feeling of necessity to earn higher wages to dig themselves out of the same types of financial woes being faced by millions of Americans in our current financial crisis.

Most troubling about this piece is its ignorance of another portion of the Millennial Generation, those low-income, non-college members of the generation who are just struggling to make ends meet and find a position in our information society. As aptly declared by one Millennial blogger, lnunez123, no one focuses “any attention on the minority Generation Y kids who did not have little league classes (because our parks were dangerous) and never got a thank you or a coddle in their respective lives.”

It is important to differentiate what is a generational characteristic from what is a stage-of-life challenge. Therefore, it is important to change the language from its negative connotations to those that more accurately reflect the fervor, passion, and career growth potential of the Millennial generation. Words like “impatient” and “entitled” conjure an obviously negative spin and proliferate stereotypes, when words like “enterprising” or “passionate” may more accurately reflect what this generation is longing for—the opportunity to use their unique set of skills and talents to make a valuable contribution to society and the workforce. Their whole life, Millennials have been told “You see a problem? You want something? Then do something about it.”


In any age demographic, one could seek out people who fall into the stereotypes of that particular generation. But searching for the stereotypes ignores the reality that millions of others in the same generational cohort have completely different attitudes.

A general suggestion for future commentators: Ask a Millennial.


***Thanks to Kristen Cambell for her guidance with this piece.***