How do millennials assign meaning to their work?

How do millennials assign meaning to their work?

By Brian Lynn Bentley

Colorado Technical University

"Stereotypes about Millennials, born between 1979 and 1994, depict them as self-centered, unmotivated, disrespectful, and disloyal"(Myers,2010). Millinials want their work to matter socially they want to be involved in forefronts of new technology and discoveries, They grew up in an age of information. They also pride them selves on being creative in work they want their new ideas to be heard. That is the most important to them. When Adam Smiley Poswolsky of Fast Company interviewed Millinials they said things like this: "I want to teach urban teenagers how to avoid debt and become successful entrepreneurs," "I want to inspire young girls to think they can become engineers, and not Barbie dolls," "I want to teach kids living in a food desert how to grow their own food," and "I want to ensure large corporations reduce their carbon footprint." Thier whole perspective is civic minded to make enough money to teach others and inspire others.

In work a work place setting the millenials value speed, rapid promotion they mostly prefer to work in group settings and they like immediate feed back of wheter they are going a good or bad job as long as its constructive. The will want peer reiews and job performace reviews often.The millenials are a really social group of people in real life and on social media.The best things about this generation is they are not afriad to try new things or technologies and they are not afraid to fail when trying new things as long as their is alot of commicastion among staff management and corporate. To summerize it they really want transperancy in the company they work for.(Gilbert,2011)

This generation really is dependent on technology for everything from shopping,entertainment, research as well as networking. They will use it to get rapid information to backup their information they also use it to get quick and immediate feedback to the task at hand. this is something they grew up with its now more of an instict where they can do it with out thinking.

However what happens if a power failure, which i have experienced, with out technology the millinals seem to be lost doing simple arthimitc on hand cacluator to make a purchase or on a peice of paper. they do grow aggitated if its not immedialty handled and they may be overly focused on the a computer tasks and neglect some of the physical parts of the job. Remember the old saying "No news is good news?" now the millenial version is "No news is disaster news." The technology for a milinial is not a convience it is more of an appendage like an arm or a leg they reall need it that bad and with out it they are disabled.

References

Gilbert, J. (2011, September 1). Ivey Business Journal. http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-millennials-a-new-generation-of-employees-a-new-set-of-engagement-policies/

Goudreau, J. (2013, March 1). 7 Surprising ways to motivate millennial workers. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2013/03/07/7-surprising-ways-to-motivate-millennial-workers/

Myers, K., & Sadaghiani, K. (2010, June 1). Millennials in the workplace: a communication perspective on millennials’ organizational relationships and performance, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2868990/

Poswolsky, A. (2014, April 16). 4 Tips to help millennials find meaningful work. http://www.fastcoexist.com/3029111/change-generation/4-tips-to-help-millennials-find-meaningful-work