The Millennials were born between 1977 and 1995. Being born in 1993, this is the generation I belong to. My generation makes up twenty-five percent of the United States population (“Who Are Millennials”, 2019).
Millennials are known to be tech-savvy, open-minded, problem-solvers, transparent, socially conscious, and multitaskers. Millennials often seek advice from others and are often direct when challenged. They also do not fear speaking up and voicing their concerns (“Personality Traits of Millennials”, 2017).
A challenge that I foresee that Millennials have to face is the stigma related to the term for our generation. Being called a Millennial is regularly used as an insult. I have often been stereotyped as lazy, arrogant, unprofessional, and against authority. This may be true for some but many of us Millennials are hard-working, selfless, respectful, and intelligent. A large portion are socially conscious and strive to make the world a better place for future generations (“Who Are Millennials”, 2019).
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Another challenge that Millennials face is the requirement for a college degree to perform basic functions within the workplace. Many employers will only consider candidates with at least a Bachelor degree for employment. Many entry level jobs require a college education but have only a slightly higher pay rate than a position that only requires a high school diploma. The amount of student debt has risen to over one billion dollars in the last fifteen years. This has led to students starting their career off with a negative net worth and thousands of dollars of debt (Leadem, R. 2018).
The cost of living is a major challenge for Millennials. The average rent has doubled since 2000. This is the reason over fifteen percent of Millennials still live at home with their parents or family if the option is available (Leadem, R.). A negative consequence of this is that the housing market has suffered because many of us have the dream of home ownership but cannot get approved for a mortgage with all of the debt we already have.
Millennials like myself do sometimes struggle to relate to others in our generation. There are some that do fit the stereotypes and it is difficult to work with them. They do tend to feel entitled to my assistance and spend more time browsing on technology than working. This makes achieving goals as a team next to impossible. These Millennials fuel the stereotypes and create hardships for us that defy them.
The stigma related to Millennials has created a great challenge when communicating with some Baby Boomers. While we often have many Baby Boomers in our support systems, quite a few in the workplace have stereotyped us as lazy and unqualified for the job just based upon our age. They assume that people like myself believe that we are the smartest in the room and are only concerned about ourselves. While this will be a huge challenge to overcome, Millennials should respectfully stand up for themselves and work hard to reduce those stereotypes in the workplace.
In my experience, Millennials often work best with Generation X. They tend to also be tech-savvy and ambitious. In the workplace, we share the belief of flexibility and work-life balance. Both Millennials and Generation X are always in search of knowledge (Kane, S.)
