Baby Boomer Business Owners - Watch Out for those Millenial employees
If you have a business, you probably have encountered some of the new generation of employees - the Millenials. These young people are just entering the workplace, and they are causing all kinds of problems for Baby Boomer employers.
These new employees feel a sense of entitlement and self-worth that gets them little praise from their employers. For example, a large company in our area hired a bunch of Millenials over the past few years. This new group lobbied for a “kinder, gentler” workplace, with new values, like more “flexible hours,” (read: not having to show up on time), and having everyone be friendlier to them. Nothing about working harder or smarter. Nothing about showing up on time and working overtime, if necessary.
Maybe we Baby Boomers have been workaholics, but it seems we now have a generation of “Trophy Employees,” who feel entitled to the best. I wrote about these “nightmare employees” a few months ago. Have you had any of these young people in your business? You know, like the young woman whose mother called to yell at her boss because a bad review had “damaged her self-esteem.”
So how do you deal with these young ‘trophy’ employees?
- First, recognize that they are not all alike. Some are great, while others are awful.
- Second, recognize that we can’t expect them to be like us.
- Third, if you have to discipline them, explain what you are doing and why. You certainly have the right to discipline, just do it carefully.
- Fourth, you don’t have to support their misconceptions. You don’t have to reward them for just showing up. Setting up a pay structure that is fair but recognizes excellent performance will give them the idea.
Finally, at times you might need to shake them up. At the large local company I talked about above, one of the top executives called the “Millenial group” together and explained that they needed to “wake up and smell the coffee.” “Times are tough,” he said (I wasn’t there, but this is what I expect he said), “and you are either going to figure out how to work in the real world, or you won’t be working at all.” Rough lesson to learn, for these pampered trophy kids. But, then, we are all learning it.
What do you
Tags: baby boomers, milennials, younger employeesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Employees in Boomer Businesses, Getting Paid, Jobs, Work
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