Millennial Murder

Millennials are on trial. You know, those millennials that are the people or often referred to as “kids” born roughly between 1980 and 2000. So slam the gavel, settle in, we are about to begin a case in murder. Instead of an accusation of killing fellow mankind, millennials are accused of killing things, industry, social norms. The victims? Here are but a few:

1. The movie business
2. Napkins
3. Class
4. Vacation
5. Bar soap
6. Relationships
7. Home Depot
8. Running
9. Cereal
10. The 9-5 workday
11. The NFL
12. The Oil Industry
13. Diamonds
14. Retailers
15. The Suit
16. Crowd funding
17. American Dream
18. Canadian Tourism
19. Democracy
20. The Focus Group
21. Banks

SOURCE: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ahmedaliakbar/millennial-murder-spree?utm_term=.po78mXljY#.sc0LRvome

Vultures! Who would be so cruel to kill bar soap and napkins? (Truth: I don’t use either, so you better handcuff me too). There’s a few things I see here…comedy, scapegoating, and opportunity! Opportunity, you say? But this generation can’t be stopped, they have a mind of their own, a culture of smart phones, technology, transient lives and undefined values and inescapable stubbornness, what opportunity lies within that argument?

 

I offer a defense.

        In a generation that refuses to be told exactly what to do, that challenges the social norms and the cemented materialistic driven economy, I see a path for new ideas, creativity and innovation.

 

I also offer some evidence. In my line of work, the millennial workforce are hired with caution, with a hope that they will stay for more than 1 or 2 years in the same job, but the anticipation that they will move on quickly to somewhere else. Often, millennial will seek higher paying jobs, and refuse to stay in an area who doesn’t provide continuing growth.

 

Forgive them please for putting on their oxygen mask on first, before putting it on the organization or society that mocks them.

 

Ironically, PEW research offered that the generation before millennials, Gen X, during their tenure at a workplace would leave even sooner than the villainized generation.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/19/millennials-arent-job-hopping-any-faster-than-generation-x-did/ft_17-04-17_millennialjobtenure/

 

Also, those transient millennials are often accused of moving all over the pace. Data again from PEWS research says otherwise:

 

SOURCE: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/13/americans-are-moving-at-historically-low-rates-in-part-because-millennials-are-staying-put/ft_17-02-07_millennial-mobility_1/

The prosecution? Times Magazine published an article entitled, “Millennials: The Me Me Me generation”. They wrote “Millennials got so many participation trophies growing up that a recent study showed that 40% believe they should be promoted every two years, regardless of performance” (Stein, 2013).

 

Ouch. Those participation trophies as children seem directly blamed for their correlation with career entitlement? Hmmm…Let’s also note that a promotion usually leads to a pay increase, which at lower rates of pay now a days following an economy crash, and climbing tuition costs and never ending tuition debt, cannot possibly be reasons of why a millennial worker who stayed in the same position for more than a year would ask for more money, with work more experience?

 

Also, there are books, YouTube videos and seminars advising companies how to deal with Millennial workers who e-mail the CEO of the company directly “Because millennials don’t respect authority, they also don’t resent it.” (Stein, 2013). There’s a term for demanding that leadership respond to the ideas and existence of its workers…transparent leadership, teamwork, and a valued employee. If millennials are demanding transparency in companies and industries, so they can see value in themselves and the work they do because of the mound of participation trophies they received in their youth and the imbalance of salary to tuition debt ratio, that generations before them allowed to grow wild…shame on them, right?

Seminar THAT.

SOURCE:http://time.com/247/millennials-the-me-me-me-generation/

As a self-disclosed millennial (gasp!) who doesn’t use bar soap or napkins, rarely goes to the movies or eats cereal I say don’t count this generation out too soon. I’m excited, as this generation grows into its own with creative solutions to global warming, inequality, social injustice, and a failing healthcare system.

So go ahead, accuse us of being murders…

 …….but watch us become mothers to new ideas & innovation, nurses and healers to complex problems, and leaders of a value system that yes values individuality and self-worth in order to conquer the demoralized worth and value of society in chaos….

The jury is still out…

~Keep on Caring ♥