Millennials - A Changing Of The Guard

Each generation is shaped by the times and environment it grows up in, and Millennials are no exception. Now that Millennials are starting to enter management positions at many companies, we're likely to see workplaces changes that reflect Millennial attitudes, habits, and worldviews.

Let's take a look at some of the ways…

Work Life Boundaries

Baby Boomers and Gen Xers generally like to set boundaries between their workdays and their personal lives. "Get the work done and go home" is a typical attitude for many older workers. But as technology has changed -particularly mobile technology - work patterns have changed as well, and Millennials have adopted a different view of boundaries between work and personal lives.

For example, many Millennials have no problem with taking care of work responsibilities in their after hours or on weekends, and likewise, they don't particularly enjoy working for eight hours straight without spending some time on Facebook or taking a long lunch to catch up with friends.

As Millennials take over management positions, we will probably see more flexibility in the way employees manage their time. Personal and work lives may become more blurred as this generation turns their acquired work habits into company policies.

Measures of Productivity

Annual reviews have been the de facto measure of employee performance in many corporations for years, but Millennials are less formal and more relationship oriented than past generations, and their measures of productivity will likely be different.

Instead of waiting all year for a review, employees in the future will probably receive less formal, more frequent reviews from their supervisors. As Millennials take over management positions, job reviews may become more like job coaching than the performance reviews of the past. 

Workplace Relationships

Just as the older generations tend to set boundaries between work time and personal time, they also tend to draw distinctions between work relationships and personal relationships. Now, however, with your boss and your cousin and your college roommate all seeing the same social media posts about your vacation at the same time, those lines are blurred.

Millennial-run workplaces will probably have a larger emphasis on relationships, whether that's in the way sales teams operate or in the way co-workers communicate with each other after business hours close for the day. Relationships are very important to Millennials, and workplace atmospheres will reflect that priority.

The Changing of the Guard

As the Baby Boomers retire, they will take their habits, worldview, and traditions with them into the next phase of their lives, and as the Millennials join the Gen Xers in management, we'll see changes in the ways businesses run. These changes will in large part be driven by technology and the many changes technology have had on the way we communicate, measure productivity, and conduct our business and relationships.