Early in my exploration of Millennial Marketing I began to avoid conversations about age-related workplace conflict. Speaking in front of older or mixed age audiences, I learned the hard way that any discussion of Millennials in the workplace was likely to be emotional and impossible to resolve. Individual workplace experiences are varied and vivid, making it difficult to bring the cold light of research productively to the discussion. Much safer to stick to marketing issues.

Millennials are famous for their optimism. Studies in the U.S. and around the world, confirm that a positive outlook about their personal future is one of the defining characteristics of the Millennial generation.  ’Cynical’, ‘weary’, and ‘jaded’ describe very few young adults.

“Oh man, I’d make a career out of the Muppets if I could. That’s my real dream job…” — Jason Potteiger, comment on  The Next Great Generation Blog

Perhaps one of the more lasting ways that Millennials will shape our culture is the way that they think about their lives, career and work.

There are so many ways to describe Millennials – creative, technology-adept, generous, collaborative. Yet the word that has stuck is ‘entitled‘.  The basic idea that Millennials expect to be treated with unearned respect in the workplace refuses to go away and may even be worsening.

    “They keep telling me, “here’s what you get in five years, ten years, twenty years…I feel like — what’s that expression — they are trying to sell me a bridge.”– Gen Y’er