Millennials

Millennials: aka Generation Y, the Me Generation, the Net Generation. .

Millennials born between 1980-2000. Differences between Millennials and other generations. I try to find studies that are free to view but that's not always possible. I'm finding all kinds of studies that contradict each other. Business studies say Millennials are confident (these are almost all based on questionnaires answered by millennials themselves), psychiatry studies say they have the highest rate of depression and anxiety. Read the studies closely to see how they were done and how the researchers reached their conclusion. If a sample size is too small, or too homogeneous, the conclusion may be suspect.

Start

 * 1) Racially diverse, economically stressed, politically liberal. Multiple studies here. Direct PDF download.
 * 2) Price Waterhouse Coopers. Paper titled "Engaging and Empowering Millennials".
 * 3) "Millennials are willing to give up some of their pay and slow the pace of promotion in their careers in exchange for working fewer hours."
 * 4) "Millennials tend to look for recognition rather than, or in addition to, money; rewards that will benefit them in life or in career-enhancing ways."
 * 5) "Millennials want greater flexibility in their schedules and career progression."
 * 6) Deloitte's paper "Mind the Gaps". The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2016. Looks like a free PDF download for now.
 * 7) Millennial paper. Paywalled.
 * 8) Why Millennials are so unhappy. An article about a significant portion of  Gen Y.
 * 9) Prof. Paul Harvey discusses the entitled portion of Gen Y in a video.
 * 10) Graph over time: More millennials live with their parents in California than in North Dakota. Is this just a culture gap? Are Californians just more lazy? California is well-known to be much more liberal in many things. I guess this includes raising helpless children.

News

 * 1) 2011. Millennials write in to The Atlantic about what they are facing. Some of the answers hit the spot. "Many Gen Y'ers complain about the lack of jobs, but refuse jobs they don't want to do." 2011.
 * 2) 2014-10. PDF from the Whitehouse, "15 Economics Facts About Millennials".
 * 3) 2015-03-12. Study: American Millennials among world's least skilled adults.
 * 4) Members of the so-called Generation Y ranked last in ability to work with numbers. And only their counterparts in Spain and Italy had lower literary scores.
 * 5) Supposedly tech-savvy Millennials also landed in last place in the category measuring how well they use computer applications to solve work problems.
 * 6) 2015-05-11. Study from PLOS One. Millennials are less religious than other generations. "In four large, nationally representative surveys (N = 11.2 million), American adolescents and emerging adults in the 2010s (Millennials) were significantly less religious than previous generations (Boomers, Generation X) at the same age."
 * 7) 2015-09. Coddling the American Mind. How erasing anything offensive or that might cause discomfort affected the Millennials. The Atlantic.
 * 8) 2016-05-24. Oberlin liberal college, makes headlines from foolish student demands like:
 * 9) Wanting $8.20 per hour for protesting.
 * 10) Demanding failing grades be eliminated so everyone always passes.
 * 11) A transgender student named Cyrus Eosphoros — just dropped out because of what Heller said he’d described as a “want of institutional support.” (i.e. the university didn't cater enough to him.)
 * 12) Some professor's don't give a written midterm, they just talk to the student instead.
 * 13) 2016-05-25. Millennials want to eliminate grades below a C so they don't have to work as hard. Archive.is link.
 * 14) 2016-05-30. The insane activism at US liberal colleges. Oberlin is one given example.
 * 15) 2015-06. Article about affluent Millennials.
 * 16) 2016-11-09 Berkeley (California) students stage protest because they didn't get their way at the polls.
 * 17) 2017-03-16. Record number of job quitters.

Millennials in the Workplace and Psychology Reports
Multitasking - cannot pay attention long enough do get anything important done; can do many things at once, but none of them very well. Very team oriented - do not have a sense of accountability, cannot think for themselves, cannot work or figure things out alone. Inclusive and nonjudgmental - less likely to question things and make them better, so innovation is unlikely. Social media experts - unable to communicate with real people, particularly anyone who is different or as they call anyone who is different... "weird." They are also unable to write in proper English or articulate their ideas when speaking. Expect to do well - not willing work to earn what they expect, no work ethic; cannot bare to hear that they are not doing well and need improvement. Like structured activities: cannot deal with an unstructured real world, which is a problem when working in a dynamic global environment
 * 1) Google search.
 * 2) 11 Tips for Managing Millennials.
 * 3) How to Lead Millennials in the workplace. By Forbes.
 * 4) "6 Key Principles for Managing Millennials".
 * 5) Millennials want more feedback more often, but managers should not assume to know what "feedback" is.
 * 6) Millennial Manpower: Why the trophy generation can't find jobs. Backup link.
 * 7) "Millennials: The Beat (Up) Generation". Backup link.
 * 8) "Called the "Trophy Generation," notorious for receiving prizes simply for showing up, they are thought to be entitled, narcissistic, self-promotional, coddled, opinionated, whiny, and needy, especially at work (when they're not complaining about unemployment, that is). They seek constant feedback and immediate gratification. They multitask and can't focus. They're sensitive to criticism and unable to work alone. They refuse to pay their dues. Don't even mention their (limited) verbal and writing skills."
 * 9) "Newspaper and magazine articles only feed the fire, regularly chronicling Millennial incompetence. For example, wide publicity attended a study reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that analyzed 9 million high school seniors and college freshmen and found that Millennials are more materialistic, more politically disengaged, and less concerned about helping the world at large than both Generation X and Boomers were at the same ages."
 * 10) "Millennials' work ethic also leaves something to be desired, the stereotype goes. In a 2006 study of executives and human resource managers at more than 400 companies, most said that today's college graduates had only "adequate" professionalism, innovation, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills."
 * 11) "Jeff Avallon, the vice president of business development at IdeaPaint...contends that Millennials' behavior is totally functional for the world they inherited. They don't respond to traditional hierarchical organization? Sorry, there's no longer enough time for that. The economy demands constant innovation, and the ruling-by-iron-fist model is not nimble enough for reacting quickly. Millennials are simply trying to do better."
 * 12) 2014-10-02. "Millennials Work for Purpose, not Paycheck". “Why be loyal to an organization that doesn’t return that loyalty when the chips are down?”
 * 13) 2014-05-08. Realistic view of Millennials in the workplace. May 2014. How they grew up and how that affects how they look at work. Backup link.
 * 14) A bold look at the weaknesses of some Millennials.  They don't sugar coat it. alt link?
 * 15) "Self-centeredness and entitlement is one of the biggest hindrances for twenty-somethings finding work. As workers, they've been described as "self-centered, needy, and entitled with unrealistic work expectations." Although money ranks low on the typical Millennials’ priorities (so they say), a gratifying and flexible job is more important."
 * 16) "The same study found that 79 percent of Millennials think they should be allowed to wear jeans to work at least sometimes, and 93 percent say they want a job where they can “be themselves.” In contrast, only 60 percent of Boomers think they should occasionally be allowed to wear jeans. Why do all of these twenty-some-odds think they should be allowed to wear whatever they want? Because that’s what [they have] been told all of [their] lives."
 * 17) "It would seem that one of the biggest issues at hand is the desire to be appreciated, and that is understandable. But it is the way in which newcomers to the workforce are requesting such wishes that is resulting in low employment numbers for Generation Y, and an overall bad taste in the mouth of more experienced workers for this entitled Trophy Generation."
 * 18) These are just some notable trends of a group, but each individual is different.
 * 19) Forbes' study called "Gimme Gimme Gimme". Millennials in the workplace, and the psychology behind them. Backup.
 * 20) 2012. What to do about 'Praise Junkies'. In an attempt to motivate employees, managers commonly use excessive praise. Everything is supposed to be a good job or great or super! This is part of the fake happiness phenomenon that has taken hold in the U.S. Some praise is fine when personnel do something really impressive. However, praise is used so much that it actually leads to people who cannot be motivated without it... Praise Junkies!
 * 1) 2015-05-21. Millennials the most depressed generation at work. "One in five Millennials said they have been depressed on the job, the most of any age group, a new survey found. That’s compared with 16% of Baby Boomers and 16% of Gen Xers, according to Mashable."
 * 2) 2014-01-08. Millennials’ Problem? Depression & Few Skills in Conflict Negotiation. Backup link.
 * 3) "Their bigger challenge is conflict negotiation, and they often are unable to think for themselves. The over-involvement of helicopter parents prevents children from learning how to grapple with disappointments on their own. If parents are navigating every minor situation for their kids, kids never learn to deal with conflict on their own. Helicopter parenting has caused these kids to crash-land."
 * 4) 2012. US Chamber of Commerce Foundation 2012 report on Millennials.
 * 5) 2014. Bentley college report on: Are Millennials Prepared? Backup.
 * 6) 2015-11-02. Helping Millennials define and solve their problems.
 * 7) 2016. Managing Human Resources for the Millennial Generation. One of very few books that doesn't sugar coat the issue.

Millennials and Narcissism
I try to find free access to the full studies but this is not always possible.


 * 1) Are Universities Creating Millennial Narcissistic Employees? An Empirical Examination of Narcissism in Business Students and Its Implications. (Original link paywalled. Use backup.) Backup.
 * 2) Millennial Searchers, PDF. Backup
 * 3) "The Me Me Me Generation". Stein, Joel. Time magazine. May 20, 2013. Archive.is backup.
 * 4) Comparing Millennials to pre-1987 students and themselves. North American Journal of Psychology 12(3):579-602. December 2010.
 * 5) From Google Scholar

Millennials and Anxiety

 * 1) Google Search.
 * 2) Google Scholar.

Lists of articles

 * 1) Census report. "The Changing Economics and Demographics of young adultood, 1975-2016".

Misc

 * 1) Why people under 35 are so unhappy. TLDR: their expectations are totally unrealistic.
 * 2) The problem isn't that life is unfair, it's your broken idea of fairness. You don't get everything you want just because you are nice. That's not how the rules work.
 * 3) Campus Culture Encouraging Distorted Thinking, encouraging students to "overgeneralize, personalize, and magnify problems."