Working with Millennials
I'm sure if social media had been the thing when I was in my early 20's, the Boomers and previous generations might have commented on how different it was to work with Gen Xers and how we demanded to have things done differently than they had when they were younger.
It seems to me that each generation learns different things and wants different things as our society changes.
I find that most of the milennials I work with expect quick responses, usually to text messages though also to other forms of communication as well. I am not sure that is much different than other generations though. I think that we have all become use to faster response times and shorter attention spans. I know that when I want something, often I want it now, and the phone in my hand usually allows me that freedom whether it is ordering the next book in a series for my Kindle right now or an answer to a nagging questions like what else has that actor been in. I didn't grow up with this type of response. It didn't exist. However, having gotten used to it, I like it and often expect it.
How then would the millennials not having never known as world where communication couldn't be instantaneous.
My son maybe a Millennial (nobody seems quite sure of the birth years ; ) I explained to him one day that phones used to be plugged in to the wall. His response, "Why because the battery was charging." When I explained no, that was how they worked. He said, "That's stupid." He can't comprehend a world without the iPhone, with corded phones, without Google.
Perhaps, we just need to remember what they see as normal, and remember and that though many of us have come to see things the same way, many of the Millennials can't even remember a time that it wasn't that way.
So, expect to respond quickly though you can set up limitations so you're not "on call" 24 hours a day.
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