Where Should a Millennial Draw the Line?

Whenever I think about patience (or lack thereof) I think about my good friend Kevin. He's the poster-child for millennial ADD. Ever since I can remember, he has never been able to keep a job. Not because he's lazy or incapable of doing the work – managers would love an army of Kevins on the job. His real problem is intolerance for sheer boredom…but who doesn't have that problem?

It seems like a big part of being an entry-level worker is just waiting for something big to come your way. In the mean time, you bite your lip and act busy. Here at Employee Evolution, we've met plenty of millennials that cope with this sort of existence. Preceding generations say it's normal. I say it sucks. And everyone who's living with it is wondering where the hell to draw the line.

If what our elders say is true, we're supposed to keep on truckin'. Eventually we'll have some real responsibility and the downtime will be nothing less than treasured. The problem is, I don't live my life on blind faith.

How do you know you're not just sitting in a dead-end job twiddling thumbs until eventually you get the boot? There's certainly that risk in any position, but when you know your manager is not using you to the extent of your abilities, you start to wonder if the company really needs you.

And what about the time you're wasting? There's so many better ways to spend your day than just sitting around waiting for your time to shine. When does waiting end and taking action begin? The answer is not easy, but here are a few low-risk suggestions…

• Keep your options open – Don't wait for things to end to start thinking about new beginnings. Keep your resume in the flow and continue to network.
• Annoy your boss – Yeah I said it! Constantly ask for more work, even if they never give you any. People rarely get fired for being too engaged at the office.
• Screw face-time! – If you've put in your 8 hours and accomplished nothing, don't continue to waste your precious time. If you don't already have a hobby, get one.

Now if you're sick and tired of annoying your boss, already have an endeavor on the sideline and have your resume circulating on the MONSTER known as Monster.com, here is a crazy idea…create your own rules! Leave early if you have nothing to do. Start the day late when you have evening meetings. Don't make any excuses when people ask where you were all day.

Follow this new mantra at your own risk – there's a chance you could get fired. But who wants to work at a dead end job with nothing to do anyway? A good manager will recognize your new mind-set as a need for more work. A bad manager will write it off and call you careless. In that case, reevaluate how you feel about working for this person. You may burn a bridge or two, but in today's world of invariability, a few burned bridges is not the end of the world.

Knowing when to get out isn't easy and I'm no expert. I do know that Kevin's erratic job-hopping is not the answer, either is sitting around and wasting your life. Hopefully some of our HR readers can take a stab at it for us. "Be proactive" is the answer I always get, but we all have our limits. How do you know when enough is enough?

Sometimes big companies are no fun

I've been an intern at a large company for over a year now. I've worked both part-time and full-time. I've seen the ins-and-outs, no doubt. That's why I found this article on CollegeHumor so amusing. Going off to work at a big company after school can be sad, lonely and a waste of everyone's time.

But, just because people don't notice you doesn't mean your time spent can't be rewarding.

Learn to prioritize

Sure, I may see my boss once or twice a day if I'm lucky (with a sum total of 4 minutes spent together). But, that gives me the freedom to get things done on my own schedule. If you don't know how to prioritize and organize your time this is a great place to learn. If you screw up a little, heck, there's always tomorrow. Even better, people might not even notice.

Work on meeting people

It may seem lonely in the fifth row, fourth cubicle on the right. In fact, it is. That's why I make it a point to get up and go talk to a co-worker once an hour or so. No, nobody walks over to my desk and that's fine. Many times in life you have to get up and take initiative yourself. Or, yes, you can sit there and shoot off emails and chat online with friends from college talking about how your job sucks.

Small companies aren't any better

Have you tried working in an office of 4 people? It's not all that it's cracked up to be. Sure, it sounds entrepreneurial and dynamic but I'd argue it can be much worse than any big boring company you go work for.

• You have to do everything – If you're not the boss you're going to end up doing a little bit of everyone's job. This means less time focusing on what you like or what you want to learn.
• You mess up and everyone notices – If there are only a handful of you and you make a mistake it doesn't take much of a ripple to affect everyone else. Sure, you learn responsibility and more organization (maybe) but you also loose some flexibility.
• You might make less – Sure, you don't need much money to "get by" but if I have to work harder and later at a small company for the same pay as my friends working 9:17-4:45 two things happen. I have less time to spend that money and I am making less for each hour or unit of work I put in.

So both suck?

I'm not saying working at a small company can't be rewarding. I think we've all heard the argument that startups are fun, small companies allow flexibility, etc. My point is you could easily be upset no matter where you work. You have to take the time to find the right fit for you.

Having just graduated I feel like I've made the perfect choice. In fact, I can't think of a job I'd much rather have. I recommend getting out into the "real world" through internships, summer jobs, and post-undergrad jobs to find what you like as soon as possible. The sooner the better, right?

Throw away e-learning

I recently received an email from career coach and corporate consultant, J.T O'Donnell. She attached a link to a new e-learning course that she gives to young employees, and she asked for my input. For days, I debated how to respond. Eventually, I replied and told her that I hate all e-learning.

She said that most millennials she works with dislike e-learning. So, she only designs e-learning tools that are coupled with personal teaching and discussion.

After mentioning my desire to write a post about doing away with e-learning, J.T gave me some great insight. She told me, "It helps save companies thousands in training costs."

Bingo! Now I know why companies are using e-learning to replace hands-on mentoring and teaching – it's cheap. Clearly, a company's main goal is to make a profit, and this means minimizing costs wherever possible. However, training and developing your employees, especially the confused new hires, is not the right area to cut costs.

At orientation, the first time my peers and I logged in to complete an e-learning course, we all looked at each other with puzzled faces. I thought, "Is this serious?" Others snickered throughout the whole assignment and most of us jumped through the course totally bored. Without discussion or one-on-one teaching e-learning is cheap, ineffective and gives the impression that a company does not care enough to invest time or money into training. Which in turn, gives the impression that employees are unimportant.

I don't necessarily think that loathing e-learning is a millennial trait. My Gen X co-workers constantly complain about the thoughtless "busy work" that comes from e-learning tools. My mother even called the other day to rant about the stupidity of her e-training classes. So who actually benefits from this?

Maybe companies use this cheap training because they expect people to job hop and don't want to waste budget dollars on employees who won't be around for long. But in reality, not focusing on personally training and developing entry level employees is probably what causes them to job hop in the first place.

If an e-learning tool can somehow be coupled with actual face-to-face learning or mentoring then I am all for it. Just don't use it as a replacement for real teaching. I crave the personal connections that come with one-on-one or classroom teaching, even if the rest of my life is spent online.

You Must be this Tall to Join the Conference

Marina is a recent college grad working in the field of information technology. While registering for her first technology expo in the "real world" she came across something that didn't sit right. Here's her story…

I got my diploma in December, and found my first real gig as a software developer in a small office. My coworkers seem cool enough, though they occasionally mention that they have video game systems older than I am. Recently, my boss suggested I attend an information technology conference: a sort of trade show, where companies and self-proclaimed experts show off their wares to unsuspecting engineers and their managers. I eagerly filled out the form, but my excitement was cut short when I received this admonition in the confirmation email:

"Persons under the age of 21 (including infants in strollers and backpacks) and students are not permitted."

Now don't get me wrong, I understand that a conference isn't a mall or an amusement park; it's not the sort of place where screaming babies should be crawling around amidst the computing equipment. But this sort of condescending attitude towards students and young people in general, is what turns our generation off and makes us not want to work for you, or even with you. I'm annoyed by this rule not only because I just turned 22 and consider myself mature and professional in every respect, but also because I know lots of people (who happen to be under 21) that are doing great things, especially in the fields of business and technology.

Many of the world's top technology companies were started by people right around this age. You'd think that anyone who's trying to be a leader in the field would encourage young people to attend their events and learn about their products, not forbid them. After all, these are your future employees, if not your future bosses.

That's not to say that no one sees the power of the generation that's grown up with the internet. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a prestigious computing organization, has student chapters, and even encourages young not-yet-professionals to join by giving them a discount. CIOs today are younger than ever, because it turns out that experience isn't always everything, or even the most important thing. At Google, only 2% of employees are over 40.

The fact is, when choosing a job, members of Gen-Y are likely to look at how open the potential boss is to new ideas and change, and whether years of paying dues are required before your ideas can get heard. One of the things I really like about my job is that my manager made a point of telling me how much the energy and fresh outlook of a recent graduate could do for the team, and meant it. He listens to my thoughts on new technology, methods, tools, recruiting, web design, and so forth: the things that someone fresh out of college is more likely to be up-to-date on than a 20-year company veteran. Of course experience is important, but naiveté, ambition and sheer curiosity have a place at work as well.

Our generation might be throwing loud parties next door or frightening your grandma with our piercings, but we're also doing amazing things in every field. Far from turning us away at the door, the organizers of that conference should have been eagerly inviting us in.

Leaderless Organizations Make Sense, Read The Starfish and The Spider

Five years ago, some friends of mine decided to start a business at Penn State. Like anything built from scratch, they put their blood, sweat and tears into its creation…it was well worth it. Within a few years, the business became a huge success. Since graduating, they created a main company and licensed the idea to entrepreneurs at 12 schools across the country. Out of respect for their wishes, I'm keeping their names and the name of their business undisclosed.

Last week, I picked up the book, The Starfish and The Spider. As it states on the cover, the book is about, "the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations. The authors describe companies like Napster and Kazaa turning the 100-year-old music industry on its head in just five years. The premise is that, like a starfish, if a decentralized organization loses one of its limbs, it may be temporarily injured, but will not crumble. However, typical top down, hierarchically structured organizations will not survive a blow to their core. Much like a spider will die when its head is cut off. You may be thinking, where is he going with all of this? Let me tell you…

Today's corporate system is set up like the spider. Everything starts at the top and works its way down. Employees have to jump through hoops just to get a new idea in the right hands or to ask for permission to attend a recruiting trip.

I think like a starfish. I was using Napster in middle school and high school, and Kazaa throughout college. "Peer-to-peer" or "starfish networks" are second nature to me. Today, I regularly use technology such as Wikipedia and Facebook which gives me the freedom to create the content I want to see and erase the content I don't. Is it any wonder that the insane bureaucracy that the corporate world thrives on is incredibly difficult for me to adapt to? Is it any wonder that nearly all of my friends plan to start their own businesses so they can create their own content?

My buddies innately understood our generations need to create their own content. Long before this book was even published, they knew that rather than creating a huge corporation with employees who report every detail to headquarters, they were better off licensing the idea to motivated students. All they had to say was, "Do you want to run your own business?" As you can imagine, very few students turned that proposition down.

If my friends had gone the other route and tried to recruit these students as employees in charge of running a business and receiving monthly paychecks, I guarantee they would not be nearly as successful as they are today. To this day, they refuse to call themselves the boss or call their licensees employees. Maybe they used this strategy to play into the well known fact that many millennials want to run their own business. But I think it has more to do with the fact that in today's world, a decentralized or leaderless organization makes a lot more sense then an antiquated hierarchically structured one. There is still a headquarters, and my friends are definitely the "CEO's," they just aren't hung up on power or control. Success is all that matters.

As our generation enters the workforce, strict, top-down corporations will face a huge problem trying to retain millennial talent. Companies will eventually have to adapt and change their fundamental structure from one of command and control to one of communication, trust and knowledge sharing. Take a tip from my friends and trust your millennial talent to run, or at least play an active role in their projects. In return you will receive great work and dedicated employees. Who knows, you may even keep your top talent from running to Google after a year or two.