A friend of mine told me she was going on a business
trip, but she was nervous about it. I asked her why. I assumed she was afraid
of the plane trip, or the city, or a presentation she had to make.
"Because," she said tensely, "there will be all those Millenials
along."
Apparently there are training programs for employers
to show them how to work with Gen Xers and now Millenials. These supposedly
thoughtful people warn older workers about all the problems they'll face with
these difficult youngsters. "They can't write by hand," the trainers
warn. "They are slackers with no aspirations, cynical, infantile, distrustful
of institutions and impractical."
No wonder my friend was worried!
RANT ALERT: I hate this kind of language:
denigrating and stereotyping others. To get a sense of how mean-spirited this
is, replace the word Millenials with the word women: "Those women are
slackers, cynical, infantile, distrustful of institutions and
impractical."
Sound awful? It should! We could use the words
"African-Americans", or "Irish" or "Asians", and it would
still be name-calling. I call on all employers to avoid these types of
"training" programs, and instead search for ways to help people work together rather than fear each
other. END OF RANT.
Gen Xers, Millenials, Gen Yers and Gen Zers; they
are all similar to Lacey, young and still learning. We should be giving them
support and showing them patience, not beating up on them or – even
worse!—calling them names.
Because, at the end of the day, WE were once the
kittens in our world; the awkward, rowdy, cursing, badly behaved set. We paid
no attention to our elders who had lived through THE Great Depression and THE World War Two. They had a lot
of experience (believe me, I heard all about it growing up), and they had plans
for all of us born to them. Top of the list: we would appreciate their
survival, their hard-fought battles, and do exactly what they wanted us to do
with our lives because of their sacrifices.
By
now, our generation -- the Baby Boomers they called us because our being born
caused a boom in the population after 1945, not because of any big noise we
made – is well known for its flippancy, failure to follow rules, and drug use. We
protested EVERYTHING. We marched, and signed petitions, and danced in the
streets when we were supposed to be in class. We were such terrible youngsters,
jumping on and harassing our elders in the same way that Lacey pesters Jones.
And now we are the Joneses of our world; the
world-weary and anxious; longing for peace and quiet.
As Jones runs away from Lacey to get out of her way,
so must we – get out of the way.
It's okay, fellow Boomers, we've done our part;
raised this fascinating new generation, set them on their feet to face the
world with kindness and confidence. We did a great job!
We ARE okay.
