Managing the Millennials, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1The Millennials and You

If we don't like a job, we quit, because the worst thing that can happen is that we move back home. There's no stigma, and many of us grew up with both parents working, so our moms would love nothing more than to cook our favorite meatloaf.

—Jason Ryan Dorsey (28 years old)¹

Have you noticed the change in your workplace? Young people—particularly members of a new generation of workers that we refer to as Millennials—have recently become the largest age cohort in the workforce. Are you ready for them? And have you noticed that they are a little different than you? You might even think they are strange or that they do not quite have “it” together. Maybe they sometimes show up to work wearing flip-flops or they have iPod headphones hanging from their ears. And perhaps they just sit at their desks waiting for someone to give them something to do.

In 2015, Millennials comprised 35 percent of the workforce—nearly 54 million workers.² Within the next decade, Millennials will be all in! By 2020, one in three adults will be a Millennial, and when the clock clicks 2025, three of four workers will be from the Millennial generation.³ Successful managers will be the ones who understand, appreciate, and learn to work with the differences in values, work-life priorities, and expectations they bring.

The Millennial flood has become front-page news—virtually every form of media is talking about it, from the Saturday Night Live' sketch “The Millennials” to newspapers ...