It never occurred to me that I was a millennial. (Typically millennials are the children of either Baby Boomers or some Gen-Xers. We are also often referred to as the Boomerang Generation or Peter Pan Generation.)-thank you Wikipedia.
Learning the ins and outs of the workplace has been a challenge for me. I have never quite been able to understand why I always felt so differently about work than many of my coworkers. I started working when I was 15 and have had a job ever since. My parents never told me I had to get a job. I just figured that if I wanted to buy things I would need to work.
After graduating college ahead of schedule, I couldn’t wait to get a “real” job and take control over “my” life. It has taken me 8 years to figure out that its not just this job or that job that I haven’t enjoyed or in some case damn near couldn’t stand. I’ve realized that most jobs do in fact totally suck. After all of that hard work and money for an education everyone winds up in the same leaky, shitty boat. I remember crying in the bathroom at my first job almost daily because I had no idea what I was doing (shout out to Sheryl Sandberg for saying that its ok to admit you cry at work). I had my first panic attack at work 2 years later and it has been a train wreck ever since. (I will expand more on panic attacks in a later post.)
Then a session at SXSW Interactive helped me figure out where all of these crazy emotions were coming from. It turns out I am not alone!
Jennifer Selke and Tim Street lead one of the best sessions that I attended at SXSW; Praise & A’s: Maximizing a Millennial Workforce. Unlike 99% of the sessions at SXSW, this one was rather small and intimate (30-40 people) and I learned a few things:
- Millennials will make up 34% of the workforce by 2014
- 73% want a job where they can make an impact compared to 53% of everyone else
- Millennials want to know how the little things that they do fit into the larger picture
- Millennials want to feel valued/important
In just one session they listed my issues for the past 8 years. I just thought I was crazy – me – that it wasn’t an entire generation having the same challenges. That never ending feeling of “is this it?” Being told repeatedly by parents and coworkers that no one actually enjoys their jobs, it is just a fact of life.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way, which is what this blog is all about. Start by identifying what it is that you are struggling with. Is it the day to day tasks, the beige cubicle farm, coworkers that don’t inspire you, bosses that are already checked out?
Or maybe you are super lucky and you have a job that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning and get started. If you do, please please leave a comment, I would love to hear all about what you do and why you like it so much. Perhaps it will help others out as well.
84 Vintage 