Millennials respond to common stereotypes
Credit to Author: DARREN E. DUMAOP| Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2019 16:17:43 +0000
Whether we like it or not, people from different generations meet at work. These meetings are not always pleasant. Throughout the trimester, my graduate school students complain about being accused – as millennials – by their older colleagues of all sorts of negative stereotypes. One evening, we discussed these accusations and tried to respond to them. After all, each one of us is a millennial (yes, including me). Various sources say millennials were born between 1985 and 2000. They (or should I say, we) compose a huge population in the workforce ranging from entry-level jobs to mid-level/supervisory positions. Here, I present our response to some of the usual slurs.
Self-entitled
Many boomers (i.e., those born after World War II) and Generation X-ers (i.e., born during the Martial Law period) charge millennials of being self-entitled and self-important. Clifford Andawi, a school counselor from Bulacan, explained that complaining about and demanding for one’s rights is not self-entitlement. He expounded that most millennials seem to be more aware of their rights fought for by older generations. Therefore, claiming these rights is not being self-entitled; it’s just treating personal rights and choices as a normal part of life.
Disrespectful|
I always love to respond to this allegation and now I have the chance. What is respect in the first place? If it means treating someone with care, then I don’t think most millennials show any less care in how they treat other people. But if respect means treating senior colleagues with more care, then there lies the problem. Being a millennial myself, I have the impression that most people in my generation accord equal respect to everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, or whatnot. If older people expect to be respected more because of their advanced age or position, then we have to rethink who really has a self-entitlement issue.
Needs constant validation
Eric Gonzales of Manila doesn’t think that millennials especially crave for approval in everything they do. Rather, they are interested to receive feedback to properly gauge their effort. It’s not that they are lazy. Most millennials want to be efficient in the sense that they want to achieve the best results with minimum effort. Millennials value honest judgment, guidance, and coaching.
Now, enough of proving our innocence! There is one important trend that I want to highlight. People tend to portray other generations, especially newer ones, as being worse than themselves. Boomers and X-ers alike can attest to this, considering their experiences when they entered the workforce. And I bet, millennials are excited to welcome the so called Generation Z-ers (i.e., the post-millennials) with similar scorn. The bottom line: people can easily pick on the perceived defects of the next generation. Maybe, this makes them feel proud of themselves. I believe we can be better than this.
To not offend the “self-entitlement” of my fellow millennials, I thank HD dela Cruz, Tine Corpuz, Pij Lanic, Verna Afable, Jhoy Valdez, Kathy dela Cruz, and Andrew Hornshaw. Without our discussions, my insights would not have been possible.
Darren Dumaop is an assistant professor of psychology at De La Salle University. Email: darren.dumaop@dlsu.edu.ph
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