Life
How to Talk to Millennials: The Spreadsheet
Everybody just looooves to hate on millennials these days — we're all entitled special snowflakes who need to be coddled at all times, and oh yeah we suck at communicating because of social media, did I get it right? Turns out the Giants' head coach Tim Coughlin doesn't know how to communicate with the millennials on his team, either, so he teamed up with a clinical psychologist to make a "How to Talk to Your Office Millennials" spreadsheet, so people of all generations can understand each other once and for all. Am I the only one freaked out by the fact that there are people my age on the Giants? I feel incredibly old and unsuccessful all of a sudden.
Whether I agree with the "let's constantly harp on Generation Y thing" (I don't), I definitely agree that it's frustrating to work with people from different generations, and that growing up with different sorts of technology impacts the way people approach problem-solving. For instance, at my job, it drives me and my coworkers nuts that people constantly call up with questions that are explicitly answered on our website. We can't wrap our heads around why people's first instinct would be to call someone for help, rather than looking for the answer on their own and then, if they can't find it, calling for help. But then again, that's probably a product of us growing up with the Internet. In the good ol' days, if you had a problem, you called someone. There was no Internet. So, while it causes me great annoyance, I have to admit that I can see the value in trying to bridge the gaps between generations.
So take a look at the cheat sheet below to help you empathize with your coworkers so you don't end up in a hostile work environment. And you might learn a little about yourself, too. Apparently Generation X is defined by "missing children on milk cartons"?
