Do You Want to Work with IT Trophy Kids?

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Even though the world today looks like an upside-down, there is a far greater chance that will have a far longer impact than this temporary financial crisis: the arrival of millennials into the IT workplace. Are you ready?

Just to make sure we all talk about the same thing here, the millennial generation was born between 1980 and 2001. With the baby boomer generation preparing to go to sunset, millennials are the new kids in town and they are getting ready to shake things up.

Ron Alsop who writes for the Wall Street Journal has taken the time to learn what this coming means for us all and he wrote a book with the answer in it entitled The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennium Generation Shakes the Workplace. He found some eye-opening things that all IT leaders need to pay attention to.

Entitled

If we have to describe the views of millennials about work, the word that everyone seems to use is “entitled” – they want it all and they want it now. What are they asking for? What about higher salaries, flexible working hours, promotions in a year, and more vacation / personal time. Why do they think they will get it? Studies show that almost half of the millennial generation has “… beliefs of moderate to high superiority about themselves.”

The Generation That Is Constantly Told That They Are The Best

What’s wrong with them? Where did all this come from? Blame parents (and teachers and trainers). This is the generation that is constantly told that they are the best, who get trophies even when they don’t win and are rarely criticized so as not to damage their self-esteem. Now they are in your IT department …!

Part Of Their Lives Outside Of Work

But wait a minute. Remember that millennials have a strong understanding of leading-edge technology – this is part of their lives outside of work. They tend to work very well in teams and they get along well with baby boomers because they remind them of their own parents.