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The Millennials
If your office has employees born between 1977 and 1995, your company probably runs off of some high-octane brainpower that can run the world. Literally.
Millennials are a unique bunch. Growing up in a time of Google, YouTube, and Facebook, they seemingly can do anything. They were born in a sweet spot of history where they aren’t afraid of technology and still know the value of hard work.
Hire them and you may get a warning of laziness
But how lazy is it to be willing to work while home, reply to emails on weekends, finish up research while on vacation, or throw back Red Bulls to pull an all-nighter to prepare for a project?
They are putting family on the back burner in the name of career and churning out innovative, million-dollar ideas.
That tenacity is not without limits.
No matter what commercials told them. They can’t be the Energizer bunny. They can’t keep going and going and going. But they will try.
It may be tempting to just sit back and enjoy the burst of productivity until the workaholics train wreck.
Word to the wise: Don’t.
Their ambition knows no bounds and that’s a dangerous recipe for spiral of stress, a stress that can turn debilitating and keep those star employees from performing to their best.
What’s strange is they bring it on themselves
They were told to “Go big or go home,” and millennials took it to heart. They know Mark Zuckerberg started off just like them. They know their next promotion or once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is just around the corner. And they don’t want to miss it.
It’s such a thing, in fact, that they made a name for it, called Fear of Missing Out. It’s also known as FOMO for short, befitting of text speak.
Employers may be able to lighten the stress overload for their millennial workers by offering clearly defined tasks to prevent them from doing too much. Periodic checkpoints may help them feel the sense of accomplishment they long for. Better yet, allow them to put their big visions to paper or in a planning meeting. You get their genius work and the opportunity to help them map it out so it becomes reality.
Game changers
It’s worth the extra effort because they have revolutionary ideas.
But they don’t need a kick in the pants. Millennials can get their own butts in gear.
Like any well-run machine, they just need help harnessing all that power.
