You Raised Us, Now Work With Us. Sincerely, Millennials
b'with Lauren Stiller Rikleen, Expert on Strategic Leadership, Author of You Raised Us \\u2013 Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success and Building Strong Workplace Teams
Is the workplace really a battle zone between seasoned and experienced baby boomers and the less experienced, but ambitious and self-confident millennials? Lauren Stiller Rikleen has conducted research which exposes the cultural differences largely to blame for the bad rap attributed to both sides and lays it all out in her book, You Raised Us, Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Work Place Teams.
Millennials (those born between roughly 1978 and 2000) were raised in the technology decades and for that reason alone come into the workplace with better tech skills than the majority of boomers. In addition, boomer parents raised this generation to be self-confident as well as having given them travel and educational advantages far exceeding those of previous generations, for the most part.
The stereotypical traits attributed to millennials are a sense of entitlement, lack of loyalty and commitment, as well as a lack of respect for the older worker. The boomers, on the other hand, often view these younger workmates, who appear to be aggressive and disrespectful, as vultures on the limb, waiting to swoop down and take their positions.
Lauren points out that another intervening generation, the gen Xers, pushing to take on senior leadership roles, are more often a greater cause of friction with the older boomer generation who, in fact, \\xa0are sticking around and holding on to those positions longer than in the past. So while the work ethics and manners may differ between boomers and millennials, it\\u2019s actually the gen Xers creating most of the discord.
Lauren writes in her book that because the cultural gap between boomers and millennials is immense, better communication and understanding is the key to a harmonious working environment.
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Steve Pomeranz: The battle between generations rages on in the workplace.\\xa0 Boomers say, "These kids don\'t have a clue what hard work is." Millennials say, "These old fogies think we\'re free tech support." Well, there\'s going to be some discussion in between and, if there is a chasm between generations, my next guest can explain it and help us to work it out.\\xa0 She is Lauren Stiller Rikleen, President of the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership and author of You Raised Us, Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Work Place Teams. Hey, Lauren, welcome to the show.
Lauren Stiller Rikleen: Thank you so much.
Steve Pomeranz: So we\'re talking about the millennial generation, how big is this generation in the US?
Lauren Stiller Rikleen: 86 million.
Steve Pomeranz: 86 million young people.
Lauren Stiller Rikleen: Yeah.
Steve Pomeranz: Now we\'re talking about ages approximating what?
Lauren Stiller Rikleen: Well,'