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Fri, March 29, 2024

Millennials are Changing the Workplace Culture

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By Ujeena Rana

Sneha Manadhar, 27, works as a writer in Delhi. She changed her job some months ago. When asked about the reason, she answers, “I was utterly dissatisfied since I was performing trite duties every day for six months. I was not learning anything substantial. I didn’t grow as a writer; in fact, I felt that I was getting dumber by the day. My work hours were from 10 to 7 and that’s like the whole day!” She argues that if she is to invest all her time to a place, she wants more than just a pay check. So is job hopping bad? “It is usually considered job hopping when you move from one company to the next every one to two years, have done it multiple times, and the reason for each move is due to something other than a layoff or company closing,” says Frank Dadah at WinterWyman, a leading recruitment firm. Job hopping is argued asan idiosyncrasy of the millennials, also called as Gen Y or the generation born between 1980-2000. 70-year-old Krishna Kumar Thapa, a retired banker, worked for the same institution for 32 years. “In our time, there was no such thing as job hopping. Everybody sought security and longevity at work. Having a permanent job where you toil was a warm feeling back then. Job hopping was considered notorious and there was nothing glamorous about it. It was tantamount to disloyalty and incompetence,” he comments. “We didn’t even entertain the notion of ‘leaving a job before retirement’.” This can also be attributed to the absence of private sector boom and thereby of options. Thapa belongs to baby boomer generation; those born between 1946-1964. In today’s time when diversity at the workplace is celebrated, it is important to understand the mindset of employees based on their demographic and psychographic segmentation. Because each person is fundamentally different, an understanding of their makeup helps an organisation communicate and achieve its objective in an effective and efficient manner. “When the bulk of the workforce constituency was the baby boomers - stoic, long term oriented and collectivistic in nature, job hopping was highly frowned upon,” says David Parnell, a legal consultant, communication coach and author. “It was the norm to stay with an employer for 30 years, grab your pension and ride off quietly into the sunset.” The very attitude leads to “less or no innovation and even lacks a competitive spirit in many cases,” comments Euden Koirala, People and Organisational Development Manager at WaterAid Nepal. She underscores that millennials, particularly in the corporate sector, are constantly looking for growth which Koirala attributes to “their over ambitious and competitive or even restless nature at times.” The ‘instant gratification’ and ‘self-oriented’ stance to the work place is quintessentially associated to the Gen X and Gen Y generation. In the discourse around millennials and job hopping, the nature of industries needs to be considered as well. “Where a single move within a five-year span may have labelled someone as a pariah, in some industries nowadays, a move per year isn’t unheard of,” states Parnell. It has been observed that job hopping, apparently, is more evident in media, entertainment, government and non-profits, while longevity is highly valued in corporate environments. “I’ve noticed that millennials are more into social media marketing, blogging etc. They are easily sold by the idea of establishing a start-up. In my opinion, being a part of something ‘hip’ is what appeals to them because then they can brag about how cool their job is as opposed to a typical 9-5 job,” interprets Manandhar. Of course, to put every millennial into the job hopping box would be stereotypical.  Suvash Sharma, 37, married with two children, became a government employee in 2003 after fierce competition of the Public Service Commission. However if he were a baby boomer, he would have whispered incessant ‘thank you-s’ to the higher power and continued doing his work without complaint. Even though the job provides security, Sharma, cannot divorce the outlook millennials generally exhibit towards work. “I have been doing the same chore for the last 14 years. Potential and skills of employees are not utilised; in fact, they gather dust and eventually become unserviceable. Whereas in the private sector, employee skills are exploited and challenged; thereby ensuring their growth.” Defenders of millennials and their work philosophy hail them as “fiercely independent” who value achievement and diversity. Millennials are popularly thought to want it all and want it now. It is argued that the notion of ‘loyalty’ and ‘sticking to one place no matter what’ is considered antiquated especially by millennials who want to grow at the workplace and concurrently learn, develop and advance in their careers. The stance towards work taken by millennials is in stark contrast to their predecessors. At the work force, baby boomers have passed the torch to Gen X and Gen Y. In concert with Gen X, millennials will ultimately forge authority at work place. According to an article in Chicago Tribune: by 2020, millennials will make up 50 percent of the workforce. By 2025, that number is likely to reach 75 percent. Very soon they will be offered a seat at the negotiating table. If the future paints a rosy picture, the present, according to the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, is grim for the millennials. In a 2016 interview with Guardian, he stated, “In many countries the labour market is set up to protect older ‘insiders’ – people with permanent, high-paid contracts and shielded by strong labour laws. The side effect is that young people are stuck with lower paid, temporary contracts and get fired first in crisis times. That also means that employers are reluctant to invest in young people.” Detractors label generation X as the ‘slacker’ generation, and in the words of Anick Tolbize “Employers complain that younger workers are uncommitted to their jobs and work only the required hours and little more. Conversely, boomers may be workaholics and reportedly started the trend. Indeed, the prevailing stereotype is that younger workers do not work as hard as older workers do.” Moreover, the propensity of the millennials appears to be ‘changing workplaces frequently’. They are accused of being drifters and disoriented. In an article published in Forbes, Jeanne Meister writes, “For companies, losing an employee after a year means wasting precious time and resources on training and development, only to lose the employee before that investment pays off.”Inarguably, it looks bad on the resume if an applicant changes job places regularly. Many consider job hopping a career suicide. Nonetheless, the notion has been dismissed by many employers and HR executives. “Recruiters definitely prefer employees who offer some longevity but they also do not rule out job hoppers unless the job seeker’s cv shows that s/he has been hopping and skipping a variety of jobs within very short periods,” informs Koirala. She stresses that employers look at reasons for moving jobs. In fact, it also depends on the type of job being offered.Having said that, be prepared to answer in interviews why you left each company after such a short time. Even if bugles may be blown in the glory of ‘job hopping’, make no mistake, there will still be HR people, who, when they see frequent short job stints, largely less than 1-2 years each, might make a note of that individual being unfaithful, hard to please, insecure, unenthusiastic or difficult to work with. Dr. Rabindra Karna, Director of Human Resources at Hyatt Regency Kathmandu agrees on the projected connection between recruiters screening out chronic job hoppers, employee turnover, business performance and repetitive recruitment costs. “I’d like to stay at the present work place for at least a year. There is much to learn and I can work on improving my skills. If people think I am a job hopper, they might not take me seriously. Moreover, it doesn’t look appealing on the CV,” comments Manandhar underlining the backlash millennials face for job-hopping. But are job hoppers potential job quitters or they bring more to the table? Dr. Karna agrees that job hopping is commonly evident in the beginners’ age group, between 20-25 years of age. However, he does not write off the benefits that job hopping might facilitate outright. “Occasionally, it is seen positively by companies in view of having bonafide people for business achievement instead of moving with long staying average caliber employees.” To accommodate millennials in the workforce, baby boomers and Gen X need to introduce newer management methods since the out of date ones do not resonate with them. This is because millennials have their own principles, priorities, work ethics distinct from their predecessors. 21st century work culture will have new diktats as a result of the millennials.  After more than two decades of working at a bank, Koirala decided to switch to development sector. Gen X and baby boomers appeared apprehensive; the millennial staff applauded her for daring to take that leap of faith. [caption id="attachment_4710" align="alignright" width="166"] Euden Koirala, People and Organisational Development Manager at WaterAid Nepal[/caption] In a paper titled “Millennials in the Workplace: A Communication Perspective on Millennials’ Organisational Relationships and Performance”, it claims that on one hand, millennials are notorious for being impatient, self-important and disloyal. On the other, the same paper underscores a mountain of evidence suggesting that “they are more accepting of diversity than were past generations, have capabilities with advanced communication and information technologies, have the ability to see problems and opportunities from fresh perspectives, and are more comfortable working in teams than were past generations.” [caption id="attachment_4709" align="alignright" width="157"] Dr Rabindra Karna, Director of Human Resources, Hyatt Regency Kathmandu[/caption] According to Koirala and Dr. Karna reasons for employee turnover are:
  • Lack of job satisfaction,
  • No acknowledgement of contribution,
  • Hostile work environment (e.g. unsupportive line manager, too much office politics),
  • Absence of learning and development options,
  • Callenging work/life balance,
  • Better prospects / growth, better opportunities for their professional development elsewhere,
  • Cannot perform well and keep getting poor performance appraisals,
  • Monotonous work
  • Not pleased with the employee policy in the organisationAccording to them ways to retain the millennial work force are:
  • Millennials need to be heard and given that space to try out the new ideas or atleast discuss the pros and cons of those ideas,
  • Their engagement in the organisation has a lot to do with their retention,
  • Freedom of movement reinforced by delegation and authority to execute and perform challenges,
  • MASLOW’s Hierarchy of Need drives people to stay long in employment,
  • Opportunities for learning and development supported by career options
  • Extended job ownership as well as challenging assignments.

Illustration by: Anushri Lama

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