Generation Y Strikes Back

At an after-work function last week, a colleague (it still feels weird for me to say that) was discussing a recent issue he had with a parent of a prospective student. He was appalled that this student’s parent was doing all the work for him — calling about this and that — when the student should be the one taking the initiative to get the questions he had answered himself. After this little rant several of my co-workers just looked at each other and in unison shook their heads and simply said one word, “Millennials.”

It got me thinking.

Being a Generation Y blogger and all, I should have been well aware of what I was getting myself into. Perhaps I’m just naive, okay really naive, but I entered my first post-grad job not concerned with a potential divide that could exist between the Baby Boomer generation and the Millennials. (And for that matter, where do those angst-ridden Generation Xers come into play?) But the truth is an (typically) unspoken rift between the old and the new thrives in the workplace. That’s life, kid.

If I had a nickel for every computer tip I’ve given in the last three weeks, well let’s just say, I’d have a lot of nickels. But technology isn’t the only thing we’re good at. Despite what you may think, some of us can take constructive criticism and accept failure as a possiblity. And most of us certainly wouldn’t allow our parents to do the talking for us.

Stereotypes exist. And I’m not out to become some beacon of hope for my fellow Millennials and launch an overzealous political movement fighting for my right to party. But I hate being labled as a self-involved whiner who needs to be spoon-fed success in order to sleep at night.

Not all of us were given trophies just for participating in Little League. Some of us got them for actually being able to hit a ball every now and then.

-Marilyn