Have you noticed? Millennials appear to be everywhere. Not that this group -- the sizable cohort born between 1981 and 1997, now estimated at 75.4 million Americans -- was ever invisible. What’s changed is their status. Pampered and acclaimed, fussed over by recruiters, annunciated by the press, dissected by psychologists and analyzed by statisticians, the millennial generation has fully come into its own, and that means big changes to the design and implementation of the modern workplace.
The Millennial Arrival
Labeled as having illusions of magnificence, increasingly narcissistic tendencies and an overconfidence in abilities not yet possessed, millennials have overtaken the majority of the workforce. In fact, by 2030, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce.
Digitally wired and connected from childhood, millennials have never been more than a few clicks away from friends and family. This "on-call attachment" has instilled a tremendous social interaction crave. In fact, millennials find tremendous comfort and fulfillment in leveraging these social interactions to seek constant support and reassurance. This is why most millennials prefer working in groups that offer a sense of unity and collaboration over division and competition.
Such desires are instrumental in the development of their deep sense of community and the reason why successful millennials make sure family and personal pursuits are priorities in their lives.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that millennials prefer work-life integration as opposed to work-life balance. This infers that family and personal pursuits would not be sacrificed for the sake of career growth. As a highly social generation, millennials are considered to be the founders of the social media movement. The deep sense of community and always-connected lifestyle that has resulted in their work-life integration preference is why millennials measure productivity by work completed, not by time spent on a task -- especially not time spent in the office. Millennials simply don’t feel they need to be in the office, or at their desk, to get a job done -- especially since the evolution of technology has made portability very possible.
These beliefs have begun to create a paradigm shift in the design and implementation of the modern workplace.