A professor asks, "how do you hold students for a two-hour class when they have two-minute attention spans?" (Ron Alsop's The trophy kids grow up : how the millennial generation is shaking up the workplace (New York: The Wall Street Journal, 2008), p. 142)
Alsop's inspiring book contains 11 chapters: The trophy kids; Great expectations; Apron strings; Take your parents to work; How am I doing?; Checklist kids; Master jugglers; Free to be me; Recruiting in cyberspace; Dream jobs; and A generous generation.
Alsop outlines the traits of the four generations in the workplace:
traditionalists (1925-45): patriotic, dependable, conformist, respects authority, rigid, socially and financially conservative, solid work ethic.
baby boomers (1946-64): workaholic, idealistic, competitive, loyal, materialistic, seeks personal fulfillment, values titles and the corner office.
gen Xers (1965-79): self-reliant, adaptable, cynical, distrusts authority, resourceful, entrepreneurial, technology savvy.
millenials (1980-2001): entitled, optimistic, civic minded, close parental involvement, values work-life balance, impatient, multitasking, team oriented.
"We have to understand that millennials simply view the world differently from us, and try to adapt to them," an enterprise recruiting and retention director said, "we need to give them a voice in the organization and learn to work with them, not against them." (p. 8)
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