They might be right.
But this past Friday I had two separate conversations that included 3 women who are about 28 years old each and in both conversations I had to tell them to "knock it off."
Two of them had been up until 1 am in the morning taking care of getting some deliverables to the client...deliverables they wouldn't have to be pushing through had the late 30's early 40's woman who makes significantly more money than they do done it right in the first place.
One of them slipped into my office to apologize for the trouble she caused when she let one of our internal clients know she was taking on some additional work and this woman - a 45 year old woman who is an EXECUTIVE COACH - pitched a serious fit. KZ's mistake was simple...she's very good and everyone wants her help.
Meanwhile I'm ushering a non-productive (read: lazy) mid-30's man out of the practice because, quite frankly, his work is nowhere near the quality of anyone else AND I'm having conversations with a woman in her 50's who does good work but not good enough for the rather significant salary she currently makes. (I did not give her that salary...I simply inherited it.)
And so, as I pondered my family's misgivings as we headed home after a wonderful day of Easter eating, the faces of these three extraordinary young women popped into my head.
Followed closely by the two college hires on the team, and two of their colleagues who joined us just a few years prior.
What it boils down to is that I've got a great team but the best performers, hands down, are "millenials" - and so, if we want to make sure this country DOESN'T go to hell in a handbasket then people like me need to do our absolute best to raise them up right in the workplace.
And get rid of the bad examples we don't want them learning from.
Meanwhile, here's a shout out to Lara from "The Spectrum" - another young woman who's blog endlessly entertains me and proves that yes, these "youngsters" are quite capable of writing a grammatically correct sentence.
And to my fellow X'ers (and Boomers - I'm a "cusper") let me warn you now - get up off your lazy whiney asses and get to work. Because these "kids" are better than you are.
For the moment.
NL
