Tristan Marshall

11/05/2015
EWRT 1A
Ruth Trimble
I. Millenials Attitudes to Work
1. Heightened Technology is the cause of Millenials attitudes
2. These new attitudes as the cause of the new culture of work
3. The new work culture as the cause of a shift in the old HR model
Thesis: The technological revolution has created a cultural revolution, which, i
n turn, has fostered a new culture in the workplace.
II.
A. Technology provides unprecedented information and convenience resulting in a
more knowledgeable and possibly lazier generation.
B. A more informed generation has resulted in one that insists upon transparency
and integrity as well as more involvement in the structure of the workplace.
C. Because Millenials are more confident, well informed, and open to convenient
innovations older workers feel hostile towards them.
III.
The digital revolution has created a more informed generation and theref
ore more aware. This new awareness has spurred a change in the workplace from th
e days of their parents and grand parents. Employers will be forced to keep pac
e with this shift in values if they are to succeed into the future.

Children of the Apple

On a particular day when my wife and I were a little younger and renting o
ur second apartment we were standing in the living room having a conversation wi
th the owners. They were in their sixties, and they were telling us about how th
eir whole generation had made the mistake of trying to give their kids everythin
g they wanted. Afterwards, as if through the looking glass, they felt that despi
te their best intentions their childrens values were a bit backwards compared to
their own. Fast-forward to a more recent conversation with 27-year-old dental hy
gienist Linh Than about the attitudes of Millenials, her generation, towards work
. She generally believes in the causal relationship between the parents of the l
ast generation and the actions of their children in the next but she thinks rapi
dly evolving technology is the most influential role player in cultivating the m
inds of young workers in the Millennial generation. This could be understood as
just another case in point for the shift in views and values between generations
but Linhs position echoes authors like Don Tapscott who also believes that, Altho
ugh [Millennials] ways of thinking and working may make them harder to manage the
y have promise (Wright 107). The effects of the digital revolution truly seem to h
ave opened a wide gap between these demographic cohorts, and while older generat
ions may not agree, Millenials may be spurring a revolution of their own in the
workplace.

Best-selling author Don Tapscott believes that technology and especially t

he Internet have had the biggest influence on the current generation of young ad
ults. In an interview with Aliah D. Wright he submits that Millennials, whom he
dubs the "Net Generation" and calls "the smartest generation ever", will have a
sort of revolutionary effect on the business world, holding companies to a high
er standard and forcing them to overhaul the more tradition HR model (Wright 107
). Linh also believes that technology plays a major role for Millennials and the
ir "re shaping" of the workplace, although her position is a bit more tempered a
nd less optimistic about the results:
Technology has created many opportunities to make a better world. It helps us ge
t things done. It helps us stay connected. And it allows us to learn and be info
rmed in such a way that is unprecedented in history. We have the entire wealth o
f human knowledge at our fingertips. It's no wonder we know more about the world
than our parents and grandparents did at this age. (Than)
But there is something else that Linh sites technology as having created l
ot of: convenience. It is true that technology has taken us from a button press
to a touchscreen finger swipe in less than 20 years, and the days of having to g
o out and buy music or a movie are long gone. About the dark side of growing up
in the Age of Apple Linh states unequivocally, "technology makes us lazy" (Than).
She sees the comfort and convenience technology provides in stark contrast to th
e "old days" of analog and believes that, in effect, "it is inevitable for us to
posses character traits that result from growing up in a world of convenience"
(Than).
With technology creating a cultural revolution of its own it is inevitable
that the effects will go far to redefine the workplace. Growing up with so much
easily accessible information "at our fingertips" has resulted in a generation
that wants to be "in the know" about everything including the company they work
for. The openness and freedom with which digital technology has allowed us to vi
ew the world has forged a generation that demands transparency and "insists on i
ntegrity" in the workplace (Wright 107). Not only that, but today's young worker
s want to be a part of something. They're not as interested in working on an ass
embly line or being boxed in a cubicle as a nameless, faceless cog in the machin
e. Linh says:
These days young workers are more creative and innovative. We want to know what
the company stands for, and we want to be constituents going forward. We don't w
ant to be clock punchers or wage slaves. We want to be stimulated. We don't want
our home life and work life to be so completely separated as our parents did, a
nd we don't want to be kept in the dark. We want to be kept in the loop. (Than)
These are but some of the factors that both Tapscott and Than believe shou
ld make us "enormously hopeful" about Net Geners in the future, but there is much
resistance from employers of the present whom, ironically, tend to take the appr
oach typical of older generation parents towards their children's newfangled value
s: punishment and restriction (Wright 107). Tapscott believes these traditional
but outdated employer practices will be unsuccessful and eventually abandoned in
favor of a more integrated and progressive HR model. Than agrees. Theres no way t
o restrict social networking at work. No one needs a company computer to go onli
ne anymore when everyone has a iPhone in their pocket (Than). She predicts that,
much as the recent PR problems that have slowly devastated companies like McDona
lds and Wal-Mart, stale employee relations will began to eat away at the bottom
lines of other companies that refuse to change (Than). There is also the hostili
ty towards younger workers for their high confidence and reliance on technologic
al convenience, which is misconstrued by older workers as arrogance, laziness, a
nd a sense of entitlement (Wright 107). At 27, Linh sees these sentiments as less
of a serious hindrance and more of a natural relationship between people of diff
erent generations:

It's just the same old story between older adults and younger adults. Most peopl
e believe their generation 'did it right' and if the next generation doesn't do
it the same way then it is somehow wrong. My parents grew up in a time when you
didn't ask questions about who you worked for. You went in on time, did exactly
what you were told, and went home happy to even have a job. They didn't know muc
h about the people they worked for, the foods they ate, or the people that gover
ned them. I think its a little bit of confusion/dissolution at how much things h
ave changed in such a small time period... I also think its a little bit of jeal
ousy. (Than)
Linh may be right. While many in older generations were expected to work l
ong boring hours with strict rules and nothing to break the monotony but the clo
ck on the wall, Millennials have much more freedom to choose how they work and t
o influence the work they do. The shift to a climate of transparency is not only
restricted to the political sector but is also spreading to the business sector
, and many companies are being forced to reevaluate and reform in the light of p
ublic scrutiny. The world wide web of connections has created a bigger interest
in collaboration and creativity at work. That means young adults want to be more
a part of the companies they work for than ever before but they also want to be
seen as specific individuals opposed to voiceless clock punchers. An interview fo
r a job feels more like entering into a mutually beneficial relationship with bo
th sides attempting to look attractive to the other. "When I go to an interview,
I am evaluating the company just as much, if not more, than they are me. I woul
dn't want to give my time and energy for something I don't agree with," Linh say
s. Whether you agree with her philosophy or not, it is clear that Millenials see
a much different version of the American Dream to which they are entitled than an
ything their grandparents could have imagined.

Works Cited
Wright, Aliah. D. Millennials: Bathed in Bits. HRMagazine 55.7 (2010): 40-41. Print
. Reprinted in: EWRT 1A Composition and Reading. Fall 2015. By Ed. Ruth Trimble.
San Diego: University Readers, 2015. [107-108]. Print.
Than, Linh. Dental Hygienist. Aesthetic Dental Care, San Jose, CA. Interview. 2
Nov. 2015.

2
Marshall