The Sound and the Fury Over the Millennials

“I suppose that people, using themselves and each other so much by words, are at least consistent in attributing wisdom to a still tongue...”- William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

Over the last year, the media seems to have been collectively obsessed with the plight of young workers.  When I say, "collectively obsessed," I mean mostly gawking and pontificating about the merits of hard work.  Here's one particularly horrifying story about student loan debt. I had remembered reading that story a few months ago, but to find it again, when I searched, I had to use Fark.com, which is mostly a commentary website, to find it (and they didn't have good things to say).  The internet is simply littered with other examples.

However, for this past May (coincidentally around graduation), it came to a fever pitch.  Joel Stein (who I normally respect) wrote an article in Time the now in-famous, "Me Me Me Generation" article.  In it, he details in the very beginning about the incidence rate of narcissistic personality disorder among Millennials being three times higher than in adults age 65 or older.  This begins the long number of exhibits Stein pulls out to illustrate his ultimate point: Millennials are self-adsorbed, narcissistic and, perhaps most offensively to prior generations, entitled.  Granted, there is some discussion about how "we'll save everyone," but frankly, it's a systematic assault on the entire generation.

There have been some attempts among my cohorts (yes, I am a Millennial) to defend our generation.  The Nation posted one such response, which was just dripping with sarcasm.  A more measured one from PolicyMic can be found here, though it focuses on more of a defense of the things Stein points out.  Then, one of the publications I read somewhat regularly, Public Management, ran a commentary by Garin Giacomarro, an Economic Development Coordinator from Texas and fellow Millennial, on how to work with Millennials.  As the Whispers once sang, "And the Beat Goes On..."

I'm not here today to launch a polemic attack on Stein or the number of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who believe what he has to say.  I'm here to suggest that this is all one great sound and fury over nothing.  Socrates famously said:

"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."

 To which Joel Stein responded:

"I am about to do what old people have done throughout history: call those younger than me lazy, entitled, selfish and shallow. But I have studies! I have statistics! I have quotes from respected academics! Unlike my parents, my grandparents and my great-grandparents, I have proof."

To which I now posit a great Homer Simpson quote:

"Aw, you can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to say it: you were once Millennials.  You once had no idea what you were going to do after college or what a reasonable starting salary was.  You once longed for flexibility in the work schedule to do what you wanted to do.  You once slept in until 11 a.m. on the weekends (I no longer do, but I remember back in the day).  Your "good, old days" are actually your, "bad, young days."  You can claim that you understand that productivity was the point of work and not pursuing your passions, but hindsight is always 20/20.

Now, to my fellow Millennials, I am going to say that the older generations are right.  The point of work is to be productive (you can pursue your passions on the side).  Yes, sleeping in until 11 a.m. is a bad thing (but can be done once in awhile like all things in moderation).  Yes, job hopping is bad, but if you feel that your job isn't secure, by all means, I'd encourage you to look for another.  Yes, do show up to work on time.  However, don't let anyone get you down by telling you you're too young.

So, I now ask everyone in this conversation - what are we fighting about?  This is artificial divide is all nothing but sound and fury over age old divisions, all of which repeats itself over and over.  And the beat goes on.