Millennials feel the workplace atmosphere change when they’re around older colleagues.
A Federal News Story survey showed that 63 percent of federal employees under the age of 30 feel they are viewed differently at their jobs.
These results reveal a tension within American workplaces between older generations and millennials. Employees separated by age hold different perceptions of each other.
There were some older employees who could attest to it. One middle-aged IT specialist has worked closely with a young colleague and witnessed her move from an intern to a capable project manager. However, he describes how his colleague’s ideas are dismissed in meetings by supervisors despite her success within the company because of her age.
Some comments from supervisors and co-workers reaffirm that there is often a stereotype of millennial workers that leads to such treatment.
“The younger folks in my office are not interested in doing actual work,” one respondent in his early 60s wrote. “They enjoy chatting and playing with their phones for most of the day.”
Many millennials disagreed with this observation.
“I continually get talked down to because of my age, regardless of my experience,” a survey respondent in his early 20s wrote. “People assume that because I fit in the category created of ‘millennial,’ that I’m lazy, immature and unintelligent, when in fact I’ve worked very hard to prove the opposite of all of these factors.”
He went on to say that though he may be inexperienced, he has value to add to the company.
Millennials in the survey expressed frustration that their lack of experience results in low expectations from their employers and co-workers when, in reality, most millennials say they want to learn and have valuable insight to offer. The age divide could have troublesome implications for young workers who want to advance inside a company rather than leave for another job.
