In today’s CNN Living section, journalist Elsie Zeiger posted an article entitled Millennials Need Fun and Flexibility at Work in which she reports that those in the emerging generation will only work in jobs where they can work on their terms. My immediate thought was “enough of this drivel!”
There’s a big difference between need and want. Millennials don’tneed fun nor flexibility. They want it. And with the media, like Ms. Zeiger, looking for ways to report on the new new thing, a good number of readers come to the conclusion that the only way to get these young people to work is by kow-towing to their demands.
She buttresses her reporting with the “expert” opinions of Jason
Dorsey who makes his living telling everyone that the Millennial generation is the embodiment of the Second Coming. She goes on to mention a few of the typical high tech companies that provide everything from free lunch to pet care for their employees. The total of these firms number less than a couple hundred in a nation with 13 million going concerns.
Surely she can present a more balanced picture. So the question becomes “is she lazy or does she have an agenda? If she’s lazy, maybe she should amp up her research efforts? If she has an agenda, maybe she should post this piece on the op-ed page rather than allowing it to be touted as reportage.
So rather than upholding the tenets quality journalism, Ms. Zieger and her editors have demonstrated once again that their reporting cannot be trusted. As proof, all you have to do is read the comments on the article that overwhelmingly question the validity of what she has written.
I have nothing against Ms. Zieger or Mr. Dorsey. I don’t know either of them. But as one who is in the trenches with managers who are supervising millions of Millennials lacking critical thinking skills and work ethic, it makes me sad and frustrated that both are simply repeating uninformed stereotypes.