¶ Opening Banter and Generational Clash
From Tokyo, Japan and Auckland, New Zealand, this is Down to Business English with your hosts Git Montreaux and Samantha Vega.
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Hello Samantha, how are you today?
I'm doing well. Enjoying the weekend.
That's great. Uh what have you been up to since we last spoke?
Oh let's see. Was a little bit uh feeling a little bit under the weather last week, but it was uh it's been a good week so far.
Uh
Um oh yeah, Friday went to um my son's school. He goes to primary last year primary. He's ten years old and his uh class or his year I should say, was leading the assembly. So they they have to organize what's being um said and done at the assembly. They were looking back at things that they had done uh last term and had video uh a video like retrospective of what they had done last term and things up there. Plus then they had the uh the certificate giving. Ceremony.
Certificate giving. Wha what exactly do you mean by did did Cole win an award? Did he do something?
No, I didn't, but you know, I'll tell you something. They just get they Maybe it's just me being a grumpy parent, but they give certificates out for everything, you know? I mean come on.
For example,
Ah b Sally, you get a certificate for being really kind and have a smile on your face when you come to school every day. Really? See, it makes me sound just grumpy. It makes me sound like a grumpy parent. But I understand that i you know, you have to give praise. Um to encourage people and to give them a higher self esteem. But you know, the certificate giving portion of this ceremony has gone to like a couple of minutes and now it's
It's I I think the teachers feel the need to to give out a certificate to everyone so that everybody feels included, like everybody's special. But, you know, if everybody's special Is anybody really special?
¶ Defining Millennials and Workforce Shift
Well that's a good question and th your story kinda reminds me of the s situation that I'm going through at work right now. Currently we are going through a hiring process. We're looking for uh a teacher who can work full time in our office environment. And I'm just having
real difficulty finding a candidate who matches the expectations of the senior management in our organization. And the primary reason is, you know, a lot of these candidates are younger and they feel like they need to be awarded something and there's just a real mismatch between uh their expectations and my manager's expectations.
Uh Clash of the Generations.
Exactly.
Yeah, it's not really a a unique uh human resource issue. Um you know, I hear complaints about the millennial generation at work, uh where I am, uh, you know, stereotyped as lazy and narcissistic and they're self centered and they always need praise. Well
I think the reality of the millennial generation is a little bit different than the stereotype. And as the number of millennials grow in the workplace, it's becoming more important for companies to recognize that situation and deal with it.
And today on D2B, we will take a closer look at this issue, at the issues relating to the most recent generation to join the global workforce.
Great. So let's do it. Let's get D2B down to business with millennials in the workplace. Who are they and what do they want?
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So Sam, can you start us off by giving us a simple definition of a millennial?
Sure. Born between nineteen eighty and two thousand. So they have been entering the workplace now since just the turn of the century.
They don't make up the entire workforce, so what other generations are in the workforce?
Yeah, the workforce mainly made up of Gen X and baby boomers. Um but that is changing quite quickly. For example, back in two thousand five, forty five percent of the workforce were baby boomers. Uh twenty-three percent were Gen Xers and twenty-five percent were millennials.
Maybe we should just explain to all our listeners what the differences are. So baby boomers were the generation born in nineteen forty six or between nineteen forty six and nineteen sixty five. And Gen Xers are the people born between nineteen sixty five to nineteen eighty. So I believe Samantha, you and I are Gen Xers.
And uh in twenty fifteen, so two thousand five, forty five percent were baby boomers. Twenty three percent Gen Xers, twenty-five percent millennials, but in twenty fifteen, last year, thirty-one percent baby boomers, which actually isn't that much of a drop.
Uh n same goes for Gen Xersers, only twenty five uh twenty-one percent, so that only dropped down two percent. Twenty-one percent of the workforce were Gen Xers. But forty-five percent of the workforce last year were millennials and that was a big change, a lot more of them.
Well yeah, that's a huge takeover of the workforce. But I think we have to keep in mind that baby boomers are working longer. So in the past the retirement age was sixty five, but I think many baby boomers are now working into the early or mid seventies. So that might account for why uh there hasn't been that much of a drop in the workforce. Yeah.
No, but there is a lot more millennials. Um, also this is a bit different. They see themselves as senior management positions with the neck within the next ten years. I think a lot of baby boomers uh look at that generation and think, Oh, they're just privileged to think that they could work up to senior management in just ten years. Look how many years it took me to get to that position. Um, their values are obviously going to be different. Their work ethics, millennials work ethics.
um are a big difference as well and it has a major impact on the workplace, especially in corporate environments.
¶ Millennial Traits, Upbringing, and Aspirations
Yes, well millennials certainly have a unique set of characteristics or traits that they bring into the office environment. Uh that are very different than the baby boomers and there is a clash, but as I said, HR departments need to learn how to deal with it.
Yeah, human uh human resource uh departments are finding millennials to be the generation that is best equipped to adapt to change. Mm-hmm. Um also learn emerging technologies as well, quicker and faster. They come up with new ideas, fresh ideas more often than um than past generations. But at the same time they have a reputation of not wanting to pay their dues, not wanting to put in their time. Uh they don't have a particularly good attitude towards rules and company policies.
Um they're looking at their d duties, they're being a little bit too casual. Uh they always want to be praised or recognized for, you know, commonplace t tasks, uh things that are just kind of part of your job. They always seem to want to be uh stuck up on a pedestal and and told how good they are.
Well, obviously very different than Baby Boomers and a little bit different than Gen Axers. There are many theories as to why uh millennials are this way. A lot of millennials were raised by helicopter parents. Uh they were in smaller families and the parents could focus on one or two children and kind of hover over them always.
parenting in the in that time period were was really focused on building the child's self esteem. Uh you mentioned about certificate ceremony. Well that was a big part of growing up for millennials. They became very used to receiving awards not for accomplishing anything or achieving anything, but simply for participation. And and of course they're the first generation to be completely immersed in technology. Uh they have not known a world without the home computer or and they've had
massive exposure to the mass media and to social media. And per some people believe this may have bred a certain cynicism into the millennial. But you know, a closer examination of millennials reveal that they're not so narcissistic as their stereotype uh indicates, and they actually have some very admirable qualities.
Mm. And I think one of the things maybe like the whole certificate giving and m you know, telling everybody that they're good has built them to be extremely confident in their ability.
That also comes from being the most highly educated generation. Everybody went to university, everybody has at least one, perhaps two degrees. So they're they do have a lot of education.
At the same time they have a low tolerance for ambiguity, which is uh th they they're a bit needy, a bit dependent on others. They also they need clear directions to know what they're being asked to do when they're being asked to do something.
um everything seems to have to be spelled out for them. It's difficult uh to just give them a general idea, just to give them, you know, regular b but just kind of a very vague idea of what to do. They find it hard to fill in the gaps. It's difficult uh to just do what they're told or to blindly accept orders without everything being explained to them.
But they're also known to be high achievers. So this means in the in their workplace they work very hard and they want to advance. And they have a strong desire, a strong interest to to communicate with senior management and they often want regular feedback more than more feedback than is typical in a in a company. So where you would get feedback once a year, maybe twice a year, they want regular feedback and assessment and and praise for for what they're doing.
Because I think a lot of social media has has stepped in there as well. So it's not necessarily you don't have to sit down and have a meeting in an office every you know, once a week for you so your boss can tell you how good you are. You know, sometimes it could just be just a little tech. Really, to just say, you know, good job. Um but they do tend to millennials uh tend to be risk adverse. They kinda seem to have a fear of failure.
Um, this may come from all the uh coddling that they had from their parents and teachers as well. Mhm. From the b beginning of the politically correct society. Uh, they want to discuss things thoroughly before they move ahead with something else and this can be interpreted as low initiative or just general il inability to think for themselves.
But that interpretation of having low initiative or an inability to think for themselves Uh that could be a little bit of a misinterpretation. There is a strong desire in millennials to make a difference in the world or in their workplace. Opposed to previous generations, millennials have a extremely high rate of volunteerism. So they don't mind putting in hours, many hours, on tasks that they deem to be important or worthwhile. They place a lot of value on experiences
rather than financial reward. So companies can find it very difficult to keep them or retain them by just giving a raise or a bonus. Instead, companies have to keep giving them more opportunities to grow. So as these millennials want these experiences, they can come across as being seen as impatient by older generations, the baby boomers and the Gen Xers.
And and this is the reason many millennials say they can't see staying at the same company for more than three years. They want to move on to the next experience.
¶ Work-Life Integration and Participation Mentality
Mm. Another area is uh work life integration as well. Something that's fairly new is to have, you know, company excursions. You know, that is just an excursion where the whole company, especially this this is good if it's the company's obviously not that big. Um, you know, and they go out and have uh an adventure of some sort together. They might go out for the weekend and have a a weekend away where they have b uh team building
uh initiatives and tasks that they have to go through. That's a fairly uh new thing in the business world. Um baby boomers typically put their work before their family or personal You know, when when your boss says to you, Come on, let's go away for a company weekend, baby boomers are like, uh no, uh my my time is done for the week. I don't really want to hang out with you people on the weekend too. Whereas Gen Xers
are all kind of live for that. They like the work life balance. Um and they don't necessarily have to have a clear divide between the two of them. Uh millennials see work and life together as one thing. So it's much more casual. They like to have the freedom to choose their schedule, their their work environment, whether they want to work at home or in the office or, you know, at a coffee shop.
Uh the social interactions are very important to them. They're known to overshare with their colleagues a little bit, maybe tell them, you know, a little bit too much personal information.
Because they see their co workers more as part of their social network rather than simply co workers.
That's right. More than uh you know, they're they see them more as friends, which kind of makes for a good work environment.
So Samantha, what do you think about all of this? Do you have a strong opinion about millennials in the workplace?
Well, I w wonder I think more about this helicopter parenting and stuff. You know, for example we were talking about the z you know, the certificate giving uh ceremony where everybody s seems to be getting a certificate for everything. Another example was uh, you know, my son's um cricket
Uh the cricket season just wrapped up fairly recently. We went to you know, he played for a pretty good team and I thought they were like first at least first or second must have been in the league. They did very, very well. So I was waiting to see at what position. that uh they held. So we went through the whole ceremony and and um and then the you know, they got down to exactly how the teams did and everything and they said, Well
You know, as you want y as you all know now, we we don't necessarily have we don't we don't determine everything as first, second and third. It's kind of a a participation thing. And I was like, Hold on a second. Who was first, who was second, who was third? That didn't exist anymore. And I was I felt a bit ripped off, really. And I thought it was everybody just gets it for participation and a pat on the back and good job. And I thought, hmm, now that is a big difference. And I was thinking
For millennials is that you know, is is corda s sort of the same thing. They're just kind of told, Everybody does such a great job. There is no such thing as being first or winning first, second and third. That's a big difference in our generations because for us you know, winning um was an important thing because, you know, not necessarily everybody not everybody can be a winner. That's just
So the world is being taken over by a generation of people who are uh being recognized for regular activities such as, like you said, breathing. And those people who are achieving something, working hard, putting in the effort and are achieving something and they are receiving no special recognition.
That's right. No special outside recognition. When when I ki I kinda think, you know, they actually are doing better. than, you know, Johnny Johnny, you know, Smith down there. And and maybe they should be called out as being a little bit more special. But you know, like I said before, when everybody is special, then nobody is actually.
Very special. They're all the same. But you never know. It could be good for you. I mean, think about it, uh you know, a lot of the things that you follow up meetings, maybe it won't be. Uh so difficult for you to find people in the future, especially if you go to more of the millennial way and get i um a lot more business done on social media.
¶ Key Business English Vocabulary
But in the meantime, I think it's time for you and I to get D2V down to vocabulary.
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Down to business English audio scripts are a great learning tool. Be sure to visit the D2B website and download your free audio script of today's podcast. Down to businessenglish dot com that's WWW dot down to businessenglish dot com.
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Today's vocabulary section with three informal expressions that are not only quite easy, but at the same time very powerful in communicating a speaker's feeling or attitude toward a topic.
Sounds exciting. What are they?
Actually, you used all three of them in the introduction. In fact, you used them all together in a row for a very interesting overall effect. I did? Yes, you did. You first commented that schools are giving students certificates for everything these days. And you ended that comment by saying, you know, I mean, come on.
Each of those word pairs do add a lot of meaning, don't they?
They most certainly do. Now, when a speaker says, you know, either before or after a statement, it adds emphasis or strength to that statement. It's like saying, hey, pay attention to this point. It is important. The phrase, I mean, has the same effect, but can only be used before a statement. And come on communicates that the speaker is astonished or surprised by the statement.
Wow, all that information in six short words. You know, that's quite incredible.
It is. And sometimes it's hard for students to use these interjections correctly. I mean, they are something you can't learn in a textbook.
Oh come on. I'm sure our listeners will have no problem using these. But tell me the skip, would you recommend using these expressions in a business situation? They are pretty informal after all.
In the right setting, sure. For example, if you are a manager and one of your staff members tells you they are late finishing their report, You might say something like, you know, we can't make a decision until everyone reads that report. I mean you've had a week to write it. Come on, it can't be that difficult to finish today.
No, I'm glad I don't work for you, Skip.
Come on, that was just an example. What's the next word on the list, Samantha?
Next, I'd like to explain the adjective narcissistic.
Oh good, because you use that adjective a couple of times to describe millennials.
I did. It's such a cool word. To be a narcissist means that you have a deep love of yourself. In the story, I say that the stereotype of millennials is that they are narcissistic. In other words, many people think that millennials love themselves more than anyone else or anything else. Skip, you're a bit of a narcissist, aren't you?
Aren't you?
I was just teasing. Have you ever worked with a narcissist, or do you know anyone who is quite narcissistic?
Hmm, a long time ago, I was a team member on a project, and the leader was extremely narcissistic. He really didn't care about anyone else's opinion in meetings and just loved to listen to the sound of his own voice. Every decision he made was based on what suited him best.
Sounds awful.
Yes, I was very glad when that project finally finished.
I'm sure you were. Let's move on.
Great idea. Next, let's look at the passive form of the verb immerse. To be immersed means that you are surrounded by something.
Like a language immersion program where a student lives in an English-speaking country for a few months, completely surrounded by native speakers.
Precisely. In the story, I reported that millennials are the first generation to be immersed in technology. What I meant was that they are the first generation who have been surrounded by personal computers, email, And the internet right from the year they were born.
Unlike the rest of us who can remember the good old days without email or the internet.
Oh boy, I can clearly remember the first time I used email. It was in my final year of university, and it was a very new and exciting concept.
I know, it's hard to believe that our generation went through university without the internet.
Well, we are certainly immersed in it now. Can you give us an example of how eMERS could be used in a business setting, Samantha?
I sure can. If you ever are in the situation where a coworker asks you to do something for them, but you are too busy, simply tell them I'd really like to help out, but I'm just immersed in paperwork at the moment. Maybe ask James. He doesn't seem too busy today.
That sounds very professional. I'm going to try that in the office sometimes.
Oh is there a James in your office?
Very funny. What's our next word?
Next, let's talk about the noun ambiguity. An ambiguity exists when something does not have a clear meaning or focus. It's vague. In our discussion, I stated that millennials have a low tolerance for ambiguity. In other words, they do not like things to be unclear.
And so in the workplace they expect precise black and white explanations as to what they should do.
Yes. I should also point out that the adjective form ambiguous is commonly used as well. For example, if a CEO has an ambiguous vision for their organization, it is best not to invest in that company. If its goals are unclear, It will more likely end up losing money.
I hate to bring him up, but Donald Trump is being extremely ambiguous as to what his policies would be if he became president of the United States.
Very true. He is also a good example of a narcissist, come to think of it.
How true. But come on, let's not get off topic talking about Donald Trump.
You brought him off.
You're right. Sorry. Moving on. Our final word today is the phrase to be risk averse. The adjective averse means to feel very negative towards something. So negative in fact that you would do anything to avoid that particular thing. So to be risk averse means that you would do your best to avoid risk in any situation. In the story, Samantha mentioned that millennials tend to be risk-averse. In other words, they have a strong dislike of failure and will avoid taking risks as often as possible.
The phrase risk-averse is often used in the financial industry to describe an investor who always chooses investments that have the lowest amount of risk. These type of investors are often referred to as risk averse investors.
Of course, risk-averse investors are not in a hurry to make huge gains as low-risk investments tend to have low returns. Skip, can you give us an example using risk averse?
Recently, I attended a really great business presentation here in Tokyo. It was about how to be a successful entrepreneur. The speaker talked about how his first four businesses completely failed and how the lessons from those failures helped him to finally succeed with his fifth company. The main thing I learned from that presentation is that to be a successful entrepreneur, you cannot be risk averse.
As they say, no risk, no romance.
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Thank you Samantha. It was very nice talking to you about the millennial generation.
Yes, and good luck keeping up with them youngins at work.
I look forward to it because I have so much more energy.
Yes, you'll be uh running around work now trying to keep up with them youngins.
Anyway, thanks for listening everyone. See you next time.
Talk to you again soon. Take care.
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