This weekend I jetted off to San Francisco to visit some friends over Easter. Little did I know, I’d be doing some Millennial research while at it. No this does not mean I was going around asking people their thoughts on Millennial stereotypes or thoughts I have about this generation of mine (and if I did it was truly accidental 🙂 ). But there were a few times I wanted to exclaim “YES! This is why I do what I do!” …. ok and some of those times I actually did exclaim this out loud. Sorrynotsorry.
Anyway, I wanted to share a few points that arose during my weekend, and some thoughts that were simply verified even further by people I met or spoke to these past few days. It’s really interesting how work and life seem to blend so much these days, isn’t it?? Here’s a few things I took away from my ‘getaway’:
1. Despite it being the #1 most expensive place to live in the country, Millennials really do want to live in San Francisco.
But not for a long time. Rent is out of this world, and actually owning something seems totally out of the question. While walking along the streets, we would look up the average prices of homes in the neighborhood. Let’s just say, you’d need to be Mark Zuckerburg or Bill Gates to own most of the homes in the city.
This isn’t stopping young people from flocking to the bay area though. It’s still the number 1 city for Millennials, and going strong. Plenty of tech-y companies grabbing Millennials right out of college and keeping them because of their long list of employee perks and retention strategies.
2. Stifling a Millennial’s creativity, ideas, and drive to work harder will definitely not keep them around.
I heard a very scary story of a manager who did not want their employee to try new things, build on new ideas, or even speak with people who might benefit them. They didn’t want them ‘growing up too fast’ in the company. Needless to say, this is driving their employee away faster than they can say “come back!”.
3. The Millennial job-hop is a very real thing (ok, I guess I knew this one already).
But it’s always interesting to get even more examples of how real it really is, and from your own friends to boot. Several people I talked to on my trip were ready to move on from their jobs, even if they were making good money and fairly comfortable there. They want a new experience—we’re too young to truly settle on one job, right??
4. Having free food at work is not enough to achieve employee retention. But, it is a nice perk, am I right?
5. Having more than 1 job is way more normal than I even thought.
And I was pretty sure this was normal, but again, it’s amazing to hear from so many people (without any prodding) that they have multiple jobs and projects outside of their ‘main’ job. Even when we’re ‘off’ work (whatever that means these days), we usually still have a side project or job that we’re working. Every Millennial I met this weekend proved this point beyond a reasonable doubt.
6. Ageism is happening and Millennials feel it is unjustified.
Being discriminated against, or not given earned opportunities, because of your young age is going out of style. And that’s because more and more Millennials are realizing the backwards logic of it all in the workplace, and that the youngest people can truly contribute just as much, if not more, to a company as the ones who have been there half their lives. Several people I spoke to and encountered this weekend had relevant, personal experiences where they were discriminated against because of their young age, and were considering leaving their jobs because of it.
7. San Francisco is as hilly as it looks- anyone else sore from walking up and down all day?
ANYWAY, these were a few takeaways from my trip this weekend. Anyone else have a revelation this Easter?
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