Walk into almost any leadership workshop from the past fifteen years and you will hear some version of the same complaint. Younger employees are entitled. They job-hop. They cannot take criticism. They expect a trophy for turning up. The details change, and today Gen Z often takes the place millennials once held, but the tone is familiar: here is a problem, and we need to solve it.
We think that framing is a mistake. Millennials are not the problem to be solved; they are an opportunity to be embraced. The same is true of the generation behind them. Organisations that treat younger workers as a defect to be managed tend to get exactly the disengagement they feared. Those that try to understand them often find energy, ideas and loyalty they did not expect.
A generation that is no longer young
It is worth remembering where we are. A projection widely quoted in the mid-2010s suggested millennials would make up roughly three quarters of the workforce by 2025. Whatever the precise figure turned out to be, the oldest millennials are now well into their forties. Many are senior managers, founders and directors. Gen Z, meanwhile, is filling graduate schemes and front-line roles. Talking about "the millennial problem" today often means talking about your own leadership team.
Myths and what is usually going on
"They are not loyal"
Younger workers do tend to change jobs more often early in their careers, but so did previous generations at the same age. The bigger shift is that many employers stopped offering the long-term security that once encouraged people to stay. Loyalty tends to follow investment. When people see a path forward, many stay for years.
"They need constant praise"
What many younger employees actually want is frequent feedback, which is not the same thing. They grew up with fast information loops and find it odd to wait twelve months to learn how they are doing. Regular, honest feedback, including criticism, is usually welcome when it is specific and delivered with respect.
"They don't want to work hard"
Younger employees often question how work is done rather than whether it should be done. Why this meeting, why this process, why must it happen in the office on a Tuesday? Those questions can feel like resistance. Often they are the beginning of a better way of working.
"They are reckless" or "they are too cautious"
Interestingly, younger people are accused of both. The reality is that each generation has its own relationship with risk, shaped by the economy it grew up in. Someone who entered work during a recession may be careful with money yet relaxed about switching careers. Their leisure often reflects the same pattern: many younger adults are comfortable placing a small, calculated stake on a match through an app while being very cautious about larger financial commitments. We explore these patterns in our piece on risk appetite across generations.
Assumptions breed resentment; understanding breeds respect
Every generation forms assumptions about the ones that follow. The danger lies in acting on those assumptions without testing them. A manager who assumes a new hire is lazy will interpret every late reply as proof. A new hire who assumes their manager is out of touch will dismiss advice that could help them. Both sides end up resentful, and both are often wrong.
Understanding the reasons behind differences changes the dynamic. When an experienced manager learns that a younger colleague's preference for messaging over phone calls is about efficiency rather than avoidance, the irritation fades. When a younger employee learns that their manager's insistence on face-to-face meetings comes from years of seeing deals saved by a single conversation, the rule makes sense. Respect grows from curiosity.
How to embrace the opportunity
- Ask younger colleagues what they value, not just what they want to be paid.
- Pair experience and youth deliberately, in both directions, through mentoring and reverse mentoring.
- Explain the reasoning behind rules, and be open to changing the ones that no longer have a reason.
- Give real responsibility early, with support, rather than making people wait for seniority.
- Remember that what looks like a generational trait is often simply a life-stage trait.
A useful starting point is getting to know people as individuals. Our framework on values, skills and passions offers a simple way to structure that conversation with anyone on your team, whatever their age.
The opportunity in plain sight
Younger employees bring fluency with new tools, a willingness to question habits and, often, a strong desire to do work that means something. Experienced employees bring judgment, networks and the memory of what has been tried before. Neither group is complete without the other. The organisations that thrive over the next decade will be the ones that stop asking how to fix their young people and start asking how to learn from them.
