There’s no shortage of headlines about millennials—who they are, what they want and why they’re so different from any other working-age generation out there. Maybe it’s because millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) are now the largest working population. Or that they’re a little too comfortable with technology. Or that they’re pushing back on what a traditional day of work looks like.
It’s created plenty of tension—and plenty of assumptions about this generation. For the summer issue of our magazine, Business Altitude, we asked five millennials about their careers and the myths they’ve had to bust since they entered the working world. Below, see what one had to say about every myth circling Gen Y.
Brandon Mencini started his career as an emergency medical technician, and it opened his eyes to the world of health care. After managing a medical detox facility, he pursued a master’s in health administration and today serves as vice president of business development for HealthONE.
Millennials are lazy and entitled
My initial reaction to that is I can understand where some people come from. I know on my own personal journey I worked incredibly hard to get to where I am at a relatively young age. I feel that I’ve earned everything that I’ve gotten, but it’s really taken a lot of hard work and a lot of time to get to this point. From my personal standing it’s a little unsettling to hear the word entitled.
If you ask anyone I work with or physicians I spend time with, people look at me and they say oh my gosh you need to take a vacation. I’m always here. I’m always on email. What I do on a day-to-day basis is build in a strong sense of accountability and be easily accessible. I usually get to work about 6 to 6:30 in the morning and I’ll go weeks sometimes when I don’t get home until 9 or 10 at night, so I think [that’s] anything but lazy, but that’s just for me personally. I think when you speak to the entire millennial generation there’s some variation to that. Working in the health care industry, there’s so much changing so quickly, we constantly have to stay ahead of curve, and with that is usually requires long hours and a really strong work ethic.
Millennials don’t want to work for a big company
While I think that may be true in other industries, working within HealthONE I know whenever I talk to the number of people looking to get into health care they absolutely love the idea of trying to be part of HealthONE. … I think there are a lot of millennials looking for stability. When you start your career, being part of a large hospital system it’s easier to plan for a family and plan for the future if you have that sense of stability built in.
Millennials don’t want to grow up
I don’t really see that in health care. I see people who, once they get into the industry are working to establish themselves and really build their own repertoire of various skills they have and really look to advance themselves. I think the millennials in the health care industry have a tendency to work harder than almost anybody else because they want to establish themselves.
We’re all pretty flexible. We’ve gotten into this industry knowing it can change. I think we all have the ability to adapt quickly to changes. I think that’s one of the biggest differences between us and older people in the industry. We’re not saying this is the way it’s always been and it needs to be this way. We’re ready to move on a dime.
At the same time, too, we’re pretty calloused. A number of things can come down the pike. We’ll take it as it comes, and I try to do is strategically map a direction to move quickly and adapt to whatever changes I see.
One of the things I see that is a unique skill set of people working in the health care industry with millennials is technology is changing so quickly. I see the millennial population getting excited about concepts like telehealth, various social media trends for how you promote physicians and practices and so I see the millennial population using resources a little differently than other demographics.
Millennials all live in their parents’ basements
I definitely disagree with that. Anyone that I’ve known that’s my age I think really wants to establish themselves and get out on their own. There’s a number of people that’ll get a little 500-square-foot shoebox apartment but I see the millennial population in the health care industry being very self-sufficient.
One thing that I see in the health care industry is there are far more nurses who are willing to take travel assignments and change from city to city—I think more so now than we’ve seen in the past. So on the administrative side, when we hire nurses it’s something we really account for. We look for creative ways to come with sign-on bonuses—we offer ski passes and a number of other unique things to adapt for the changes we see on the nursing front.
I think that’s part of it, and that’s one of the differences I’ve seen on the clinical side. On the business side, I think people want to be established, make a name for themselves and their career. On the clinical side, on the nursing side, you have the ability to move to different cities and to try a number of different things. The nursing career is in such high demand right now. People are looking for nurses with experience everywhere and so you take that millennial population of nurses who are younger and excited to try different things and you couple that with a place like Colorado. You have a number of different people from all over the country who want to experience the Rockies, who want to experience Denver, move out here and try it out for six, seven, eight months and then they’ll go somewhere else. It’s a challenge in the health care industry to find creative ways to make nurses want to stay permanently after they’re here.
A piece of advice for employers
I think the biggest thing is to not be afraid to try new things, and I know that sounds a little cliché but I think a number of different millennials in business have some pretty innovative, creative ideas, specifically in health care in terms of how to adapt to some of the changes.
Parting thought
I’m just on the cusp … I think there’s some variation just between those years [of millennials born from 1980 to 2000]. I think you find people in their mid to late 30s and they’re really starting to settle down, but you find people in their 20s, especially if they’ve just moved to Colorado, they’re a little more flexible.
Whenever I hear rumors or myths or things like that I just think, oh it’s the younger edge of that millennial population. But what I found when I see some of my peers in other industries, typically if they’re young and at a vice president position they’ve worked incredibly hard for 10 years or so to get to that point and they take some offense when the perception is they’re lazy or live in their parents’ basement. Usually when you peel back the layers you find that people own their homes, have been incredibly successful and they are just good people all around.
Sara Crocker is the communications manager for the Denver Metro Chamber.
Want to learn more about the making of a millennial? Check out the Summer issue of Business Altitude.