Voices

Stop Generalizing

Not all Millennials are Millennials.

That’s the title of a CPA Success blog written by Bill Sheridan, editor for the Maryland Association of CPAs.

Sheridan attended a workshop on general differences in which the instructor asked the audience to throw out one-word descriptions of Gen Y.

Answers included entitled, self-centered, blameless, narcissistic and impatient.
“It's convenient to lump all Millennials into a silo and slap a few labels on it,” Sheridan writes. “But those labels simply don't apply to everyone in the silo.”

That’s exactly the point I try to drive home when I give attendees at my Gen Y sessions a test, in which they have to guess which generation made certain statements about their job. Most of the test-takers fail and I explain that believing that everyone of a certain age acts the same way is equivalent to believing everything in the horoscopes.

“Our employees are individuals. Each has unique qualities that he or she brings to the office,” Sheridan writes. “Maybe our workforce differences have more to do with personalities than generations.”

Hmm…..

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