We hear you need a gold star for everything. How much praise do you actually want from the boss?
Didn’t you mean to add, “You special snowflake”? Believe it or not, we young people aren’t all ego-mad compliment hoovers. Unlike salaries, sick days or hits on a viral video of a sneezing panda, validation isn’t something that can be empirically measured, but in a survey sponsored by IBM Institute for Business Value, 70% of millennials said they valued fairness and transparency at work more than recognition.
So I asked Haley Mlotek, who worked with many young contributors as an editor at the Village Voice and The Hairpin, about the stereotype of the approval-seeking millennial. “I think millennials respond well to open, direct communication,” she says, adding that younger workers like to treat work as “an ongoing conversation.” That means plenty of feedback of all sorts—not just kudos.
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