Generational Consultant a Load of BS

This is perhaps one of the best response articles I've read in a long long time. Gawker has a response to a piece from the Washington Post. Its about a woman who claims to be a Generation Consultant - whose purpose it is to go into corporate American and teach old school supervisors how to deal with the Millennial Generation.

You may have seen one of these "consultants" interviewed in a remarkably snotty piece that 60 Minutes (for people over 60) did last year.

"All of which has led, as you'd expect, to a whole new industry -- or epidemic -- of consultants, experts they allege, in how to motivate, train and, yes, sometimes nanny the extraterrestrials who've taken over the workplace."

Yes, they call Millennials Extraterrestrials... like the ones in the X-Files. But I digress..

So the Gawker piece basically calls these people out as being BS artists.

"Meet Anne Loehr, a "business coach" who will (for a small fee) explain the mysteries of "Generation Y" to a corporate audience. She knows your soul, kids.

Loehr is 44. She spent the entire decade of the 90s running hotel and safari operations in Kenya. Nevertheless, she has managed to master the subtle nuances of Generation Boomer, Generation X, and Generation Y. She uses her knowledge to educate the olds about "people born in the late 1970s or early 1980s." That's us, and you, creative underclass!

"People say to me, 'Why do they talk like that?' Because they grew up on reality TV. Okay? It's not good, it's not bad. That's what they grew up on. They think it's okay to talk like that."

No idea what the f*$k she is talking about, I watched Nick at Night reruns as a kid, Alfred Hitchcock Presents rocked my world. It continues...

"They saw 9/11," she says. "Connection is vital, they want to be connected all the time. People say, 'Why are they on Facebook all the time? Why are they texting?' They really want balance, too. They saw their parents go crazy in Generation X. They are not having that lifestyle. They are going to do it their way. They're going to go to yoga at 4, and the Red Sox game at 7, and do their work at midnight. It might be a good idea to let them go to yoga at 4!"

Ok... first of all... Millennials are those born between 1980 and 2000. The majority of youth in this category aren't children from Gen X. One of the major reasons we're such a big generation is that the Boomers were such a big generation and were their children. A Gen Y "expert" should know that, right?

Secondly, what does 9-11 have to do with connectivity? And, I'm pretty sure 9-11 didn't just happen to the Millennial Generation, it happened to the whole country, and those at Ground Zero suffered the after-effects regardless of their age or which generational box they fit into.

If you want to look at historical events that probably had a major effect on a generation I would say it was the series of school shootings that began when I was in junior high and has continued well into Virginia Tech. Suddenly, for a whole generation of youth, school wasn't necessarily a safe place anymore. While I'm sure 9-11 had some impact on our generation, I think it had an impact on everyone in the country. School shootings happened to us.

"If you can say you are 'green,' or politically correct or socially correct, whatever, that goes a long way with them. Nike, no way. Gen Y will not buy Nike — that big, ugly globalized company. This generation is very well-educated — both parents probably have MBAs."

What?! This woman needs to get out of the upper east side for like 10 minutes, these generalizations are killing me and I'm pretty sure that my part of the country would have some disagreement here. Primarily, about parents having MBAs. Some Boomers went to college, but I wouldn't say that MBA's are prominent requirements for my parents' generation. Nor do MBA's mandate a shoe choice. Marketing mandates a shoe choice. Market to Millennials and you'll get their money. See: Millennial Marketing.

Our generation is incredibly well educated, but we come from a generation that wasn't required to be as well educated. To get our foot in the door a BA is required, while our parents could do "some college" or at the very least graduate high school and work hard and do very well. We can't do that. That's a major component to Millennials both for jobs and financially. Its one of the major reasons that we have so much debt where our parents didn't. This is Millennial 101, I'm amazed this so-called "expert" doesn't know this.

Via the WaPo piece:

"Cultural markers such as these have become a useful shorthand that Loehr and her colleagues use to explain assumptions about this emerging generation -- their lefty politics, their belief in gaining consensus before taking action, their sense of self-entitlement, their short attention spans. For older bosses feeling resentment and a sense of superiority, such categorizations can be a balm.

With a Web site and blog, one book published and another in the works, an e-mail newsletter, a graduate student helping her with research, corporate seminars and one-on-one sessions that go for $500 to $2,500, Loehr is quite specific about her ambition: "I want to touch 500,000 lives this year. I am going to touch 500,000 lives this year. I do have spreadsheets that mark how many people I am touching."

I'm seriously in the wrong business. This woman is making oodles with a point of view that is not only narrow but ill-informed and based on what these CEOs want to hear rather than things that could actually help in the work place. At least we here at FM are actual youth experts.

Mike wrote the book on the youth movement! Karlo is a celebrated researcher from CIRCLE. And, anyone who wants to give me $2500 to come talk to you about the Millennial Generation, I'm available any time - and I'm sure that goes for the rest of us.

Until then, I highly suggest to the clients of Ms. Loehr, that rather than paying thousands of dollars in an already questionable economy, that you instead invest in spending 5 minutes just talking to your employees about their needs, frustrations, and requirements. This is called, being a good manager and leader. Perhaps, utilize the money you save to give someone health care, or hire one of the 22% of Millennials who are out of work. Just at thought.