How Not to Burnout Your Millennial Team Members (Part One)

It's Important to Keep Staff Engaged and Happy

In the war for talent, it is best to be prepared and, even with youth and vigor on their side, studies have shown that Millennials are more prone to burnout than Gen X or Boomers.

Millennials are the generation born between 1981-1996－which means they range in age from 23-38. I'll wager that by now a majority of your team are Millennials. According to experts, Millennials are susceptible to burnout because their parents have raised them always to be 'on,' resulting in a generation that feels like they are 'working' 24/7. In his book, Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials, Malcolm Harris points out that Millennials have been "trained, tailored, primed and optimized for the workplace－first in school, through secondary education." Harris further asserts that play has been "optimized" and parenting labeled as "intensive.” Moreover:

"Running around the neighborhood has become supervised playdates. Unstructured daycare has become a pre-pre school. Neighborhood Kick the Can, or pickup games have transformed into highly regulated organized league play that spans the year. Unchanneled energy (diagnosed as hyperactivity) became medicated and disciplined."

What is the result of this optimized upbringing? A survey headed by Yellowbrick has found that half of Millennials experience burnout or mental exhaustion with nearly three-fourths blaming burnout on their workplace. Additionally, more than half miss work due to burnout effects.

Ugh, what a mess! What should we do? A few things: understand what makes Millennials them tick, try to meet those needs, and create an overall culture that attracts and keeps all generations of superstars. If you are as worried as I am about this situation I recommend you stay tuned for my next blog post where I will reveal eight things you can do to ensure Millennial trust and buy-in.