If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard a lot of stereotypes about the Millennial generation , which is loosely classified as the people...
If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard a lot of stereotypes about the Millennial generation, which is loosely classified as the people born between the early 1980s and late 1990s.
Millennials are coddled, some people say. They’re ruining everything from focus groups, dinner dates, cruises and napkins to golf, soap bars, marriage and homeownership.
Heck, they’ve even been accused of ruining wine corks!
So is all of that true? In short, probably not.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a gap when it comes to the differences between Millenials and the older generations. And those differences were highlighted perfectly in a lengthy Twitter thread that’s gone viral.
The thread from Carol Blymire, who describes herself on Twitter as a “Communications and public policy executive,” is from July. But the story is timeless. (Ok, maybe it’s not timeless, but it’s still sad/entertaining/funny, depending on how you see it.)
It starts with a young woman in her 20s meeting with her boss.
In office space near a client, a young woman was meeting with her boss. She was (by my estimation) in her late 20s.
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“The boss (also a woman) was giving her feedback and reviewing edits she had made on something this young woman wrote,” Blymire said.
“They had been speaking in low tones, but their volume got louder toward the end of the conversation because the young woman was getting agitated about a particular edit.”
The boss (also a woman) was giving her feedback and reviewing edits she had made on something this young woman wrote.
They had been speaking in low tones, but their volume got louder toward the end of the conversation because the young woman was getting agitated about a particular edit.
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The edit had to do with the spelling of the word “hamster.” The young woman thought it was “hampster” with a “p,” while the boss was correctly noting that there’s no “p.”
“I don’t know why you corrected that because I spell it with the ‘p’ in it,” the young woman reportedly said.
Her boss calmly responded, “But that’s not how the word is spelled. There is no ‘p’ in hamster.”
The young woman countered that she was always taught to spell the word with a “p” in it. And though the boss offered to look it up with her on Dictionary.com, the worker refused.
The young woman kept saying, “I don’t know why you corrected that because I spell it with the P in it.” The boss said (calmly), “But that’s not how the word is spelled. There is no P in hamster.”
Young woman: “But you don’t know that! I learned to spell it with a P in it so that’s how I spell it.”
The boss (remaining very calm and professional), let’s go to dictionary.com and look it up together.
(mind you, this is a woman in her late 20s, not a 5th grader)
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Young woman: “But you don’t know that! I learned to spell it with a P in it so that’s how I spell it.”
The boss (remaining very calm and professional), let’s go to dictionary.com and look it up together.
(mind you, this is a woman in her late 20s, not a 5th grader)
The young woman insists she doesn’t need to look it up because it’s FINE to spell it with a P because that’s HOW SHE WANTED TO SPELL IT.
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Eventually, they move on to the rest of the edits. But later, the young woman appeared to be having a hard time holding it together.
Boss says, “I know edits can be difficult to go over sometimes, especially when you’re working on new kinds of things as you grow in your career, but it’s a necessary process and makes us all better at what we do.”
Boss gets up from table and goes to her office and the young woman can barely hold it together.
She moves to another table in the common workspace area, drops all her stuff loudly on the table top, and starts texting.
A minute later, her phone rings.
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“She moves to another table in the common workspace area, drops all her stuff loudly on the table top, and starts texting,” Blymire wrote. “A minute later, her phone rings.”
Boss gets up from table and goes to her office and the young woman can barely hold it together.
She moves to another table in the common workspace area, drops all her stuff loudly on the table top, and starts texting.
A minute later, her phone rings.
It was her mom. She had texted her mom to call her because it was urgent, and I’m sure her mother maybe thought she was in the ER or something.
She then ... PUTS HER MOM ON SPEAKERPHONE. IN THE WORKPLACE.
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“It was her mom. She had texted her mom to call her because it was urgent, and I’m sure her mother maybe thought she was in the ER or something,” Blymire wrote. “She then … PUTS HER MOM ON SPEAKERPHONE. IN THE WORKPLACE.”
It was her mom. She had texted her mom to call her because it was urgent, and I’m sure her mother maybe thought she was in the ER or something.
She then ... PUTS HER MOM ON SPEAKERPHONE. IN THE WORKPLACE.
She bursts into tears and wants her mom to call her boss and tell her not to be mean about telling her how to spell words like “hamster”.
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It gets worse.
“She bursts into tears and wants her mom to call her boss and tell her not to be mean about telling her how to spell words like ‘hamster,’” Blymire wrote.
“The mother tells her that her boss is an idiot and she doesn’t have to listen to her and she should go to the boss’ boss to file a complaint about not allowing creativity in her writing.”
She bursts into tears and wants her mom to call her boss and tell her not to be mean about telling her how to spell words like “hamster”.
The mother tells her that her boss is an idiot and she doesn’t have to listen to her and she should go to the boss’ boss to file a complaint about not allowing creativity in her writing.
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“I thought what I wrote was perfect and she just made all these changes and then had the nerve to tell me I was spelling words wrong when I know they are right because that is how I have always spelled them,” the young woman reportedly said.
The young woman continued to insist she was right, before reportedly talking to her mom about how hungover she was.
She then went on (still on speakerphone) to tell her mom I’m very great and office-inappropriate detail about how hungover she was and what she and her friends did with some guys the night before. Mom laughed and laughed.
The colleagues in and around the workplace kept looking at one another and some even put earbuds/headphones in/on. It appeared as though this was a regular thing with her.
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The colleagues in and around the workplace kept looking at one another and some even put earbuds/headphones in/on. It appeared as though this was a regular thing with her.
She ended the conversation asking her mom how she should bring this up with the boss’ boss. “I mean, I always spell hamster with a P, she has no right to criticize me.”
She walked to the office kitchen for the rest of the call so I don’t know what happened next.
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“She ended the conversation asking her mom how she should bring this up with the boss’ boss. ‘I mean, I always spell hamster with a P, she has no right to criticize me,'” Blymire wrote.
“She walked to the office kitchen for the rest of the call so I don’t know what happened next,” Blymire added.
Now, Blymire made it clear she wasn’t sure if the young woman had some sort of learning disability.
Again, if there is some sort of learning challenge or if this is someone who requires a different kind of coaching, that’s one thing. And I hope she gets it.
But it seemed more like someone who has never been told no, or that she is anything other than 100% perfect and amazing and can do no wrong. And that is going to be exhausting for anyone in her orbit.
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However, Blymire also has some insightful commentary on the whole situation.
“But it seemed more like someone who has never been told no, or that she is anything other than 100% perfect and amazing and can do no wrong,” she wrote. “And that is going to be exhausting for anyone in her orbit.”
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