3 challenges faced by millennials at a workplace (and how to overcome them)

One might think that millennials, a generation that grew up with colour television, CDs, smartphones and social media, might have what it takes to tackle all the challenges that life throws. But you cannot be more wrong! Sure, we are used to multitasking and taking the world by storm when the need arises, but modern work culture is proving quite troublesome for millennials everywhere. It’s not owing to lack of trying, but factors like contradicting ideologies, flat hierarchies and lack of facilities, among many other reasons, are problematic to us.

Image credits: insperity.com

Working in a multigenerational work environment has its share of problems for both the baby boomers and millennials, but the challenges faced by the latter are unique to only them. Here are the top three challenges faced by millennials at a workplace today and how they can be overcome.

Communication etiquette

There have been innumerable instances where young professionals have made the rookie mistake of hitting the send button before taking a second look at their messages. Written communication poses to be a great challenge faced by millennials today and, guilty as charged, every company uses email as primary source of communication. For a generation that is used to writing “k” instead of “okay”, formal emailing is a bit of a challenge. Millennials fall prey to sounding discourteous while emailing their colleagues, often coming across as condescending or impolite. Furthermore, while talking face to face, the body language speaks a lot of the person. Be too casual and the rest might perceive you to be lazy or disinterested.

Fix: Learn the correct manners when it comes to professional communication. Reading and implementing some tips as to how to email properly or how to be professional might help. Also, following the body language of the respondent might improve communication.

Conflicting ideas

Millennials can’t take no for an answer. What can be an absolute nightmare for an entrepreneur? Bickering baby boomers and millennials. Startups today, being multigenerational in nature, have to walk on egg shells in order to balance between both the generations. Besides, clashes don’t just occur between generations; they can be intra generational too.

Fix: Read this article on how to overcome the workplace generational gap.

Dress code

Sure, power dressing is the trend now, but among many other problems, millennials face a pertinent problem of what to wear. Of course, flashy and fashionable clothing are allowed if you are working for the fashion industry. If not, you should dress according to what others are wearing in your company.

Fix: Look around to find out what suits your company’s dress code the best. Also, make sure you find out if your company has a dress code at all or not. Some companies or startups have casual dressing while some others go for a more formal code.

Individuals face a myriad of problems depending on where they work or their nature of work. But one thing must be kept in mind – you should learn what works best for you and learn when to say no.