A Looping State of Mind
FTA’s Generational Study was a year-long project involving an outside agency, the Association’s Emerging Leaders Committee and resulted in this 3,000-something word article (with numerous in-depth follow-ups to come). Earlier this year at Forum 2017, there were multiple presentations devoted to examining the workforce crisis facing the flexographic industry; some of those speakers have penned articles covering the same topics in this issue. And not a day goes by that there isn’t some hot take on why young people are the way they are, or a scornful quote from a retired executive, or, yes, another (far inferior and less poetically dissected) study.
Why are we paying so much attention to Millennials? Why are we coming up with stereotypes about them and then conducting these lengthy studies to figure out if they are true or not? Why are we so eager to understand them?
What Would Convince You to Stay at Your Current Employer? (Select all that apply)
It’s because they are really, really important; Millennials are, quite factually, the future. They will one day have all our jobs, filling the C-suite, the pressroom floor, the exhibit hall. Or put more accurately: They will one day have someone’s job. Because while young people are interested in flexography, they don’t have to go into the field, nor do they have to stay in it—they can be paid to do something else, somewhere else. There’s plenty to like about the field and lots of reasons to become a part of it. It’s up to us to communicate that to Millennials. Knowing what makes them tick, finding common ground, what they excel at and where they need assistance—these are crucial to doing that.
To the Millennials out there: While it might sometimes feel like you are a lab rat under a microscope, and that people act as if they know who you are because they read a study (like this one), it is your differences—being younger, more technologically adept, more malleable and able to pick up new things—that are simultaneously your greatest strengths and the source of any discomfort felt by veteran workers and caused by your presence. There is a reason the flexographic industry is so large and filled with people who have spent their entire lives in its employ. As a former outsider, I can vouch for it.
But seriously, you guys, get off your phones.