THIS is research?

Enter graduate school and, sooner or later, you will run across a research piece that leads you to question who thought it would be a good idea to study the obvious.  I ran across one such article in a Public Relations Theory class, an article that upheld the Curmudgeon Theory.  That is the one that demands each generation to think poorly of the one that succeeds it.  In this case, PR practitioners of the Baby Boomer variety do not think highly of Generation Y, or Millenials, if you prefer.  

This distaste was based on the elders' belief that Millenials enter the workplace with out-sized senses of entitlement and self-importance.  Gee, now where do you imagine those who have those things got them?  Couldn't be from being reared by members of the same generation that is doing the complaining, could it?  All those "spoiled" kids are the result of an atmosphere in which everyone got a trophy, score was not kept, high schools had multiple valedictorians, and all kids were treated as future kings and presidents.  The remarkable thing isn't that the older set views the younger with a jaundiced eye, it's that the Millenials are able to function as well as they do.  Few generations tried harder to ruin childhood than the same Boomers now whining about young 'uns. 

The predictability in the study is that EVERY generation gripes about the one that follows it, whether the "problem" is tastes in music, hairstyles, clothing, or friends.  And, this works both ways; young people like to think they're getting over on their parents.  They're not; just like the youth of my day did not invent rebellious behavior, and neither did my parents.  Or their parents.  The bar of permissibility has changed but, again, whose fault is that?    

I have high hopes for the Millenials, partly because I have two sons and two step-daughters in their ranks and partly because I am surrounded by them all day.  These are not brats-in-waiting; they are sharp, motivated people.  Sure, they're different from my generation but they are supposed to be.  Their experiences and the things they have been exposed to are different, as those things were different in my childhood as compared to my parents. 

The one surprising thing (at least to me though I am probably wrong) is that Millenials were found to be averse to conflict, a bit startling considering that their parents' generation practically invented youthful conflict.  Then again, those same parents likely overcompensated, so busy wanting to be their children's friend that they ignored being mothers and fathers.  The real study here may be that more Millenials are not in need of therapy.  Good thing.  My retirement years depend on their productivity.