Millennials Aren't the Lazy Narcissists You Think

The stereotype has quite a hold: Millennials, those of us born between roughly the early 1980s and the early 2000s, are lazy, narcissistic and unwilling to hold a job, content to live in our parents' basements playing with iDroids and selfie sticks when we're not demanding opportunities for which we are unqualified.

According to the popular notion, this "me, me, me generation" will always "want a hand out," is "the most high maintenance workforce in the history of the world" and will wind up as a "minimally employable crop of Americans who will ultimately need more subsidies than a dairy farmer." And our smugness about these matters is "what you get when you raise an entire generation without spanking."

That sound you just heard was my eyes nearly rolling out of my head.

This perception of the millennial generation has become so ingrained that those of us in it even believe it about each other, according to the Pew Research Center. But it's in all likelihood patent nonsense, an every-generation reaction to what the kids are doing these days that bears very little connection to reality. 

Consider these points from the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey, which found that "far from being a generation of disgruntled and whiny youth, millennials appear to be more satisfied with specific aspects of the workplace than the average worker." To wit, millennials feel better about the skills development and opportunities for promotion they receive, while the traits they look for in a potential employer – including work-life balance and "ethical practices" – are pretty much the same as everyone else.

This is just a survey, so, yes, maybe my age cohort is full of fibbers saying they're happy about work whilst Instagramming the hours away and waiting for someone to fund their organic ferret food startup. But a look at the history shows that we're probably just like our parents, who were also told that they were narcissistic know-nothings, as were their parents before them and on and on. The baby boomers and Generation X, today's scolders, were both derided as generations of self-absorbed slackers, too. Just look at this compendium of magazine covers warning of the dread lazy non-worker over the decades.

Heck, go back even further through the centuries if you like: Complaining that the youths are not willing to carry on the grand traditions and work ethic of the previous generation is practically a human rite of passage. And yet somehow we are all still here, with a functioning economy and everything.

One area where millennials do indeed differ, according to the survey, and in being concerned about flexible work hours. This, though, is more a function of the modern economy than some plot to enhance idleness. The age of the one-income household is largely behind us. Two-thirds of children now live in a household in which both parents work, while fewer than half did as recently as 1975. And mothers are more and more often the primary breadwinner, while still taking the lion's share of the caregiving duties.

Hence, a focus on workplace flexibility makes a ton of sense; it'd be irresponsible to do anything else. This isn't a failure of millennials, it's the death knell of an economic model in which one income was sufficient to become middle class.

In fact, having to graduate into the teeth of one of the nastiest recessions the country has seen, combined with changing gender and work norms, likely explains a lot of the millennial behavior that older generations deride. The inability to get a job isn't due to a lack of initiative; it's due to a lack of jobs. The inability to move out of the basement isn't because of a lack of interest, it's a lack of affordable housing and skyrocketing rents. Wages have been stagnant for decades while student debt, at a time when a bachelor's degree is being treated as the new high school diploma, is flying off the charts.

And yet we're still more optimistic about the economic future than our parents. Put that in your Twitter and smoke it!

Yes, the workforce is changing, and attitudes are going to change with it. But it's not likely that, in the click from the '70s to the '80s, something went haywire in the American mind causing a pronounced shift in feelings about work. Far more probable is that millennials are just like those who came before them, reacting to the challenges of the modern economy in ways that are unfamiliar, but only slightly. That's progress, not a problem.

So stop telling us to get off of your lawn.