MILLENNIALS IN THE WORKPLACE: AN EXAMINATION OF PUBLIC RESPONSE TO RESEARCH

Joel Furches

Abstract

This is a phenomenological study of the experience of watching a video presentation by Simon Sinek in which he talks about the behaviors and attitudes of Millenials in the workplace. The experience of viewers was gauged by a qualitative examination of 100 comments on the YouTube video. Comments were catalogued into six categories: Agree/Profound, Agree/Helpful Talk, Agree/Matches my Experience, Disagree/Overgeneralization, Disagree/Times Have Changed, and Disagree/Not my Experience. Two thirds of commenters agreed with the talk, with the majority stating that the speaker’s observations matched their experience. Among those who disagreed, only 8% stated that Sinek’s observations regarding the behavior of Millennials in the workplace were wrong, with the other 24% stating that Sinek was either making an overgeneralization, or that the behaviors were the result of some other factor Sinek had overlooked. Other research observes the persistence of the stereotypes Sinek ascribes to Millennials suggesting that these stereotypes are socially pervasive and profound.

Keywords: psychology, research