The crucial skill new hires lack

[Jazzy]

Millennials would rather send an instant message than walk a few feet to speak directly to a colleague. They spend hours texting and playing games on smartphones, but regard voice calls as intrusive wastes of time. Connecting through social networks is usually preferable to chatting over coffee. And even their student clubs “meet” online rather than in person.

Because of such extensive reliance on online communication, many millennials — the generation born during the 1980s and 1990s — have missed out on valuable face-to-face interactions and failed to learn how to speak in a polished manner, listen attentively and read other people’s expressions and body language.

As a result, employers are finding that their young hires are awkward in their interpersonal interactions and ill-prepared to collaborate effectively with teammates and develop relationships with clients.

Perhaps the most common complaint about millennials’ communication style is their casual approach. Many young people have become so accustomed to the informal, curt nature of texts and tweets that they often use the same tone with both their buddies and their bosses. Millennials also tend to be very candid and chummy on social networks with people they barely know, including authority figures, and they often carry that approach over to emails and in-person conversations. The judges at one business school’s case competition were taken aback when students addressed them as, “you guys”.

“Students can be a little too open and too friendly and that makes recruiters concerned about how they will handle things when they work with clients,” said Michael Meredith, assistant professor of management and corporate communication at the Kenan-Flager Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

He says he emphasizes the importance of knowing one’s audience and understanding rules and etiquette of good communication. “When presenting for a client or trying to get a job”, he said, “a lot of communication boils down to trust: Do I trust that you’ll work well with others?”

Full article

Do you think there's any truth in this article?

 

[nolvorite]

I guess some people lost interpersonal skills by being on the phone too much but it can't possibly be everybody. I think this guy is exaggerating just how much millenials lost interpersonal skills from being on their devices

 

[Bluezone777]

You could easily turn this around and say the older generations have grown so accustomed to speaking in person that they refuse to use technology to communicate just as much as the younger generations have grown too accustomed to using technology to speak that they refuse to learn and use the ability to talk in person with another where things are obviously very different. I think this issue is a two way street and it needs to be addressed from both ends or nothing will change. I think it goes back to how you were raised as I think how parents moderated the use of technology and the ease as to how it was to obtain it for a child really determines whether they rely on it or not. There's nothing wrong with using it but it's not something to be relied on much like forcing others to rely on older methods of communication because you refuse to embrace technology that is here today.

 

[Nebulous]

People have always been socially awkward. Even before smart phones and computers.

 

[nolvorite]

People have always been socially awkward. Even before smart phones and computers.

Some kinds of awkward are acceptable though
as long as you're generally funny and the awkwardness doesn't make you cringe

 

[Evil Eye]

Oh... complaining about Millennials again? This sorta stuff just keeps popping up every year.

Honestly, I'd rather be addressed as "you guys", because at least the person doing the addressing would be honest. Forced politeness is no politeness at all.