Many generations test their mettle in a crisis that defines them through the ages. The "Greatest Generation" had World War II. The baby boomers had Vietnam. Now the millennial generation -- the computer-savvy, coddled and cocky children of the 1980s -- may find that the current financial crisis is their crucible. If they survive it.
Variously dubbed "Generation Me," "Generation Y" or the "Everyone Gets an Award Generation," today's twentysomethings are to the boomers what the Japanese are to electronics. If the baby boomers invented me-first hyper-individualism, then the millennials have perfected it. Indeed, millennials are the children of the boomers, the product of family planing and the cult of self-esteem. They are hellbent on making it by their own rules.
A lot of those who are studying millennials have identified this "we'll do it our way" tendency as a sign of entitlement and weakness; by this logic, this won't be the greatest generation, just the whiniest and the neediest. But in my experience -- I'm Generation X with the Ys on my heels -- and in the studies of another set of observers, all that confidence instills in them just what their folks hoped it would: resilience. OK, arrogance and resilience
Not long ago, the economy seemed poised not only to embrace the millennials but to start taking orders from them. A survey by Jobfox, an Internet job site, found that millennials prefer setting their own work hours, being treated as equals and, because they understand that sooner or later everything becomes obsolete, constantly learning new skills.
"Businesses," said Jobfox Chief Executive Rob McGovern last fall, "must learn new ways to incorporate Gen Y views. ... The companies that succeed ... will be the ones that can most inspire Generation Y. This is the most educated and technologically savvy generation ever."
But that was before the financial crisis. The recession is hitting younger job-seekers hard. There are fewer jobs available, and many older workers are either trying to delay retirement or reenter the job market.
"If [millennials] don't adjust to reality, many are going to end up with a lot of disappointment," said Jean Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled --and More Miserable Than Ever Before." "But that would be true even if they had realistic expectations, which they don't."
