[Mick]

What I was saying is that you can't count on the economy bouncing back, in part due to the characteristics of millenial employees.

I'll bite. What are the characteristics of my generation (I'm 34, wife is 36) as employees?

My background for the past three decades has been running the sales and marketing functions for large professional services firms in SV, SFBA, NYC, DC, Boston and Detroit.  The teams I've managed have ranged from 10 to 90 employees/contractors and range across the generations, throughout North America and on three continents.  Currently my remaining team is 30 not including the three employees I furloughed and the two contractors I let go.  So I'll share my perspective, which is as limited as that of any individual.

My experience has been that millenials are tech-savvy, collaborative, curious, individualistic, devoted to the social common good, financially stable, smart and eager to learn.  Also that they want praise and a raise and early promotions and a life outside of work.  Collectively, they don't work as hard as prior generations, particularly if they were born in America.

I'll just share one example of the collective experience of me and my peers, who work for about thirty successful national law firms.  From their founding, the associates (younger lawyers) would socialize with partners after hours to learn how to work with clients and prospects, to learn how to network.  It's important not just for their respective firms, but important for the associates' future careers because whether they make partner at their current firm, or go on to the bench, or work inhouse; they will need as broad and as strong a network as possible to generate those opportunities.  Associates understood that it was time they invested to advance their careers.

Until the millenials.  Millenial associates now want to be paid for the business development work.  Most of my peers have seen millenial associates collectively approach management to inform them that they wanted to be paid (or credited with billable hours) for what prior generations did for free because it contributed to their future. Prior generations wouldn't even think to ask for it because it made no sense and went completely against tradition.

Just one perspective.  Here are a few other perspectives:

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-sol...-hire-them
https://michiganscouting.org/wp-content/...nnials.pdf
https://www.mindtickle.com/blog/new-hire...nt-ignore/
https://www.livescience.com/38061-millen...ion-y.html
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/int...cteristics
https://www.livescience.com/38061-millen...ion-y.html
https://www.careerprofiles.com/blog/unde...workplace/
https://blog.crossknowledge.com/millennial-behavior/
https://www.ey.com/en_us/advisory/how-co...9UQAvD_BwE

---

As so many on this board have been saying, economy versus lives saved is a false choice. We have a shit economy and a lot of people die, or we have a shit economy and less people die. 

With respect, it's not a false choice.  When people work productively, the economy is better than when people don't work productively.  It was true during the Spanish flu, America's economy and GDP kept strong with a minor blip.  And yes, they had no choice, they didn't have the medical advances we do now.  So they worked hard and 675,000 Americans died, and they entered the Roaring 20s and succeeded...until the Great Depression.  And as I've made clear, I don't think we're facing a Great Depression. I think what we're facing is worse. China understands it and we don't. They will come out of this the unquestioned global leader, and will dictate terms economically. Or did you miss the fact that they floated the idea that if we didn't play ball they would hold back on delivering antibiotics that they manufacture? At its worst, America would never have done that. In six months when our economy and Europe's economies are in ruins, the Chinese will dictate terms in ways you can't believe.

I don't understand why some people on this board thinks that there would be the same economic result with people working vs. people not working.  Intuitively that can't possibly be true.

[Mick]

What I was saying is that you can't count on the economy bouncing back, in part due to the characteristics of millenial employees.

I'll bite. What are the characteristics of my generation (I'm 34, wife is 36) as employees?

My background for the past three decades has been running the sales and marketing functions for large professional services firms in SV, SFBA, NYC, DC, Boston and Detroit.  The teams I've managed have ranged from 10 to 90 employees/contractors and range across the generations, throughout North America and on three continents.  Currently my remaining team is 30 not including the three employees I furloughed and the two contractors I let go.  So I'll share my perspective, which is as limited as that of any individual.

My experience has been that millenials are tech-savvy, collaborative, curious, individualistic, devoted to the social common good, financially stable, smart and eager to learn.  Also that they want praise and a raise and early promotions and a life outside of work.  Collectively, they don't work as hard as prior generations, particularly if they were born in America.

I'll just share one example of the collective experience of me and my peers, who work for about thirty successful national law firms.  From their founding, the associates (younger lawyers) would socialize with partners after hours to learn how to work with clients and prospects, to learn how to network.  It's important not just for their respective firms, but important for the associates' future careers because whether they make partner at their current firm, or go on to the bench, or work inhouse; they will need as broad and as strong a network as possible to generate those opportunities.  Associates understood that it was time they invested to advance their careers.

Until the millenials.  Millenial associates now want to be paid for the business development work.  Most of my peers have seen millenial associates collectively approach management to inform them that they wanted to be paid (or credited with billable hours) for what prior generations did for free because it contributed to their future. Prior generations wouldn't even think to ask for it because it made no sense and went completely against tradition.

Just one perspective.  Here are a few other perspectives:

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-sol...-hire-them
https://michiganscouting.org/wp-content/...nnials.pdf
https://www.mindtickle.com/blog/new-hire...nt-ignore/
https://www.livescience.com/38061-millen...ion-y.html
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/int...cteristics
https://www.livescience.com/38061-millen...ion-y.html
https://www.careerprofiles.com/blog/unde...workplace/
https://blog.crossknowledge.com/millennial-behavior/
https://www.ey.com/en_us/advisory/how-co...9UQAvD_BwE

---

As so many on this board have been saying, economy versus lives saved is a false choice. We have a shit economy and a lot of people die, or we have a shit economy and less people die. 

With respect, it's not a false choice.  When people work productively, the economy is better than when people don't work productively.  It was true during the Spanish flu, America's economy and GDP kept strong with a minor blip.  And yes, they had no choice, they didn't have the medical advances we do now.  So they worked hard and 675,000 Americans died, and they entered the Roaring 20s and succeeded...until the Great Depression.  And as I've made clear, I don't think we're facing a Great Depression. I think what we're facing is worse. China understands it and we don't. They will come out of this the unquestioned global leader, and will dictate terms economically. Or did you miss the fact that they floated the idea that if we didn't play ball they would hold back on delivering antibiotics that they manufacture? At its worst, America would never have done that. In six months when our economy and Europe's economies are in ruins, the Chinese will dictate terms in ways you can't believe.

I don't understand why some people on this board thinks that there would be the same economic result with people working vs. people not working.  Intuitively that can't possibly be true.