Say Goodbye to Generation Bashing

Note: This is an excerpt from a Quirks.com article written by Murphy Research's Bonnie Chiurazzi.

The Great Recession was the economic event that shaped the Millennials' prospects just as they were ready to enter the job market. They stayed at home, went back to school, took advantage of the gig economy and eventually trickled into the workforce. At first, there was a lot of interest in catering to these novel consumers and fresh new workers. Brands wanted to sell to them and companies wanted to hire them.

Then, when they were just about to embark on their adult life (albeit later than the previous generations), the Millennial bashing began. Their public digital lives and willingness to share their opinion came back to bite them. They were pegged as late-blooming, lazy, entitled spendthrifts who spent most of their time socializing and skirting responsibility.

However, those sentiments have been used to describe previous generations as well. Older generations watching Boomers and Gen Xers emerge as adults questioned the ability of those young people to grow past their childlike nature and become contributing members of society. But they did! And Millennials are too. And yet, the Millennial bashing still hasn't stopped…

Millennial bashing can hurt brands and researchers alike because it enforces an outdated stereotype that Millennials are still today's youth. If you're not mapping generations by life stage, you should be. This article lays out a simple framework to do just that.

Read the full article on Quirks.com to learn more!