
If you want to retain your millennials, ditch the office hierarchy - ekpyrotic
https://medium.com/@ab.banerjee/if-you-want-to-retain-your-millennials-ditch-the-office-hierarchy-78512032c22b
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forgottenpass
I'm half suspicious the author is deliberately ignoring they obvious so they
can focus on buzzwordy phrases.

Millennials don't stick around because they know they will have slower career
progression by staying put. People, in general, are more amenable to
collaboration within the boundaries of their work than answering to
controlling micromanagers. Quelle surprise.

Hierarchy is a red herring. Hierarchies aren't a problem in and of themselves.
Hierarchies that decide everyone below certain boundaries should be treated
like fry cooks are. I guess you could call the opposite "challeng[ing] lines
of management and overcome hierarchical bureaucracy" but that framing just
makes me think you have something to sell.

It's not like millennials are more anti-establishment than generations before
them (they're frighteningly obedient). It's that people with a decent work
life don't realize how bad the "professional" jobs taken by the generation can
be.

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Boothroid
Hang on a minute. If millenials are so ambitious and craving of advancement,
what kind of advancement is going to be possible without hierarchy? Certainly
ditching hierarchy narrows the options for rewarding employees.

Also, ditching hierarchy risks royally pissing off older workers that have
worked for years to ascend, and in some cases these are the very people whose
knowledge is indispensable to the functioning of the company. Finally, at some
point these millennials will get older, and some may stay at a company for
years. How then to reward loyalty if hierarchy is ditched? Isn't loyalty worth
rewarding via hierarchy given the cost of hiring new people and having them
learn the business?

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JoeAltmaier
Lots of ways. One way: certify employees in different facets of the business.
Older employees will have many certifications; newer ones, fewer. Pay them by
certification; respect their opinion based on certifications.

Heck, you can even issue medals for each one, and the old greybeards can have
a chest full of brass.

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Boothroid
In an ideal world perhaps - in my experience in many businesses there is often
a gap between the way things should work, and the way they really work, and
it's often the old timers that are the keepers of this knowledge, and it's not
the type of thing that's amenable to certificates.

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executesorder66
I thought the reason most people switch companies every 2-4 years was because
it pays better to switch companies, instead of remaining loyal to one company
and relying on increases/promotions within the company.

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taylodl
Ssssh! Don't let the facts confuse this person's perception of reality!

