Professor Bobby Duffy

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I just get really tired because I get asked a lot about generational differences and what's real and what's not.

And so often, people are asking me about things that they ask me exactly the same questions about millennials.

I'm very old now, so I've seen this go through a few cycles of generations.

And it comes to those points where, you know, the entitled label was exactly the same for millennials.

Millennials were called Generation Me.

when it first started.

So we just repeat these cycles of putting these types of characteristics on the younger generation, whether that's lazy, entitled, but then on the more positive side that they're particularly socially conscious or they're really into brand purpose and that's all they care about or they're very entrepreneurial.

And hardly any of this stacks up against the data that these kind of cliched shifts are not really backed up.

And I just get tired because it keeps coming back generation after generation.

I guarantee it will be the same for generation alpha in 10 years or so.

People will be making the same claims about these things.

big breaks that we're suddenly seeing.

And the reason I get cross about it a little bit is that people try to sell stuff on the back of this.

It's whether it's just stories or whether it's a particular brand or product or whether it's consultancy and people saying, Gen Z are completely different in the workplace.

I need to come in and teach you how to engage with this new cohort of people who have different values, different behaviours.

Otherwise, your workforce won't work together.

And that makes me really upset because it's kind of exactly the wrong way to frame it.