Hasty Millennials

Jan 26 , 2019
By Tsion Fisseha

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Tsion Fisseha is a writer and head of foreign languages in the news department at a local TV station. She has been a part of a pan African poetry slam competition representing Ethiopia and is a member of a rock band entitled the Green Manalishi. She can be reached at tsion.f.terefe@gmail.com.

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Instant gratification seems to be the theme of the world that we are currently living in, according to Simon Sinek, a British-American motivational speaker and author of five books, including “Start With Why.”

He goes on to explain that millennials have become attuned to brief and easy instances and experiences of satisfaction to the point that the art of patience has been lost on them.

This is indeed a generation that two months after entering the workforce is baffled by the fact that they have not been made a company executive. Our minds are boggled with the idea that we are not changing the world, becoming an employee of the month, getting a bonus and improving the worth of the company beyond its owners’ dreams, especially after having put into it what seems to be to us a great deal of work.

But our problems do not start nor end with work. The same theme applies to our social and personal lives. We are not accustomed to messages that take weeks or a month to reach their intended recipients or the selfless, spiritual passion of Romeo and Juliet, especially when we can swipe right or left for love.

Most scholars interested in millennials define them as a group of kids pontificating, “I want to be the one who comes up with the idea, not the person who executes on it.”

We are the generation that is irritated and angry. Mental health issues affect us more than other generations. We are more likely to commit suicide or be depressed and anxious, issues that cut across national, cultural, religious, gender and class lines.

We have forgotten the difference between love and co-dependence, dependent on the words that carry empty promises. Our relationship with time has been profoundly affected with the illusion of us manipulating it, and the inability to comprehend its value has brought us to the conclusion that we need to slow down.

But there is incoherence between the image of the millennials that is projected, that we lack patience, and the solution that is ascribed to it, having to slow down.

The intolerance, which even millennials admit to, comes in not getting what they want when they want it, according to Lucy Stanney in her paper “Because We Can: A Study of Millennial Impatience and The Rise of Next Day Delivery.” She describes that delay, in any form, causes agitation and frustration among this group.

This impatience, which is frequently attached to millennials, goes beyond minor dissatisfaction witnessed in everyday life. The spillover effect is seen in different aspects of life, including the workplace. Millennials’ infatuation with promotion and the idea of changing the world interferes with the actual work being done on the ground.

Being patient comes with crucial factors, most important of which is hard work. It brings with it wisdom and calmness. We need to allow our pallets and the pallets of others to savour the taste of our work as employees in the workplace and cease relying on a few moments of satisfaction as human beings.

It is next to impossible to become Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Chimamanda Ngozi or President Sahleworq Zewdu overnight. There will be times when our work will be torn to pieces along with our hearts - spat on and laughed at.

Every bit of our body and mind will tell us that we are not or will never be good enough. We will encounter sleepless nights and days filled with nightmares, jump from one job to another and dream of one day finding our calling.

If we ever slow down though, we will skid off our tracks. Instead, we need to be patient, which will not make us happy momentarily but will pay off in time.

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PUBLISHED ON Jan 26,2019 [ VOL 19 , NO 978]

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