Why Do Millennial Sonographers Have a Lazy Work Ethic?

by SonoguruJanuary 4, 2022January 4, 2022

I have the luxury of visiting several different facilities where sonographers work and time and time again I hear the same stories about Millennial work ethics. As a Gen X sonographer myself I relate to these peers telling the same stories I have previously lived through in the field. So what are the stories and the frustrations that come along with it?

1.They no longer value the traditional workplace rules

Strict dress code? Fines for being late for 10 minutes? Meetings for the sake of meetings? Millennials no longer deem such things important and often fail to compile with outdated rules. They will not work for a company where certain things are done because “it’s always been done that way.” This generation has often been called the generation of tinkerers and shortcut-takers. They don’t want to get things done “just because.” They want to get tasks done in the most efficient, least time-consuming way possible and squeeze out the max results. However on the other end of the spectrum time theft is another issue with the Millennial generation, as many employees spend much of their day using their personal devices for non-work-related activities. Too often, the desire to be “tuned-in” trumps doing actual work.

2.They believe in life, not work-life balance

Work is not everything millennials want in life. They would like to have time for their friends, family, hobbies, and other small pleasures and pastimes. They work to live, not live to work. That’s why the concept of lifestyle business gained so much popularity in the last decade among these folks. Millennials want to combine their passion with profit and work long hours on projects they feel passionate about, rather than helping someone else reach their profit benchmark. They are known as “the entitled generation”, the reason for this is that millennials are not seeking a life-long career to pay the bills.

This generation does not want to repeat the mistakes of their parents who spent over 60 hours per week at work; instead they want it all — a successful career and the life outside of work. Whether the work is done or not they will leave on time and leave the work for the next shift people or the next day. Calling in comes natural especially if they can text their way out of a work day.

3.They want transparency

Millennial workers don’t merely nod and do as they are told by the manager, unless they see and understand the logics behind the decision. They don’t want to waste their time on things reasoned with “I’m the boss, I know better”. They want to know the “why” behind most important decisions made. .” They want to know why important are decisions made. They may not always agree with them, but they’ll appreciate the candidness.

While organizations certainly cannot change the way a whole generation of workers thinks, they can attempt to embrace the Millennial mindset. As an increasing number of Millennials will be entering the workforce in the coming years, doing so will become a virtual necessary to ensure organizational survival. One way employers can gain a competitive advantage when recruiting talented Millennials is placing a strong emphasis on improving ethics and social responsibility.

We know that millennials will not stay at the same company for long this has become the restlessness nature, so ethics training for millennials can not only help everyone that has to work with them at your facility but also train them for the behavior at the next. We know the ultrasound world is small, why should Gen X be “responsible” to help with this training along the way? Well because we are Gen X and that’s what we do and we too have a reputation to uphold.

In terms of content, it’s important to craft and “brand” the training program so that the employees will view it as beneficial to their ongoing professional development. Keeping in mind that most Millennials probably are not planning to work for the organization for the next 30-40 years, the training should focus on the development of “transferrable” ethics and compliance knowledge and skill sets. Key ethics topics that resonate with Millennials who have managerial aspirations include detecting and preventing retaliation, how to investigate incidents of ethical misconduct, and conflict resolution.

If you want to keep your millennial workforce content and productive, your company should focus on empowering workers and explaining to them why they should care, stressing how each team member contributes to the overall success, and praise more individual efforts rather than team accomplishments or managers only. After all we all get motivated after being told we are doing a good job or something right.

CategoriesBlog