In response to yesterday's blog post, Nick Armstrong of Psychotic Resumes sent me a video clip, "wherein," he says, "millennials are depicted as headphone-wearing, slang-jiving idiots who roll in [to work] around noon and, well you get the idea."Here's the clip. I can't decide whether it is meant as a parody or not. Either way, if there's a better example of how misinformed many in the corporate world are about the Millennial generation, I have yet to find it:

Look, Millennials are not corporately clueless, entitled idiots suffering from delusions of grandeur with regards to their career trajectory. Unlike what's depicted in the video and on The Hills, very few young workers expect to be promoted after a couple months. Even fewer dictate to our boss when we'll show up in the morning, and we especially don't expect to "roll in" around noon. But, I went through great lengths yesterday to establish what Millennials are not, so I thought I'd use today's space to discuss about what we are.

Here's what Generation Blend author Rob Salkowitz told me in an e-mail yesterday.

It is true that, in the 1980s and 90s when Millennials were being educated and socialized, there was a shift of values away from competition and toward cooperation, self-esteem, and recognizing the contributions of everyone, not just the "winners."

On the up-side, this produced a generation that is relatively more collaborative, more optimistic, and more interested in solving problems than winning for its own sake: all very positive behaviors in the workplace.

What I found most interesting about Rob's comments was that the very same shift away from competition towards cooperation that created all these positive workforce behaviors, is also the catalyst behind "Trophy Kid" theory -- that Millennials were coddled as children and, as result, have entered the workforce with far too strong a sense of entitlement.

What I think is really at work here is that Millennials are challenging the status quo within the workplace. They've entered the ranks of employment with higher expectations than their older colleagues around simple issues like relaxed working environments and flexible work schedules. In addition, Millennials seem less concerned with seniority in the workplace and thus less likely to defer to older co-workers when it comes to sharing ideas with the higher-ups or seeking promotions.

So, maybe the notion of so-called Trophy Kids is really more a byproduct of this. Those from older generations within the workforce often times cannot relate to Millennials and the different priorities they have towards their jobs. At times, they may even feel threatened by Millennials who seem to expect more from their employer and appear uninterested in waiting their turn for promotions, etc.

Unfortunately, it's easier to chalk such differences up to lazy theories about entitlement and coddling. "The 'trophy kid' phenomenon is something that some consultants have used as a lazy way of explaining certain Millennial behaviors to Boomer and GenX managers," Salkowitz told me.

One of the main criticisms in the WSJ piece that I mentioned yesterday was Millennials' desire to 'shape their jobs to fit their lives rather than adapt their lives to the workplace.' This, I think, is the heart of the issue.

Thanks to technology, the Millennial generation understands, perhaps better than older colleagues, that the workplace can now be a more flexible place -- flexible in terms of who is truly most deserving of a promotion (is technological savvy more valuable than job experience and seniority in some cases?) and flexible in terms of working environment (does where we work and when we work still matter as much, considering the ubiquity of mobile and web technologies?)

Maybe 20 years ago, it was poor form to expect a job to fit your life, rather than vice versa. But that was because such expectations were unrealistic and, if realized, would adversely affect job performance. That's not always true anymore. Older workers need to realize that Millennials don't believe that just our generation is entitled to a more free-flowing and flexible workplace -- everyone is. Just go with it.Older workers need to realize that Millennials don't believe that just our generation is entitled to a more free-flowing and flexible workplace -- everyone is. Just go with it.