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A millennial boss has been praised for the way she responded to an employee who accused her of “undermining” her.
In a video posted to TikTok earlier this month, Kristen, who goes by the username @drowningabovewater94, spoke candidly about working with bosses born in different generations. “I have worked for a narcissistic, psychotic boomer,” she claimed. “And I have also worked for a narcissistic, psychotic Gen X.”
She then began sharing the story of how she’s benefited from working for a boss who is a millennial, which refers to the generation born from 1981 to 1996. Kristen specified that she’s turning 29 this year, while her boss is turning 35 or 36.
Kristen, who’s a realtor, went on to recall the very “professional” email that she sent to her senior about an issue at work.
“I’m just stating: ‘Hey, while I do appreciate you commenting these things to the clients…I do feel that you were undermining me and it could damage my relationship with these clients,’” she said, as she recited the email.
The realtor then shared her boss’ response to the email, which she said she opened while “shaking” with nerves due to her past experiences with previous employers.
However, according to Kristen, her boss acknowledged her employee’s “point” and apologised for her behaviour.
“I apologise for the way I approached that,” Kristen continued, reciting the response she received to her email. “I did not mean to undermine you in any way. For future emails that I am CC’d on, I won’t reply unless I’m addressed to or after. I apologise for the way that I approached that and I have 100 per cent trust in the way you’re handling this file.”
Kristen’s boss also confessed that she “may be a little too attached” to the clients and that she needed to “learn to let go”. She then thanked her employee for speaking up and making her concerns known.
“I also appreciate your email and I appreciate you writing to address the way you felt right away instead of keeping it inside,” Kristen continued, as she finished reading the email.
The TikToker concluded her video by praising her boss for the way in which she “communciated” and took “accountability”.
“I was gobsmacked at this email, of the professional courtesy, of the acknowledgement of wrong, the respecting of my boundaries,” she continued. “This should be the norm. This should be how work communication goes, and it’s not. And it is so f***ing refreshing. Work for a millennial, oh god, Gen Z even better.”
As of 27 January, Kristen’s video has more than 1.7m views, with TikTok users in the comments praising her boss, along with other supervisors who are millennials.
“Millennials out here DOING THE WORK! Healed people heal people,” one viewer wrote, while another added: “That’s not a boss honey. That is a LEADER.”
A third said: “Millennials: On our way to killing toxic work culture.”
Other users also revealed that they’ve had better experiences working for millennials than for people who were part of older generations.
“I work for a millennial and even when we’re seriously in disagreement she’ll say ‘thank you for your honesty’ and it feels great every time,” one person wrote.
“I worked for a boomer man for almost five years, and now I work for a millennial woman (36 this year and I just turned 30) and it has been LIFE CHANGING,” another said.
During an interview with BuzzFeed, Kristen elaborated why she was unhappy working under bosses who were Gen X or Boomers.
“I always dreaded going to work. It wasn’t enjoyable for me, just something I had to do so I could pay my bills,” she said. “Having bad bosses absolutely affected my job performance – it made me a miserable employee.”
She also explained why she thinks millennials are working towards creating “healthier workplace environments”.
“Generally speaking, millennials are known as the first generation who have put themselves in therapy to better understand themselves and the potential reasons behind their own actions and the actions of those around them,” she said. “We are holding ourselves accountable for our actions and we are going out of our way to learn how to break the unhealthy generational cycles that we have been born into.”
