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12-20-2017, Entrepreneur -- As part of my job, I regularly work with people who own and run their own businesses. Many of these people are what you might call "thought leaders," highly respected in their fields. They're movers and shakers. And starting a few years ago, they all started saying the same thing:

We're firing our millennial employees.

This troubled me. Why were they firing them? And why did they feel so strongly about the firings that they felt the need to tell me about them? I asked nearly a dozen experts, influencers and business owners why they thought millennials sometimes struggled in the workplace, and why they were getting fired.

As I investigated, trends began to emerge.

 

What I learned didn't change my positive opinions about my generation -- but it did give me insight into why business leaders sometimes complain. Here's what my contacts said about millennials, and why they get fired.

1. Lack of vision

Josh Steimle, CEO of MWI, told me that in his opinion, lack of vision was the biggest reason why millennial employees sometimes flare out. "A lack of empathy is hurting many millennials in the workplace, because they're not understanding the circumstances of their employment from the employer's point of view," he says.

Millennials sometimes struggle to appreciate the bigger picture and their role in it. This can hurt their workplace performance.

Being able to think like your boss -- to see the big picture -- is vital in the workplace. If you think of yourself as nothing more than a cog in a machine, you won't exactly be irreplaceable when it comes time for layoffs.

2. Miscommunication

One common complaint about millennials is that phones and computers preempted their need to learn face-to-face communication skills. They're great at Snapchat, the story goes, but they struggle to get their point across any other way. While I don't necessarily buy into this theory, it did come up a lot in my conversations with experts.

"Communication is vital in any relationship," Tayeb Malik, the founder and CEO of Glydr told me, "not least that between an employee and boss. Even in today's tech-heavy workplace, the most important communication is still done face-to-face."

Meetings, calls, interviews and sales pitches all require sharp communication and interpersonal skills. Consistently look helpless in these settings, and your boss might wonder how much value you bring to the company.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

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