Millennials ‘lack resilience’, need ‘hugging’ for reassurance: Ita Buttrose

Media maven and ABC Chair Ita Buttrose says Millennials “lack resilience” and need “hugging” for constant reassurance.

Media maven Ita Buttrose says Millennials in the Australian workforce “lack resilience” and need “hugging” for constant reassurance and also “need to be thanked”.

The ABC Chair, who said resilience was desirable and seemed to be in “short supply” worldwide, made the comments to the Australia-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce in London on Wednesday.

Speaking under Chatham House rules, a principal of not disclosing the source of information revealed at a meeting, Buttrose said the make-up of the workforce had radically changed.

And this was particularly the case regarding the demands of Millennials who were in the Australian workforce.

Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial.

“What does change is the expectations of staff, that’s where the change occurs,” Buttrose said.

“It seems to me that today’s younger workers, they need much more assurance and they need to be thanked, which is something that many companies don’t do.

“They’re very keen on being thanked and they almost need hugging.

“That’s before COVID of course, we can’t hug anymore.

“But they almost need hugging.

“You have to understand they seemed to lack the resilience that I remember from my younger days.”

Is Ita right, do millennials need more assurance and to be thanked? Jump in the comments and let us know

ABC chair Ita Buttrose says Millennials in the Australian workforce lack resilience and need almost constant reassurance and ‘hugging’.

Ita Buttrose is the embodiment of boomer attitude. Try being an Australian youth that needs several degrees and job experience to land a career job. Hell, try raising a family with little hope of owning a house one day. 1/2

— wydi (@drwydi) July 23, 2020

ita buttrose is one of those people who talks about daily long lunches in the good old days, as opposed to the rest of us who can count the lunchbreaks theyve had in four years on two hands

— all my hexes live in texas (@CeeBeeGBs) July 23, 2020

Buttrose, 78, was referring to her journalistic career which started as a copy girl on The Australian Womens Weekly, which was then owned by the Packer empire run by tough-minded proprietors Sir Frank Packer and then his son Kerry Packer.

Buttrose said in those days, not hearing from someone like Sir Frank Packer was good because “no news means good news”.

Buttrose, who rose up through the ranks to become the Weekly’s youngest editor, and to launch Cleo magazine and more recently a Studio 10 panellist, said younger workers “like more transparency”.

She said whether their lack of resilience was “because of bad parenting, I don’t know, and I don’t want to go down that path and offend young parents.

“But I am an older parent and we older parents have very set views about resilience.

“And, you know, I think it’s something to foster in everybody from a young age.”

Buttrose, who was appointed to the ABC last year, said more women should be directors of boards because they increased a company’s value.

“It really is time we all get over this,” she said.

“It isn’t just a women’s issue, it’s a men’s issue as well.”

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