Millennial workers ‘need hugging’ and reassurance to get through a day of work and lack the resilience of older workers, says ABC chair Ita Buttrose – after teenager whinged about having to ‘scrounge’ for retail jobs
- ABC Chair Ita Buttrose candidly criticised millennial workers in London this week
- Inside sources revealed Ms Buttrose thinks younger workers lack resilience
- She reportedly said they ‘almost need hugging’ to be reassured by their bosses
ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose has said younger workers ‘lack the resilience’ of older generations and ‘need to be thanked’ for performing their jobs.
Ms Buttrose, 78, made the candid comments under Chatham House Rules at the Australia-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce in London on Wednesday.
‘It seems to me that today’s younger workers, they need much more reassurance and they need to be thanked, which is something many companies don’t do,’ Ms Buttrose said, insiders told The Age.
ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose (pictured) candidly criticised Millennial workers thinking her comments would be confidential under Chatham House Rule at the Australia-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce in London on Wednesday
‘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 that they seem to lack the resilience that I remember from my younger days.’
The former editor of Woman’s Weekly also said Millennials demand more transparency from management than their older counterparts.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison (centre) appointed Ms Buttrose (left) as chair of the ABC last year. Ms Buttrose said younger generations lacked the resilience of hers
Ms Buttrose left school when she was just 15 years old in 1957 to become a copy girl at the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine.
She then became a reporter and later, the woman’s editor for the Daily Telegraph.
The hard-working journalist was a founding editor of Cleo and the youngest ever editor of Woman’s Weekly at just 33 years of age in 1975.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison appointed her as chair of the ABC last year.
Youth activist Belinda Thomas (pictured), 19, appeared in the Facebook video whingeing about having to apply for less glamorous jobs in retail before she became an adult
Ms Buttrose’s criticism of millennials comes after youth activist Belinda Thomas, 19, appeared in a Facebook video whingeing about having to apply for less glamorous jobs in retail before she became an adult.
‘When I was 17, I needed income to support myself in order to have a claim of independence from my family situation,’ she said in a video filmed at trendy Chippendale on the fringe of Sydney’s CBD.
‘Unable to use my 12 years of training as a classical musician to find a job, I ended up sending about 10 applications to retail jobs and only ended up scrounging one by chance.’
Ms Thomas said she was only able to score this job because she ‘had the exact same name as the interviewer’s best friend’ as she delivered a piece-to-camera monologue outside an art house Palace Cinema.
Ms Thomas said she was only able to score this job because she ‘had the exact same name as the interviewer’s best friend’ as she delivered a piece-to-camera monologue outside an art house Palace Cinema