When It Comes to Office Technology, Millennials Are Boss

Actually, I've read otherwise, for example, that text-obsessed Millennials can't do Microsoft Office programs like Excel.

You be the judge.

See WSJ, "At the Office, Millennials Are the Boss When It Comes to Technology":

Larry Carpman has handled plenty of predicaments as an expert in crisis communications. But recently, the 62-year-old partner at Boston’s Northwind Strategies found himself stumped about how to edit his email signature.

“I knew it was some doohickey you had to click,” he said.

So, he asked a youngster.

He took his question to 23-year-old account coordinator Kate Lagreca, who did the job in seconds. Like many workers her age, she isn’t an IT specialist, but she plays that role at work because older workers, for one reason or another, need help.

Greener workers all over are finding themselves playing the role of tech support as they help their venerable but sometimes confused co-workers navigate an expanding array of contraptions, apps, software upgrades and social media.

Questions aren’t limited to work issues. David Carneal, a 33-year-old who works in marketing for a San Clemente, Calif., company that does billing for optometrists, was recently pressed into action to help an older colleague transfer music from an iPod to a smartphone. Chris Davis, who is 26 and answers the phones at P.J. Callaghan Construction in Clearwater, Fla., assisted a colleague who wanted to text a photo of his car to his mechanic. Sam Raziuddin, 23, who works in marketing near Tampa, has even been asked to explain Instagram.

“We, the 20- and 30-somethings, seem to be the go-to,” said Alison Schurick, 25, an Annapolis, Md., lawyer who clerks at the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. When the court upgraded its computer system recently, Ms. Schurick got the same question about how to adjust font sizes on the new program so often that she wrote out step-by-step instructions for the whole office. The queries keep coming. “When I came in this morning, the first thing my admin said to me was, ‘Hey, since you’re the young techy person, I have a question about Apple TV,’ ” Ms. Schurick said.

Of course, younger people have always helped the older generations adjust to innovations in the workplace. It is a young-brain old-brain problem encountered even by the parents of very young children, who pick things up easily by just pushing buttons. “It’s more prevalent now than ever because technology has changed so dramatically and so rapidly,” said Sharalyn Orr, executive director for generational strategies at Frank N. Magid Associates Inc., a Minneapolis-based consulting firm that advises businesses on demographic shifts.

Millennials, those roughly 18 to 34, are often fearless about adapting to new gadgets and consider life online second nature. They already helped their baby boomer parents become more efficient at technology. “Now, I think we’re seeing a similar dynamic in the workplace,” Ms. Orr said.

Real-life IT specialists aren’t feeling threatened. Many offices still have help desks. Employment in the field is on the uptick, growing faster than the average for all occupations, according to federal labor statistics...

Meh. I'm not too impressed.

But continue reading.