With millennials making up just 7 percent of the federal workforce in 2013 — an eight-year low — federal managers acknowledge that in order to make their agencies representative of the American public, they need to hire quite a few more twenty and thirty- somethings.
Understanding "Generation Y," a generation that is often characterized as lazy, entitled and far too dependent on technology, is a challenge for government leaders, too.
Sean Herron, 25, and Annalee Flower Horne, 29, both started working for GSA's 18-F innovation lab about six months ago. Their outlook on government and the work they do is anything but lazy or entitled.
"I like being of service," said Flower Horne, an innovation specialist at 18F. "I like that I'm writing open-source tools that are helping the American people. And I probably could go to the private sector, but I would rather do work that matters than have stock-options."
Flower-Horne spent two years working for Congress before she joined an open government startup and learned to code.
Herron, a product lead and developer at 18F, taught himself to code as a way to make extra money during college to pay off his student loans. He started off as an intern for NASA when he was 19 and worked on open data projects for the Food and Drug Administration as a Presidential Innovation Fellow before coming to 18-F. Now at 25, he said it was the moment when he took an oath office at 18-F, that he realized he had the opportunity to do important work for a large group of people.
"We're driven by more than just having a steady career that pays the bills," he said. "Everyone is looking to have meaning in the work that they're doing and really have a meaningful experience in their job."
The 18F team generally skews younger than other government agencies and offices. But Herron and Flower-Horne said they don't think about their age very often.
"Across the board, we really try to have a diverse workplace with a lot of differing ideas [and] approaches to how to problem-solve," he said. "For the agencies when we work with them, that instantly kind of clicks and they see the value. To some extent, none of us ever felt our age has been a detriment. If anything it helps because we can bring a different perspective to the table."
Flower Horne said millennials can bring energy and passion to their work.
"I liked it better when we were called Generation Y because that made me think that we were asking why all the time and were doing a lot of science and innovating," she said. " But I guess I just think of myself as a federal employee.
Trends show the average time millennials stay in government is less than four years. And both Herron and Flower Horne are unsure how long they plan to stay, too. They were hired to 18-F under a special two-year authority, with an option to stay for another two years. Though they're unsure how long they plan to stay in government, they both said they hope public service remains a part of their futures.
"I can't make the decision if I want to have toast or cereal for breakfast tomorrow, so it's probably a little early to say what I want to do in the future of my career," Herron said. "But it's definitely true that the government offers a really unique opportunity to solve problems at a stage and a platform much bigger than any other place than I've ever seen .... And as long as there are problems to be solved, I would like to be one of the people helping to solve them."
