In her TikTok, which has 1.7 million views, Kristen shares a recent email exchange she had with her current millennial boss. (She is a Realtor, for reference.) "I wrote an email to her very professionally, very courteously, just stating, 'Hey, while I do appreciate you, commenting those things to the clients' — blah, blah, blah — 'I do feel that you were undermining me and it could damage my relationship with these clients,'" she said, sharing that she was super nervous after sending the email.
However, Kristen was blown away by her boss's response: "I see your point and I apologize. I apologize for the way I approached that. I did not mean to undermine you in any way. For future emails that I am CC'd on, I won't reply unless I'm addressed to or after. I apologize for the way that I approached that and I have 100% trust in the way you're handling this file. The clients have been great clients for me and I may be a little too attached. I definitely need to learn to let go. I also appreciate your email and I appreciate you writing to address the way you felt right away instead of keeping it inside."
Kristen said she was gobsmacked at the response because it was so different than how she had been treated by any former boss. "This is a boss. This is how you communicate with your employees. This is how you take accountability. Respect for boundaries like this should be the norm. This should be how work communication goes — it is so fun and refreshing. Work for a millennial...Gen Z even better," she said.
People who currently work under millennial bosses began sharing how great their experience has been:
So much so that some admit their millennial boss is the reason they stay at jobs they don't particularly like:
![" [laughing, crying emoji] I'm literally in a job I don't enjoy doing because my boss (same age as me and your boss) is like this and I don't wanna leave"](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2023-01/26/8/asset/1fbc89b3e21e/sub-buzz-3638-1674722301-3.jpg)
The generational differences between how the bosses manage their employees is one that is hard to ignore:
So much so that older generations themselves even left comments admitting they can be toxic in the workplace:
And millennials who are currently bosses are taking the responsibility of being good bosses seriously:
BuzzFeed spoke to Kristen, who said since leaving her former jobs, her migraines have gone from once a month to once a year. "When I worked under Gen X and Boomers, I always dreaded going to work. It wasn't enjoyable for me, just something I had to do so I could pay my bills. Having bad bosses absolutely affected my job performance — it made me a miserable employee," she said.
"The compulsive need for total control is what sticks out to me the most at my former jobs. My bosses expected me to drop whatever was happening in my life at the drop of a hat so that I could fix their problems for them."
Kristen also said her prior workplace experiences, in terms of working under and communicating with her bosses, were so damaging it deeply impacted her self-worth.
Under Kristen's new millennial boss, she feels she is a harder worker and a better employee who is not afraid to ask for help and make mistakes she can learn from.
"I personally believe we have the mental health movement to thank for the trend of healthier workplace environments. Generally speaking, millennials are known as the first generation who have put themselves in therapy to better understand themselves and the potential reasons behind their own actions and the actions of those around them. We are holding ourselves accountable for our actions and we are going out of our way to learn how to break the unhealthy generational cycles that we have been born into," she said.
Kristen now feels that she is being heard and valued, not just tolerated. "And now that I am a bit older, I know that I will never go above and beyond in a place of work that treats its employees as miserably as I was treated. I will not care about someone who does not care about me."
Lastly, what struck Kristen the most about her video going viral was not the overwhelming number of people relating to her experience, but the large percentage who said the video made them emotional or brought them to tears. "Hearing that an email from an employer who is respectful to their employee moved people to tears...what does that tell you about the workforce?"
