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If you’ve ever noticed that millennials are very accommodating, you’re not alone. In fact, millennials themselves are picking up on the fact that they tend to prioritize everyone else and put their own needs last. One millennial named Ethan Lapierre went so far as to call those in his age group the “customer service generation.”

This doesn’t mean that millennials all work in customer service. Although, based on Lapierre’s description, they’d probably be pretty good at it. Instead, it means they have that same mentality, with a desire to help others and put them first in all situations.

What does being the ‘customer service generation’ mean for millennials?

Lapierre explained that millennials live in such a way that is reflective of customer service agents (or, at least, the good ones). 

“The customer’s always right, and somewhere along the lines, that became, like, our entire personality,” he said. “You know, we say things like ‘no worries’ when there are definitely worries.”

He actually used a specific example that made this zillennial’s heart stop. 

“We grew up watching our parents send food back at a restaurant when it came out wrong, which is a totally normal thing to do,” he continued. “But if my food comes out slightly wrong, most likely I’m just gonna eat it. And then I’ll probably tip 25% because I feel bad I even had the thought of sending it back and how awkward that would have been for the server.”

Although I would technically be classified as Gen Z, I’m at the older end of the group. A server could, quite honestly, bring me the entirely wrong meal, and I wouldn’t say anything. Why make them uncomfortable? It’s not a big deal to just eat the food.

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Many millennials grew up to become perfectionistic people-pleasers.

“It’s objectively ridiculous,” Lapierre insisted. “But you know what? We didn’t become this way for no reason. We grew up in a time of recessions and layoffs and team culture emails, and we just discovered that being pleasant is probably the easiest way to survive, you know?”

Acting this way may not be logical, but that doesn’t stop millennials from being the excellent examples of customer service that they are. “So, yeah, we’re the customer service generation. Overly polite, eager, a little too anxious, and just terrified of being that person,” he concluded.

It turns out that there’s scientific evidence to back this up. Psychologist Loren Soeiro, PhD, ABPP, said that 17% of millennials are depressed and 14% experience anxiety. They are more likely to undergo psychotherapy than any previous generation. A good way to describe millennials would be to say they’re perfectionistic people-pleasers. They want everyone else to be happy, and they don’t care what that costs them personally.

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In spite of this, there are many positive sides to being a millennial.

Obviously, this isn’t the healthiest way to live. You can’t just let people walk all over you and take advantage of you, but that’s easily what millennials’ behavior could turn into. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s all bad news for millennials. They have a lot of good qualities, too, that are born out of this desire to put others first.

Gülşah Aydoğan | Pexels

A 2014 article in the New York Times, written by Sam Tanenhaus, declared that millennials are “generation nice.” It makes sense that they would be considered so kind because of the way they put others first.

Additionally, a Pew Research Center survey found that millennials are remarkably open to self-expression. They’re also the most educated of generations in the U.S. Although they have struggled through recessions, this has served to make them more resilient and made them even harder workers.

It’s true that millennials have a hard time prioritizing themselves and their own needs. But this “customer service” mindset has also given them so many gifts as a generation that they wouldn’t have otherwise.

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.