One of the upsides of being a journalist is constantly learning new things. In working on our Aug. 12 Business Record cover story and video, I learned that many bosses consider millennials hard to manage.

As a parent of two millennials, I more often feel impressed by young people’s passion, energy and problem-solving skills, so it surprised me that the generation is causing so much confusion and consternation among managers and business leaders.

According to stereotype, millennials are viewed as:

As I researched studies about millennial workers and listened to our panel of five Greater Des Moines young professionals, it dawned on me that millennials have become exactly what their baby boomer parents raised them to be.

As I reflected on the values and characteristics of this generation, I thought of my own children and how my husband and I raised them.

We sent them to a school that emphasized project learning, working in teams and solving problems rather than memorizing facts. Teachers there directed students with positive reinforcement. We spent a lot of time at home praising and encouraging them.

Teamwork and frequent feedback continued in college for both, so it’s not surprising they expect the same in their work worlds. One child is pursuing a profession that works that way; the other’s field doesn’t.

As a newspaper journalist, I didn’t always work hours convenient for family life, but I was often negotiating it with my bosses and certainly was talking about it at home. I reflected on that as I listened to my daughter relating a couple of recent exchanges with her boss.

She was completely confused when her boss mentioned that he noticed she regularly left at 5 p.m. My generation understood this as code for “if you want to get ahead you have to put in extra hours.” My daughter’s response to her boss was: “Do you want to change my hours? If you want me to stay later, I can come in later.”

A couple of weeks later, he tried again. This time, he was speaking her language: He let her know there was an opportunity for her to take on a bigger role in the company and he was looking for her to step up and show she could take on additional responsibilities. She jumped at that, and in figuring out how he likes to work and communicate with her, she extended her hours early in the week, while shortening them later in the week. She gets to take on extra projects and a chance to prove herself, while preserving her healthy balance of work and personal hours.

Millennials, we’re told, aren’t afraid to speak their minds, which reminded me of an encounter my daughter’s elementary school principal once shared with me. My daughter was in a small group of students meeting with a business or government official about some topic they were studying. In the course of that meeting, the gentleman complained that the newspaper, typically, had mischaracterized or gotten something wrong about his operation.

My daughter responded to the man something along the lines of: “My mother works for the newspaper, and I know the paper’s journalists are very serious about the truth and would never knowingly publish inaccurate stories.” I still remember her principal saying that illustrated one of the skills they tried to instill in their students: the ability to respectfully disagree with an authority figure and articulate their views.

Millennials and boomers co-exist peacefully in my office, but I admit it’s humbling to repeatedly ask the youngsters to help me with my computer or other tech problems. (Although no more humbling than asking my son, for the umpteenth time, for the Wi-Fi password.)