ECE May 2016 | Page 7

Many 18- to 34-year-olds feel that way. But step inside the office, and the old rules still apply. There's no escaping the beep.

"When you say, 'Hello, my name is,' smile when you say it, and also, sit up straight," says Patricia Napier-Fitzpatrick, founder of The Etiquette School of New York.

She teaches college students and young professionals how to behave in the business world, including how to leave a proper voice mail.

"The fact that we have four generations in the workplace, and they're going to be there for some time, the younger generations — the millennials, the Y generation — they're going to need to adapt," Napier-Fitzpatrick says.

But that doesn't stop some millennials like 26-year-old Nick Sirianno from feeling that voice mail is clearly a thing of the past.

"It might evolve into something kind of special and exciting," he says. "Like a telegram once was."

Buckingham, the trend expert, says that millennials are just doing what works for them.

"Everyone criticizes the millennials for being the 'me' generation and being so entitled," she says. "I don't think they're so entitled. I think they're just incredibly pragmatic. So for them if a voice mail isn't practical — which most of the time it isn't — and there's a more practical way of delivering the same information, they're gonna go for that."

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/10/23/358301467/please-do-not-leave-a-message-why-millennials-hate-voice-mail