Readers have asked me about challenges faced when managing French Millennials, those "trophy kids" (as Ron Alsop calls them) born after 1980 who are now entering the workforce in ever-increasing numbers.

A very democratic, egalitarian worldview is the greatest challenge that I've faced specifically from this group. I like to think of myself as democratic, open to egalitarianism, and not particularly deferential towards authority in my own conduct. But sometimes millennials act in ways that I find bizarre, even I can't pinpoint exactly what the oddity is.

I'm reminded of a scene from Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, where the protagonist, Isabel Archer, enters a room unannounced and sees her husband, Gilbert Osmond, speaking with her older friend, Madame Merle:

"What struck Isabel first was that he was sitting while Madame Merle stood; there was an anomoly in this that arrested her."

A few pages later in the novel, Isabel (and the reader) understands this puzzle.

My experiences with millennials are much the same: I'm surprised by an odd inversion of social hierarchies or expectations. Things are somehow out of place.

Sometimes this happens when I've offered assistance to a younger colleague, who then thanks me. The thanks often has a hint of entitlement. I expect to hear an expression of gratitude, but instead receive a positive evaluation of the work that I've done.