I know that different people mature at different ages, and that everybody is different. But lately I’ve been noticing a discrepency in maturity level between me and my coworkers.
I work at a job (coach at a tutoring center) that is primarily staffed by High School students. Currently, I am the oldest worker bee there. Some of the staff are also in college, but about 75% of them are in High School. I’ve noticed a rather significant difference in maturity level between the H.S. employees and the college employees.
Funny thing about this is that it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with prior job experience. Some of the college student employees have no job experience beyond this job, and vice versa. But I noticed that with the younger employees, there is a similar pattern- they aren’t willing to cover for another employee if they don’t have to (even if they are the only one at the time who could be available to come in), they don’t stick around for even FIVE SECONDS after their shift is done, nevermind the fact that they might be in the middle of something. They just drop what they are doing and leave. Its apalling. Something that could be finished in less than a minute gets dumped to whoever is still there, with no explanation. They complain about the wages, though often do little to justify being paid even minimum wage there.
Basically, they do the bare minimum for what’s required at the job. Which I guess would be okay if they are the only one working there, but they are working with other people, and don’t seem to get the ‘team’ aspect of the job. I’ll stick around a bit more to finish a task for the sake of getting it done, ditto for the older coworkers. Has anyone else noticed some factors that pertain to employees of a younger persuation? I’m not trying to make generalizations here, just noticing patterns in certain age demographics, at least present in my job.
Hm, interesting. When I was 19, I was promoted to Store manager of the video store I worked at. Basically, everything about running the store from staffing, payroll, etc. to merchandizing and ordering inventory was my job. Most of my employees were of the 20-25 set, college kids, but I did have a couple 17 and 18 year olds (illegal to hire anyone under 17).
I found just the opposite to be true. My high school kids were always a lot more dilligent, didn’t whine or complain as much, and were always on time and took responsibility for things much better than my college kids did. Now, that may have had something to do with my age at the time too, but I really had far too many irresponsible college kids call in sick for work (yeah right, I knew they were at a party the night before) or try to dump off their shifts on someone else because they forgot to study for an exam.
My H.S. kids were much better about making sure all their bases were covered and being thoughtful towards other employees when trying to get shifts covered and whatnot. Also, the H.S. kids jumped at any chance to learn new skills and take on more responsibility. Most of my college kids (but not all) just wanted to coast and grab a paycheck.
You know, the above sounds more like having a work ethic (or more likely, the lack thereof), which is not predicated on age. What I find at my job is a complete lack of emotional maturity among my cow-orkers, even at the managerial level.
I’m 29, and have been in the white-collar work force for eight years. And every week I am amazed at the junior high school (emotional) maturity level. Back-biting, gossiping, and overwhelming oversensitivity is de riguer. Every comment is catty, every criticism is a personal attack, and this is both women AND men. People tattle to managers, tattle to HR, instead of being an adult and handling issues on their own.*
I had this idea that once I was an Adult ™, people would act and conduct themselves as…ADULTS! I guess my idea of being an adult is much different than other people’s, especially at my workplace.
*Now, I’m not talking about large issues such as sexual harassment, etc…