We’ve all heard the ‘kids these days’ rant. Every generation thinks the next generation is disrespectful, lazy, etc. But I hear this rant about young employees as well- that they dress too casually, act unprofessional, etc. I’m wondering if this is the same kind of delusion or is there some validity to it- after all, Facebook/online social networking is a pretty new phenomenon.
I work in a place where we are expected to work 40 hours a week mostly during the normal Monday thru Friday. We have core hours of 8 am to 3 pm. If you want to come in early to leave a little early, no problem. If you need to work more one day to get off the next early, just ask the boss. Pretty flexible.
Yet we’ve had to fire a few people who were hired right out of college plus had a few quit before being fired. They just couldn’t show up for work on time or work the hours. We had one guy who wrecked his car a little, but no injuries to him. He couldn’t make it to work for 3 days even though (1) his girlfriend has a car, and (2) he had a motorcycle that he often rode to work.
In two cases where I could see that trouble was brewing, I talked to them and said basically that just showing up at work was 50% of the battle. Didn’t help.
On the other hand my 3 kids are good, hard workers who get promoted and bonuses frequently. We taught them the importance of showing up on time and giving a good effort while there.
The very moment one officially becomes old is the moment when one starts to think, “Maybe it’s true the ‘kids these days’ rant is as old as time, but in this case there’s something to it! After all, we didn’t have X [Facebook/mobile phones/Burning Man/cocaine/women’s lib/Woodstock/rock-n-roll music/automobiles/radio/electricity/railroads/dungarees/cotton gins/indoor plumbing/moveable type/Cartesian dualism/crop rotation/paved roadways/aqueducts/cuneiform/etc.] when I was growing up!”
Welcome to your dotage, gramps, I won’t trouble your age-addled brain with the thought of Vine or Google Glass.
What I’ve noticed most is the lack of a work ethic and a sense of entitlement. When I was in my 20s and 30s it wasn’t unusual for us to work literally around the clock, if the work load demanded it. We just kept working to meet a deadline, no matter how long. “Kids today” would just complain to the HR Department and go home.
Or maybe they’re just smarter. I lived through the 90s, too, where crazy work hours were considered normal, and I did it, too. You call it “work ethic”, I call it “taking advantage of young workers who don’t know any better.”
That said, yeah, I’ve heard enough horror stories about the current generation from reputable people that I think some of it must be true.
Only twenty-four hours in one given day, eh? Must be nice to have that kind of luxury. In my day we were so driven we time-cubed it. BOOM! Four corner days—96 hours—right there. And then, if we still had more work, we time-cubed it again! Which is like 1000 hours. And you know what else? I only got $6 a day. AND I LIKED IT!
A very nice observation, this.
If everyone were to take this “entitled” attitude on board, possibly the world would be a better place…
Somewhere, Douglas Coupland just had the weirdest sensation that everything he’s ever written has been for naught.
I think there are differences in generations/cohorts because of coming up in different zeitgeists with different technology and priorities.
Just from employing and working with younger lawyers, I’ve observed that many, not all, are less willing to put in very long hours. This works to their disadvantage to some extent because the legal profession hasn’t changed much from the old “pay your dues” mentality. But I can certainly see the viewpoint of not wanting to be used like drayhorses while they learn the ropes, especially since technology has streamlined some of the things we do and certain aspects of a young lawyer’s work can be done in less time than before.
So I do think that older workers often correctly discern differences in younger ones, but it’s not a matter of poor character or lack of discipline, just changes that older workers may not be aware of or fully understand.
I can say that recent college graduates since about, say, 2006 or so, seem to think they should be advancing through the ranks more rapidly than I expected to when I was there age. They have less respect for things learned primarily through experience, and don’t see a potential problem in 20somethings who’ve been in the workforce 6-12 months routinely vaulting over 30somethings who’ve been in the workforce for a decade and with a specific company for five.
And so on…
If you ever run across it, watch the Morris Massey video “What you are is where you were when”. His shotgun delivery is hilarious…
Basically, his theory has to do with what people have and experience while growing up. No shit sherlock. But his point was that for example, the bosses when he made this video (1980’s?) were products of the Great Depression and nothing was more important to them than having and keeping a job. Their newest workers grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. Jobs were guaranteed. A good income was pretty much guaranteed. Leisure and socialization were impotant.
One of his classic examples was about the practice back then about “do you want to keep your job? Why don’t you take a day off and think about it?” The employee would respond"One day off? Hell, I’ll take 3." The bosses couldn’t understand it, the employees couldn’t understand why more time off, even without pay, was supposed to be a punishment. (His solution - force them employees to stay and fix the mess instead of sending them home. Being forced to put in overtime they considered punishment. They stopped screwing up.)
I think too, we put a premium nowadays on capability. Used to be, respect for authority was more important; in the shift to meritocracy and democracy, the underlings have gained power; each generation takes advantage of it more. Today, the snotty kid isn’t as easy to fire if he’s the only one who can keep your computers running.
There’s the classic quote from Socrates in ancient Greece, of how horrible the new generation is (turns out it ain’t real…)
Part, too, I suspect is the selection process. The 30 year olds and 40 years who aren’t working at McDonalds, today like 20 years ago, are the ones with the brains and work habits to show up and do their job. The 22-year-olds probably have not all made it through that weeding process. Yet.
My perspective is a bit different than others expressed here.
Yes, the generations younger than I am are typically more ‘entitled’ than we were, but who precisely do you think caused that to happen? Perhaps, their parents. The people of my generation (born 1960, sell-by-date 2040) are responsible for some of this. Also, our tech is really amazingly … urrrr amazing. The folks in their late 20s and early 30s are so immersed in 24-hour-news-cycles and instantly available media which matches their expressed (or sometimes even their unexpressed) desires that they are used to being given what they want when they want it.
As a personal example, (oh good I am in IMHO) my fiancee’s daughter has been here with her SO this week. When the storms took out the Internet yesterday evening, she was crushed. She didn’t whine or get angry or anything bad like that, but I could tell she was unhappy. I make my living using the Internet and I didn’t give a hoot. A few hours offline? No big deal, let’s play spades or a board game. Mind you, she got over it pretty quickly, but as soon as the connection was reestablished this morning, she was on it like a rooster on a junebug. And she is not an outlier; she is mainstream.
But, we middle-aged folks should remember how large the chasm was between our social scene and that of our parents. The young lady in her mid-20s listens to much of the same music that her mother and I listen to. We watch the same movies. We know the same jokes and use the same slang terms. That is a true sea-change in the American culture. Much the same as the fact that when I went fishing with her today with a straw hat and a black tee-shirt for a local band, black jeans and docksiders. She wore a tie-dyed shirt and shorts and sandals. We could have walked into ANYWHERE around here dressed that way and nobody would have blinked an eye at us.
But screaming kids are still annoying, so I guess I have that to fall back on if I wish to become curmudgeonly.
I believe there were studies showing that young people, as a whole, actually work harder. I do believe it is likely that they are less prepared for the workforce when coming out of college, so apparently they make up for it later. Or there are just a bunch of good workers who just don’t stand out enough to be noticed.
Only a very small sample size, but my supervisor has had far more trouble with older (40’s and 50’s) nurses actually showing up for work than the younger ones. Of course, we’re still well entrenched in a “pay your dues” mindset in this field, so maybe that has something to do with it. It’s a conundrum - it’s not really a job you want to hire noobs for, but is it better to hire an inexperienced nurse and let her muddle through, or an experienced nurse who maybe won’t show up at the patient’s house?
If you can find the cites, they’d be interested to read. That runs contrary to most of the articles about managing gen y workers I’ve read (like this one, though the language does attempt to be positive, or this onethat mentions studies), though they do see themselves as hard workers.
I just started a new job about 3 weeks ago, and I’m the youngest person in a department consisting of 6 people. I’ve noticed a pattern with a couple of my older coworkers. They will consistently stay at work about 15-30 minutes after their shift is slated to end. They will say, “Okay, I’m leaving now.” But they don’t. They just seem incapable of getting out on time. They also work on their lunches, which is incredibly stupid (I leave the office for lunch, or put on my headphones if I’m going to stay in). Our workload absolutely does not justify this. I am able to get up and walk out the door on time every single day. It’s a bank, so anything submitted after 3pm is OK to finish the next business day… I don’t know what they’re wasting time on, but it’s just unnecessary.
I suspect they’re just milking the overtime wages.
Yes, as one of those “young’uns” my perception of why my generation may be seen as more entitled/lazy is because we were taught not to be taken advantage of. For instance, internship used to be and still is a big thing in certain professions. The difference is, a lot of documentation has come out questioning if internship is really just slave labor or only as a means of advancement for the already priveledged. So in turn, a lot of us younger folk have started to question internships, and by extention staying late at work, working through lunch, etc.
For instance, I feel that overtime is actually unecessary in a properly managed company. If I have to do overtime on a normal workload, obviously something is wrong with me. I pride myself on getting all my work done by the end of the day. If I have to work overtime that means I screwed up. But if the company is constantly asking me to do overtime, I think “Wow, what bad time and employee management. Can’t they see that hiring another worker would mean nobody has to do overtime, unemployment goes down, and more people are happy?”
Working through lunch is illegal. I will NOT do that. Of course I will not work as well if I am resentful and tired because my break was taken away from me. That is just common business sense. And yes, I noticed that with the older workers they often say “ok, I’m going to the bank now!” and half an hour later, they have still not left for the bank. Then, at the end of the day, they’re staying a half hour later. Makes no sense to me. I consider leaving on time as good a marker on time management and punctuality as starting on time.
I just refuse to be taken advantage of, because I know better. And I did have to dump one job that required me have an hour of overtime every day, and then later demanded (not ask!) that I work even more. My health and sanity is worth more to me than a paycheck, so I quit. I’m now employed at a company that respects labor laws and understands how to manage employee morale.
There’s always that funny paradox I think of, where the parents wanted us to go to college and get a good education so we could do better than burger flippers. So when we get out of college and want a better job than McD’s we’re called “lazy” and “entitled”. Well, who exactly taught us that?!
That being said, I do believe there’s always going to be the perception that the younger generation is lazier and more entitled than the last, forever, and without due cause.
Some, I would say most people, are just incredibly inefficient at their job. I win awards for my ‘extreme work ethic’ but I honestly just screw off 80+% of the time (my secret cover is that I walk incredibly fast with a notepad in hand and a concerned look on my face whenever I leave my office even if I am just getting a drink of water). My routine, daily work only takes half an hour a day and the rest is just waiting for something to go wrong or working on long-term projects that I control myself. A lot of people don’t understand that hard work in and off itself is meaningless. It is results that count.
The reason I get such good reviews on those scales is that I know the real priorities and will work on an issue as long as it takes as long as the need is real (according to my own judgement). That doesn’t happen very often but it is critical when it does. Every other day, I am exactly on time down to the minute and out the door the same way. That doesn’t work in all workplaces though, only those that are managed well. Some managers are truly dumb enough to think that perceived effort whether it is actually producing anything meaningful or not is important. That is usually just a roundabout cover for the fact that they don’t understand what someone’s job really is.
I don’t really see the problem with younger people’s worth ethic or habits in my line of work but I work in an industrial setting that is almost militaristic by design. Everyone there starts out as temp-to-hire and most don’t make it through the trial period but the ones that do are excellent. They tend to come from poorer families and none of them have college degrees but with all the overtime they work, they make much more even in in their early to mid-20’s than many people with graduate degrees with years of experience. Most of them are smart with money as well and even have houses. It isn’t an easy life due to the hours and schedule required but I can’t imagine anyone of any generation working harder at that age than many of them do and they tend to be very literate and computer savvy as well.
We have just one 20-something on my floor. She works very hard and does everything she’s supposed to.
The people who are as old as dirt and should have retired years ago? They are the ones who make me crazy. They spend hours in the breakroom working crossword puzzles and talking about their grown childrens’ lives. They disappear in the afternoons and don’t show up for staff meetings. Worse, they don’t keep up with their skills. Instead of learning how to use the exciting new technology we have at our disposal, they get the rest of us to do their work for them…disguising it as “favors”. “Can you make a map for me? It’s actually going to be twenty maps, but it shouldn’t take you too long! I just don’t have time to learn these newfangled GIS thingamabobs!” Favors that are never reciprocated because these people have nothing to offer in return except old “remember when” stories that stopped being funny the fiftieth time they were told.
I have mad respect for people who want to work until they are dead in the ground. But work, dammit. The office is not your senior citizen recreational center. And there are plenty of energetic, talented people who’d love to get a foot in the door. But they can’t get in as long as idle people occupy desks.
What’s very frustrating is that these people didn’t have to jump through half the hoops that prospective employees are expected to do now. And their salaries are unjustifiably bloated compared to what their younger colleagues make. Why wouldn’t young people have a sense of entitlement? They only want what everyone else got.
The problem isn’t entitlement because they’re young, the problem is that they don’t know it’s not going to work. The reason you don’t find many 40-year-olds acting like that is that 25-year-olds who act like that either get trained out of it (gently or otherwise) or adopt a lifestyle that doesn’t involve working for other people (or drift to work environments where that sort of thing does work).
In addition to what Athena said.
It’s because we got rid of the draft.
So fewer people – management and employee alike – are veterans, fewer have been through military training, people don’t necessarily have the same idea of the inherent value of The Hierarchy (which, for the record, I don’t think is inherently valuable).