Posted on 10/25/2009 2:54:07 PM PDT by paltz
It’s that time of year. College seniors from around the world are graduating, and they are hitting the career world looking for a job. And the interesting thing is that most are not doing it alone. Many parents are by their Gen Y’s side and not just for support and to be a sounding board. If you are a helicopter parent who is hovering over your adult child’s job hunt and interview process, you may be hurting your child’s professional development and their chances to land the job.
Helicopter parents have not only been bombarding college campuses, they are now flying way too close to the workplace. Parents are now involved in the hiring and interview process and calling HR departments to negotiate terms for their children or to berate them for not giving their sons or daughters an offer. Parents believe they are doing their child a favor, but this behavior can actually stunt a child’s adult development and hamper their ability to think and survive on their own. The hovering is also hurting the young adult’s chances to land the job, as employers roll their eyes and pull their hair out over the barage of phone calls from parents making demands, negotiating salaries and grilling them about benefits.
I'm retired, now, but when I was working, I hired a number of college grads. I absolutely assure you that a call from a helicopter parent would guarantee rejection of the kid.
I wish I could tell you it was, but it’s not. Two years ago I interviewed a new college grad for an open IT support position on our team. Kid had minimal skills and I got the impression that he expected the job, just because he showed up.
When he got the letter telling him he did get the position, his mother actually called me demanding why her baby didn’t get the job. She got even more irate when I told her that she would have to call HR because I was not able to talk about internal decisions with her.
Helicopter Parents: Are You Hovering Over the Workplace?
Fast Company ^ | Tue May 27, 2008 at 7:16 AM | BEA FIELDS
I don’t even know where my daughter is. It’s top secret.
People have to be told this? Wow I’m amazed. If I were an HR person and someone’s parents did this I’d be keeping a list with names,addresses, and other pertinent info on it so that that person would never be hired at the place!
If the parent of an existing employee ever called me concerning his or her son or daughter's job performance, I'd give them a warning but if it ever happened again, I'd fire them on the spot. This isn't elementary school. We have a job to do and businesses to run.
We hada class in High school called “Adult Living” where we did the same thing. Even one of the local grocery stores participated and we really shopped with our fake money, it was very eye opening when I was 15 to know really how far what sounded like a big bunch of money really went!
Bill Gates' mother set up the meeting with IBM, where his father drew up the deal that made him rich. In fact I'm not even sure where Gates got the $50,000 he needed to license QDOS from the programmers who made it.
“I’m not sure we can hire another full-time employee right now, unless you were willing to work full-time for say, half-pay, for the first six months. Even though you’re qualified, there’s a lot of qualified people out there. So what do you say to being an unpaid ‘intern’ for a while?”
Yep, wholeheartedly agree. I have ran across all kinds of scummy employers, and plenty who know better. I don’t mind working on contract, but if you are going to complain about paying a premium, then the employer just doesn’t get the fact that,
1. I have zero job security.
2. You are saving on employee taxes, all the way down the chain.
I would love to work full time for a decent employer but they are hard to find. Then I see articles in the paper, where they are paying a full-time web developer 120 thousand dollars working for the city!
120k, I just about blew my stack! It’s ridiculous! Given the work environment and so many people who are out of work, why are the politicians pulling themselves up to the trough!
LOL.
I don’t even think this is a case of parents trying to help. It’s a case of overprotected, pampered children whose parents feel they have to look over Pwecious and make sure their little darlings get everything they’re entitled to. They shouldn’t have to start out an the entry level position and work they way up. They shouldn’t be expected to pay their dues on the job like everyone else has do.
I prepped my kids, talked about interviews, checked their handshake and clothes and said “Good Luck!”
You should get out more.
Whether or not any parents ever contacted your company about something it’s quite likely you’d not hire someone in the near future ~ at least not if you were the average company STILL LAYING PEOPLE OFF!
” ... wouldn’t ire someone whose parents came in asking ...”
Those kind of kids have not worked out well on the farm, either.
DH hires kids for day labor to bale hay. The ones who don’t work out are usually the ones dragged out here by the ear by a parent who’d tell DH, “The kid needs to learn to work.”
If the kid hasn’t learned by now, we can’t help them.
The best ones usually call in the spring to give DH their name and number.
I’m with you on that - She does just fine by herself.
Do you think that a kid has a better chance if Mommy calls than if he demonstrates the ability to handle things on his own? I'm not sure of your point. There is no way in the world that I would ever have hired a kid whose parents held his hand during the interview process. For parents to do this to their kids is cruel and irresponsible, dooming them to a job where the hiring manager doesn't care if employees have the initiative to get things done. Why would parents do that to their own children?
Are you blind to that?
Actually, I'm part of that. I've cut way back on my work hours and on my number of employees. For as long as the socialist is in our White House, I'm taking more time to be with my family ... and I love it!
If I needed to replace someone critical, I'd do that, and I would hire someone independent with initiative and proven performance. It is possible to get a job, but those who feel entitled to the job or who add more risk than they add value aren't going to be hired in this economy. I don't see that as a bad thing. In contrast, adding to the GDP that funds Obama's efforts to overthrow the foundations of my country - that would be a VERY bad thing. If you want me to hire, give me a call in three years; I'll be interviewing then if prospects for freedom's survival are looking promising, otherwise my next hire will be in seven years or not at all.
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