This isn't just due to COVID. My husband is a Mechanical Engineer and he has mentioned through the years that many Universities don't train students on machines. He gets interns who have done no hands on engineering. He won't even look at some applicants based on that now.
My advice from another thread on the Main Forum:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4172588/posts?page=36#36
This isn’t just due to COVID. My husband is a Mechanical Engineer and he has mentioned through the years that many Universities don’t train students on machines. He gets interns who have done no hands on engineering. He won’t even look at some applicants based on that now.
_________________________________________________
It’s worse than we know. An acquaintance’s HR department recently held a 2 hour mandatory training session for all staff to explain the etiquette of the lunch room. New hires were eating other people’s lunches, leaving trash on the table, spilling beverages and not cleaning up, leaving dirty dishes in the sink, putting an empty coffee pot back on the hot burner, leaving food in the fridge so long that it turned green, and warming foods in the microwave with very strong smells (popcorn, heavy garlic foods, etc.). He said that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Young women cry if they have to perform a task they don’t like, and young men argue about the necessity of doing some parts of their jobs.
I know these “kids” since I saw the beginning of these behaviours 6-7 years ago when they were entering the workforce with minimum wage jobs. They had become so accustomed to getting a trophy for what amounted to having their shoes on the right feet that they were unable to cope with the rigours of even entry level jobs. They’ve now graduated to the next level of the workforce and are still ill-prepared. Common sense is going to have to undergo a name change since it doesn’t seem to be very common any more among the 20-somethings. SMH