Posted on 06/27/2005 6:36:38 AM PDT by GPBurdell
Buzz
Buzz Blog
Many still are... saw a bunch of them along the Va Beach boardwalk this weekend....
The folks in the Armed Forces don't have an entitlement mentality.
Most of 'em grew up poor and learned early on that if you want something, you better work for it. The brats of the EG had too much material stuff thrown at them, instead of tough love which is what they needed.
Or maybe some of the so-called "entitlement generation" are just not going to take the same crap that our parents took. My mom has been a dedicated employee for 32 years at the same company. Has a perfect record. Never takes her full allotment of vacation or sick time. Her bosses treat her like crap. They have no respect for her. They treat her like a dog. Maybe we're just sick of being taken for granted. Maybe we want a boss that will give us respect (after we've earned it). But we don't want to wait 30 or 40 years - and still not have it.
It's an interesting concept and this anecdotal evidence as cited does make one say "hmmm". But to call ANY one generation in America an 'entitlement' generation well.. that's absolute pabulum.
As the observant Robert J. Samuelson noted in a column in the Washington Post from March, we're a nation of 'Welfare Junkies'/"Entitlement Junkies". The finger can be pointed squarely at each succesive generation in America, probably since the days of Woodrow Wilson that has increasingly voted itself public largesse.
That having been said, my generation (post 1976 -- probably earlier than that really) don't understand that they aren't going to start out their adult existance with everything their parents had and worked hard for over many, many years.
If the latest generation has grown to feel entitled to cell phones, a great paying job and whatever else -- they've learned from example.
Let's talk about entitlement. Companies think they are entitled to have you available 24/7 through email and pagers and laptops. They think they are entitled to know what you do on your non-work hours. And they think they are entitled to dump you at a whim to hire a bunch of cheaper labor offshore.
The bottom line is, we are all free agents, whether we like it or not, and you better be prepared to continually sell yourself to many different companies over the span of your career.
Healthy skepticism? That's an understatement. Employers in the past couple of decades have made it quite clear that they have no commitment to their employees. With a piece of capital equipment the company at least has to keep it on the books for a few years. They don't even feel that much loyalty to their employees. If the company sees all employment as essentially day labor, fine. But don't expect the employees to give the employee 100% of their life under those terms.
The real "Entitlement Generation" is the baby boomers, who clearly have no problem with feeling entitled to spend both their parents' and childrens' wealth, while assuming no responsibility whatsoever to pull the apple cart off the train tracks.
GENERATION E
When I was in the World Trade Center during the bombing in 1993, I got paid up to the minute the bomb went off. Escaping with my life was apparently on my own time. Since then I've had a "healthy" (insert dripping irony) skepticism of the commitment of corporations to their employees.
If you want to see entitlement, look no further than senior citizen's who paid $ 1,000 into SS and now get that much out per month, and it's still not enough for them.
You can expect their respect, but only if you earn it, and you can't expect loyalty to a job or employer - watching the way their parents have been treated has trained them to look out for number one.
Of course, these are mostly blue collar or lower middle class kids, their patents aren't buying them ANY BMWs.
"Entitlement Generation - That' pretty rich coming from the spineless boomer generation who is selling America down the tubes."
Yep.
I am a Gen Xer, I suppose. GWI and Kosovo vet.
Worked at a major oil company for about 6 months before deciding I could do it better --- "meetings" "committees" = B.S. Went out on my own.
I gathered up some partners, and we have multiple employees working for us; no debt --- personal or company.
Almost all it takes is the guts to leave.
"They have a healthy skepticism of the commitment their employers have to them and the commitment they owe to their employers."
I think this is a significant point. Why would anyone be more than nominally loyal to an employer who has no loyalty. Yes folks, the latest crop of twenty-somethings can be motivated just as their parents could.
What motivates people has not changed.
At my office, the talk is that anyone who is just getting out of college would be a fool to work for a large corporation.
If you're going to work hard, you might as well have your own business and reap the rewards of your efforts.
This leaves corporations with the bottom half of the labor pool. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch....
"The bottom line is, we are all free agents, whether we like it or not, and you better be prepared to continually sell yourself to many different companies over the span of your career."
Well said! I like your style and willingness to say what the younger generation needs to hear to succeed. I've had four distinct and different "careers" to date over my 30-year span of working for a living. If a person can't think outside the box, stay flexible, live beneath their means so they're not TIED to a paycheck, educate themselves and learn to exploit their own special talents and gifts, they deserve a cr@ppy job that's "beneath" them.
Reading list for anyone that's interested:
"Do What You Love...The Money Will Follow"
"Making a Living Withot a Job"
ANY book by Barbara Sher
"The Pathfinder"
And a hundred other great titles here:
http://www.investinyourselfbooks.com (No affiliation, I just like their selections.)
That's so true. In fact, if anything I think as the youngest generation grows into its 30's and 40's it's learning that it will have to adapt and change to stay in the work force.
This isn't an era of 1 job loyalty for life. The modern business model doesn't seem to allow a 1 job/1 company for life ideal. Not that that was ever an ideal to begin with.
I have yet to see anything good from the baby boomer generation.
Ain't THAT the truth. The hippies that later discovered money are somehow disappointed that these twenty-somethings never spent much time and energy revolutionizing against the moral infrastructure and capitalist institutions that made this country great. Why...the slackers!
Who is the REAL entitlement generation? Think the 'greatest generation'. When they came of age America had no debt, and its industry ruled. When they retired we were deeply in debt and our industry not as competitive.
So what do they ask for.. maybe an apology? Nope they want their full fat SS checks, and now medicare and medicaid too, and the new perscription drug benefit. They made 13.5% rate of return on their SS investments those people who retire this year. Not too shabby.
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