[BenLurkin]

I have the responsibility of supervising some of these kids coming into the workforce -- and I'm talking young men and women with postgraduate educations. My observations on this articles major points:

1. They won't do work that's meaningless. Translation -- They are lazy and spoiled. Think Paris Hilton drawing a check off your payroll every month.

2. They won't play the face-time game. Translation -- They have no loyalty to anything other than themselves. No loyalty to their employer, their boss OR their coworkers.

3. They're great team players. Translation -- they will try to get you (or anyone else) to do their work for them. Research? Forget it. They'll usually come to the boss and ask him or her to solve their problems. Otherwise they sit and complain to each other about the "lack of training".

4. They have no patience for jerks. Translation - They have no idea about how to show respect for anyone. Their "self-esteem" levels peg the ego meter.

[weegee]

Companies stopped showing any loyalty to their employees around 25 years ago.

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.

[EarthBound]

1. False, I am my fellows work hard, and long hours to get the proper stuff done. If you ask my to improve a process that's going to be changed several times over the next year, EXPECT me to put it on the backburner, it's a waste of time.

2. My loyalty is : God/Family/Country/Self/ then, a distant fifth: work.

3. I think you're misreading us. Asking a ton of questions is faster than plumbing the knowledge base for out-of-date documentation materials. When I get a task, I expect that the Analysis is fully completed. Going back for clarification is necessary and unfortunately wasteful.

4. Utter hog-wash. I respect my peers and superiors, I will not abide someone who doesn't do the same. Applies to most of us.

And anyway, it ain't as if you have a choice, we're coming on strong to replace y'all!

[poobear]

I still say the main problem with Y’s attitude is they’ve never lived through a decade of high interest rates sky rocketing unemployment and gas lines. Humble pie sets in real quick when you’ve been out of work for months and can’t afford to finance a car for transportation.

[steve-b]

Who moved your cheese?

[NittanyLion]

I’m 29, and have to say I don’t see your observations in practice. I find those in their 20s and 30s to be far more efficient, I don’t see a lot of disrespect (although I for one don’t automatically grant respect due to position), and I see them working less hours only when the work is completed.

[AzaleaCity5691]

I’m inclined to agree with you, though, as someone who has one of those graduate degrees, I’m inclined to say that anyone who actually goes through what you have to go through to get one certainly deserves to write their ticket to a degree. Then again, I took my degree and at one point was working 70-80 hrs a week. It paid off, but if it had not been paying as well, I probably wouldn’t have done it.

This new generation, or, our kids, are the entitlement generation. They have had everything handed to them, they have had no sacrifice to bear, financially speaking, and even those who don’t come from well off families have managed to go to college because this is the first generation that has figured out how to successfully use loan programs to get what they otherwise wouldn’t.

To a degree, they have a point. If you can get a degree beyond undergraduate, you are in a special class for sure, but it doesn’t entitle you to anything. I’m not a big fan of trial lawyers, but I will say this, most of them, when they came out of law school, they got the cases no one wanted, and they often were being paid less than people who had just quit school after 4 years and became middle managers. Then again, for those who are really talented and good at what they do, they soon get the chance to rise. This is how it is supposed to be in every profession but it’s not anymore because we’ve made college into some kind of right, and in certain states, a 4 year degree is a prerequisite for even being middle class. It’s ridiculous.

[CORedneck]

I'm going to be the @$$hole here, time to pick apart:

1. They won't do work that's meaningless. Translation -- They are lazy and spoiled. Think Paris Hilton drawing a check off your payroll every month.

Busy work is also meaningless - the kind of work that accomplishes nothing. A lot of believers of "busy work" don't believe in working smart and will do things to prevent you from working smart. This attitude is in the blood of many micro-managers. I had my share of them, they never liked me. I had one who got on my case of me going to a different floor to use a bathroom that was more quieter and you didn't have to wait for an open stall.

2. They won't play the face-time game. Translation -- They have no loyalty to anything other than themselves. No loyalty to their employer, their boss OR their coworkers.

With being in IT as a Sys Admin, loyalty is a two way street, not one way. With the H1B's and outsourcing, the executives that run the companies have no regard for the people who make the companies work. If the executive management has no regard or loyalty to us, why should we kiss up to them ?

I also have a peculiar way of doing things. I don't like meetings and most meetings are useless. One of the biggest peeves is a all-hands type of meetings especially if they are on a Friday afternoon. I know meetings are more about face time and politics. This is as useless as busy work.

I know I p1$$ed some people off by not staying around until Fri 5pm for some useless meeting. I had one manager when he wanted me in a meeting usually with him and a couple of his favored boys, he always schedule it for 3pm on a Thu afternoon and he would get livid if you suggest an alternative time such as the morning such as I prefer. Plus after a morning meeting, I can focus on the objectives throughout the day while fresh in my mind.

3. They're great team players. Translation -- they will try to get you (or anyone else) to do their work for them. Research? Forget it. They'll usually come to the boss and ask him or her to solve their problems. Otherwise they sit and complain to each other about the "lack of training".

I know part of team playing is getting along with your co-workers and including them in our endeavors. I do my own research when looking for a solution but also get with other people to arrive at the best solution. On the boss, I don't want him to solve my problem. His place is to deal with politics and to play interference so I and others can get our job done and done well. This is the opposite of a micromanaging boss.

4. They have no patience for jerks. Translation - They have no idea about how to show respect for anyone. Their "self-esteem" levels peg the ego meter.

I have no patience for @$$holes and jerks. Respect is a two way street. I will automatically respect a person unless otherwise. The otherwise is such as the other person being a jerk or an @$$hole. In my current job, one person in our group is such a jack@$$. He has been a jerk to me from the moment I met him almost two years ago. No respect whatsoever. He bitched about me taking time off behind my back such as when I took 3 weeks to New Zealand after Christmas 2006. I talked with my lead person about this and the lead person mentioned these things to me and mentioned that he disliked me very much. He doesn't know or understand why I am on his $h!t list. I also made it clear to the lead person that he better no cross my path and I won't put up with his $h!t either and the next time he says something, I will be going to management.

[TheKidster]

As a Gen X’er who often hires Gen Y’ers I’d have to agree, they have a sense of entitlement similar to that of the baby boomers. The difference is that the boomers think they earned it while Gen Y has been raised with it.

Both generations are lucky to have Gen X’ers in the middle who are more libertarian than the Y and boom gens. It’ll probably keep America from becoming a full fledged socialist or fascist state by about 10 years. Enjoy it while you can, and you’re welcome!

[xrp]

1 is a generalization. There are, of course, exceptions to that.

2 - Generation Y came into the workplace as the dot-com revolution was imploding. They saw themselves and friends get laid off from good paying jobs, corporate scandals erupt and the "good ol boy" system protecting itself instead of entry level workers. What would your response be to this? Mine's the same as Gen Y and I am Gen X. I have no loyalty to my employer or management, only to my paycheck and my customer base.

3 - employers don't invest in their employees as much as they used to as far as retraining.

4 - maybe they just don't like drama and attitudes, this comes from shorter attention spans brought about by faster computing speeds.