I’m having some challenges with a colleague who came on board a few weeks after me. As we all know how dangerous it can be to blog about work, I won’t get into details. (This is where the old-fashioned journal beats out the blog. You can reveal everything there.) But there’s definitely issues of “I graduated college! I already worked for a year or so in another job! So of course I have to be in charge!” Yep, the dreaded entitlement issues of 20-something recent graduates that I have read so much about has become a workplace reality for me.
From a NewsHour segment last December.
I put it this way: The baby boomers are “work, work, work.” It’s a very important part of their live. Gen X is “work, work, I want to work some more, let’s talk about it.” And Gen Y is “work, work, you want me to work even more? How lame. I think I’ll I.M. my friends and tell them how lame you are, asking me to work even more.”
So man. That is so true.
The recent adult products of our coddling and overly protective, nurturing society seem to be all grown up and instead of observing, learning and growing, they seem to think they know more than everyone and they can do everything. Now, I’m not that much older than most of these older kids. I’m 30. My colleague, for example, is only six years younger. Wooha is her age, some of my other awesome kickball friends are her age. I know her behavior isn’t indicative of all of them. Woo is mature, despite her infatuation with cheeseball VH1 shows. (Actually, I was really into “I Love New York” until Mr. Boston got the boot, she that’s really not a good measure of maturity.) But the entitlement doesn’t seem to be singled out in just the case of colleague.
I’m also looking for an intern this summer. I’ve posted the ad in a few places, and I saw on one of my email discussion lists, a college student from the area, looking for a PR internship. “Woe is me,” she writes (I’m paraphrasing.) “All my friends have one, and I’m denied because I’m told I don’t have enough experience. Boohoo.” Whenever a college student posts a generic, “How do I get a job” message to the list, it’s usually a red flag. But I wrote a personal email to the girl, asking what is she looking for? I have an internship position available for the summer.
No reply.
OK, I thought, perhaps she’s away for the rest of the day. Pounding the pavement, networking, getting some good contacts and experience to set her up.
I check my email group today and someone posted to her on the list, offering a network resource, and she wrote back, offering an answer of why she can’t do that.
No reply to my email.
Why is that? Maybe she google stalked my organization and shunned the possible job aside before even finding out info about it because she thought our association is too small? That’s my thought. She’s not getting an internship because she has no experience and wants only to work at the big places — the large associations or PR agencies perhaps.
Another case of entitlement.
If this is all true, it’s really sad. Every generation says that about the one following them, it seems. I’ve read that they are all very close to their families and don’t value the innate need to rebel like the Boomers in the ’60s and ’70s. It’s great that their families value them and treat them like prince and princesses. But it’s really interfering with my ability to do my job. I know that I have to work hard and prove myself to get to the next level in a few years. They need to know that too.
Remember when Gen X (which I seem to fall at the very end of) was the slacker generation? Everyone decried our work ethic, our sloppy dressing and our lack of ambition. Thankfully, I believe, most of us turned out OK afterall. I hope the same thing happens for this next generation on the rise.
