Gen Y too lazy and unfocused to hire - bosses

[Karmadillo]

Of course, the people who've driven the US economy into the ditch have wonderful work ethics and understand common courtesy in the workplace and are worthy of hiring and bonuses and all sorts of stuff.

http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/gen-y-too-lazy-and-unfocused-to-hire-bosses/story-e6frfm9r-1225827302507

EMPLOYERS are refusing to hire Generation Y workers because they lack a work ethic and spend too much time talking to friends in work hours.

"Employers come to us about Gen Y, saying they're looking for a staff member but they don't want anyone in that 20s age bracket because they find they don't understand common courtesy in the workplace," Kristy-Lee Johnston, director of Footprint Recruitment told The Courier-Mail.

And the complaints don't only come from managers and bosses.

Social researcher Mark McCrindle said: "They also come from other people in the team who are of another generation."

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland policy general manager Nick Behrens said the global financial crisis should act as a wake-up call.

more...

[Ishoutandscream2]

1. The same "my generation knows better than yours" argument

that has gone on since the dawn of time. Such generalizations about a generation. I am a late Boomer (a month young than Obama) and I have worked with Gen Y students. They are great kids, and they have so much more knowledge than we ever did. This kind of discrimination really, really bothers me.

[raccoon]

26. Ditto. I'm tired of the broad brush used on a whole generation. nt

[Mopar151]

30. Exactly

Every generation has goobers - and the older ones are harder to retrain.

[omega minimo]

51. So you're going to pretend not to be aware of any validity to the change in communication styles

work habits, manners, attitudes, etc.

You may have a point, but making it black and white and being in denial about the sort of differences that DO exist, that are being discussed here, really doesn't help.

[Ishoutandscream2]

62. Omega, I really don't think it's necessarily a generational thing

These are still young people, and yes they do have a lot to learn. However, my point is that many of us in our 20's were the same way. Granted, we didn't have texting devices and the like. But I remember finding ways to cut corners. I was young, and I could be quite stupid. I don't think it had anything to do with the generation I belonged to - I was just young.

[omega minimo]

69. That's all true

And there are educational and cultural factors involved too, that are very different.

One aspect of the gizmos is many people are answering them immediately, no matter the situation. That completely alters the school and workplace and other aspects of life. A lot of folks doing this are clueless about it being inappropriate, unless and until they're told so.

We're had many discussions on DU where young people with McJobs feel entitled to act like assholes to their employers, coworkers and customers, to actively not give a shit, supposedly as a way to stick it to the corporations that they (have chosen to) work for.

Well, everyone had McJobs starting out, up to a point, until college graduates started assuming that a $40K job should be handed to them at graduation.... at the same time that jobs were being deliberately sucked out of the economy.....

Many of the people who are pissed at the Boomers for supposedly ruining their lives still don't want to do anything about it. They want to blame others and give up or be saved.

AND another lost art is following instructions: some young people can be told directly to do something and sit there, continuing with their own BS, as if they didn't hear what was said to them.

Another aspect of all of this is that we all speak different languages now (versions of English) people know what they know and don't care about anything else, live in little bubbles, don't read, don't respect those who aren't like themselves, don't know history or civics or Art for that matter.... this is the atmosphere THESE 20 somethings are operating in.

[phantom power]

2. I love blame-the-victim pieces...

Yeah, our Captains Of Industry are actually dying to hire us all back, if only those goddamned kids (and their rock and roll music) would just shape up!

I wonder what their blame-the-victim strategy will be for the rest of us 30 and older? Failure To Retrain?
:rofl:

[Mopar151]

34. Failure to kiss ass.

Us old farts ain't scared of some goober in polyester pants - we don't threaten well.

[Lance_Boyle]

3. I have not had to disinfect computers for any employee over age 35

due to koobface infestations from facebook and friends. I have not found every file-sharing program under the Sun on the WORK laptops of our 40+ folks, either.

There's at least a grain of truth in this, "they don't understand common courtesy in the workplace." I'd maybe replace "courtesy" with "sense."

[MadHound]

6. I'd leave courtesy in there as well

Some of the rudest people I've met behind a counter lately are those in their twenties. Just stopped into a store today and conducted the whole transaction without a single word spoken between us. . .because she was on her cell phone the entire time.

Yeah, I know that retail sucks, I worked retail. But hey, at least try to interact and be pleasant with those who are purchasing goods in your store.

[blogslut]

11. That is a management problem

It is the responsibility of management to insure their workers follow basic customer service standards of behavior. While it is possible that today's young adults lack some of the social courtesies instilled in their elders, those courtesies won't get instilled until someone is told their job depends on it.

[MadHound]

18. No, that is the pervue of the individual

That is why it is called "common" courtesy, you know, something we all should know and have been taught.

Yes, as management you do teach certain customer relations concepts, but you shouldn't have to remind your employee to put down the phone while dealing with a customer, that is, again, "common" courtesy. Somewhere along the line either these people weren't taught common courtesy by their parents, or they simply decided that they don't care and will do as they please.

[blogslut]

22. Managment has been reprimanding discourteous employees since forver

The only difference between the gossiping Boomer and the Texting Gen X-er is the technology. Rude is rude and I've seen it emanate from service employees of all generations.

I will concur that Boomer/Gen-Jones parents have dropped the ball when it comes to teaching their children social courtesy - probably in rebellion to their youth when "children were seen but not heard" - which was also wrong.

[omega minimo]

72. No, there is definitely a difference

in young people who act like robots or zombies, while running a cash register or as a barista. It's fucking bizarre.

And a lot of young people aren't that way, fortunately but a lot are.

[omega minimo]

71. The parents used to do that, it was common knowledge "...someone is told their job depends on it."

[RubyDuby in GA]

19. When I encounter people like that I say as loudly as I can:

"I hate to interrupt your conversation, but can you please ring up my items (or whatever needs to be done)." I love the snotty look they give me and I usually make sure to tell the manager that service is seriously slipping and I'll be heading out to another store next time.

And I'm only 35. It's one thing if you can do your job correctly with a phone attached to your head (and still manage to be polite to a customer, i.e. at least say hello, but I can't stand rude people who can't even do their job right.

[vadawg]

63. i see this as well with the cellphone generation, they think that talking on the phone is more

important than conversing with you, im happy to just write you the ticket if you wont hang up rather than just explain what you did wrong and let you go on your way. Funniest thing is the number of people who actually fight the jail deputies because their phone rings whilst they are being proccessed and they physically fight the deputy to get the phone from the bag in order to anser it, i swear its like a mental disorder...

[emilyg]

29. I had same experience at Macy's and

reported the person to the manager.

[RamboLiberal]

48. I find the opposite - many of the young people I encounter

in retail and restaurants and just out in public are courteous. I've seen the same crappy attitude you describe from some older employees.

[RamboLiberal]

47. I've had to clean plenty of PC's of those over 40

of all nasties including koobface, rootkits, etc.

And in many cases Facebook has become the networking site of the baby boomers.

I find a lot of the over 40's in my company are still clueless about PC's and software including how to use help function or find the info via Google.

BTW, I'm a baby boomer.

[jmowreader]

67. Ain't that the fucking truth

At one place I worked we had some young women who worked really hard when there was work to do, and sat around on MySpace when they didn't have anything to do. That would have been okay if they wouldn't have infected the computer they were using with a billion viruses. We had to send it out to be reformatted and reinstalled. So what do they do? Move to the RIP (the most important computer in a wide-format shop--it drives the printers) and start reading MySpace on it. The idiot in charge back there wouldn't do anything because he was trying to get in their pants.

I am going to be SO happy when I get back on active duty. There you can tell someone not to fucking do something and be supported when you take action against them after they refuse to do it.

[Jennicut]

4. Doesn't every older generation complain about the younger ones? I am a Gen Xer

and have worked with people younger then me and had plenty of hard workers that age and plenty of older people who were lazy. I think it is the person, not the generation.

[Ishoutandscream2]

5. Yes. Yes they do.

[FSogol]

7. Whenever we hire a newbie, we don't give then email or net acess for a week or two.

We've had people quit in that time period because they couldn't IM their friends. It is laughable to see then scurrying into the bathroom send texts.

It is wrong to generalize about a whole generation. We have people in their 20s that do more work in a day than the boomers ever did.

[fasttense]

8. Too bad, so sad. I guess the uber rich, and hope to be uber rich,

will just have to learn to deal with it. They don't seem to mind hiring illegals and HB-1 visas. They seem to be able to hire them just fine.

I guess they like their workers submissive and passive like good Communist Chinese prisoners and sick children in Bangladesh.

Executives are just too accustomed to working with sweat shops labor and the kowtowing, starving poor.

These kids are different. Get them desperate enough and they aren't going to commit suicide, like well behaved slaves, they are going to hurt someone.

[gmoney]

23. nah, they won't get angry, they'll just boomerang to mom and dad

the interwebs have killed much of our work ethic... at least mine

[thunder rising]

9. They should learn from that nice polite H1-B Indian and his 8 roomates.

[gateley]

13. +1

[Marr]

28. That's it exactly. n/t

[Tim01]

10. Nobody is surprised by this. nt

[we can do it]

12. Please - There Are Idiots of Every Age (I'm 51)

How about the "texters not talkers", those in their 40's and up who are totally techno-phobic (at work I'm talking about)- and those of any age who only believe (or are interested in) what's on TeeVee......or office pigs who take up all the space- eat all the food- use supplies and not restock, etc....

[HughBeaumont]

14. Republican Boomer CEOs, Execs Too Addicted to Greed to Exist - American Workers.

Employees are cancelling life licenses for Republican Boomer CEOs because they lack empathy, inject greed like a drooling junkie and spend too much time masturbating to pictures of money piles.

"Employees come to us about Repub Boomer bosses, saying they're looking for one stinking inch in hiring, but they don't want anyone in that American citizen bracket because they find it simply too difficult to say no to profiteering," Kristy-Lee Johnston, director of Footprint Recruitment told The Courier-Mail.

"Not to mention they have the nerve to demand this thing called a 'living wage', whatever that is, and adequate benefits." Johnston continued, "Of course, if they did that, how would they take their treasure baths, moisturizer showers or Dom Perrignon colonics?"

Scientific studies show that a greed addict would require at least three to four deprogrammings and minimum ten trips to rehabilitation for even a drop of common sense and long-term outlook to make it's way to the surface.

[Ishoutandscream2]

16. Damn, Hugh, I love your posts

[Mopar151]

37. And then there's their relatives

Never having had respect in their lives, they beleive fear is an acceptable substitute. Some of them take hold, and do OK - actually grow up and be somebody. Others are a waste of oxygen for life, and a plauge on those who actually work for a living.

[sazerac]

15. Gen X

This is probably good news for the gen xers. The new competition doesn't seem very stiff.

[krabigirl]

17. Ugh, what a bunch of losers.

I like working with people of all ages, except for those jerks who always "complain" about others. Hate them.

[elleng]

20. Not MY daughters! Employers call to assure they'll return!

Maybe its just Aussies!

[Chisox08]

21. Could it be that Employers are using any excuse that they can find to outsource

jobs and bring people over using H-1B visas. Even though the American worker is beat down enough that they will take any job, we are still not willing to work under the conditions as someone from India is willing to work under.

[sakabatou]

24. This Gen Y-er to these bosses: Quit your bitching

[Zomby Woof]

25. This is very true

I was the "old man" on the last team I was on at my employer 2 years ago. The 20-somethings were often whiny, spoiled, entitled, and yes, chatty. Many of them were nice and decent people otherwise, but had the work ethic of Sarah Palin. So who picks up their slack? Yep. The older X and boomer workers. I beat feet for greener pastures. My job advice for anyone over 35 is to find people your own age or older to work with. Avoid anyone born in the 80's or after.

[GoCubsGo]

36. Some of us don't have always have a choice...

For the past few summers, I have had to do field work with newly-graduated college students. I would have to sit around every morning, waiting for them to come in on time, which rarely happened. They would be chatting on the phone with friends while they were supposed to be concentrating on writing down the data points I was calling out to them. Nice kids. They knew a lot about electronic gadgets, movies and the latest TV shows, but little about grammar, punctuation, and stringing together a coherent sentence. Building up the DVD collection was more crucial than paying of student loans. My niece and nephew are in that age group, as well. Judging my my niece's Facebook page, she and her pals care far more about socializing, partying, and drinking than they do about anything else. "Whiny, spoiled, entitled"... I know some adults that fit that description as well, but not in anywhere near the proportions as the 20-somethings.

[Zomby Woof]

53. Read everything I wrote

I said many of them were very nice and pleasant people.

One can be whiny, spoiled, entitled, and nice. Those aren't always mutually exclusive characteristics.


As for changing jobs, I admit that would be tougher now. I did it before the jobs market went into the shitter.

[earth mom]

27. Sounds like they took that line from the Bill Gates playbook.

:thumbsdown:

[SoCalDem]

31. To be fair, aren't the gen-Yers the first whole group to have been

raised, more-or-less parentless, and fed on totally "modified/adulterated foods"..and who have been exposed to a lifetime of toxins...breathed, ingested,absorbed through pores?

and of course their educational adventures has been in flux, since they started 'school" as soon as they were potty trained..

they also graduated from crib to video games, since it was "too dangerous" to play outside, where they might have gotten some socialization with neighborhood kids..and could have learned more "group behavior" skills..

maybe?

[omega minimo]

73. yep, like chickens raised crammed in cages......... ingesting toxins through the media too.

[LeftHander]

32. Yes we need mindless brown nosing automatons to drive the corprate engine....

What paranoid, finger-pointing manager wants a smart, creative and challenging young person working for them?

[Echo In Light]

33. The same way elites of the corp/state nexus don't want a populace capable of critical thought

They merely want mindless obedience and exaltation of the dominant system, not data that is critical of it.

[omega minimo]

54. They want them WORKING for them, if they're not too busy being snotty, disrespectful, distracted.

Can your cliche addled brain handle that concept?

[BuelahWitch]

35. Disagree-lazy and rude encompasses all age groups

It's not fair to point the finger at the Gen-Ys. There's good and bad in all the generations.

[omega minimo]

74. It's the post slacker generations that act like braindead zombies in "customer service."

[Rowdyboy]

38. The Boomers with hiring authority today are the same people that raised "Gen Y"

They're the ones who refused to teach their kids basic manners. They're the ones who neglected to demand respect preferring to be buddies with their children.

Boomers (and, for the record, I am one) deserve the society they have created.

Not trying to imply that all Gen Y's are the same-but WAY too many of my friends children fit the stereotype.

[Maine-ah]

40. I'm a Gen-X ... sneaking up on 36

I work at a restaurant, and I am one of the oldest people working there. Out of about 20 adults that are in their 20's, I would say half of them manage to regularly show up on time, and bust their butts. The rest of them show up late, are consistently texting and are out right lazy.


I don't think it's a generational thing, I think it's an "I'm in my 20's" thing. Eventually some of them will get it, and some of them will not. They're still growing up.

[Ishoutandscream2]

41. Stop it! You're making sense!!

I'm a boomer, and I had the same disease as some of your 20 somethings when I was their age. Most will catch on. Like you said, they're still growing up.

[Maine-ah]

42. lol

at that age, it's such a novelty to be out of school, or perhaps in college, you generally for the first time are making your own rules and playing your own game. You can do what ever you want for the first time in your life.....I remember how it felt, it wasn't all that long ago. I luckily didn't have "the disease" but still managed to screw off outside of work. Plenty of days where I went to work hung over, and still managed to do what I had to do. :hi:


Nice to see someone else gets it :)

[omega minimo]

56. More good points. Except for the gizmos

In the past "I'm in my twenties thing" might have brought the 'tude, but not everyone was addicted to their hand held devices, checking constantly, answering every time the phone rings no matter the situation. Paying attention to what you're doing becomes a lost art. And at WORK??!!

The ratio would not have been half and half in the past either. That says a lot right there.

[omega minimo]

55. good points

[Zomby Woof]

60. Yep

I call 'Y' the 'Baby On Board' generation. When they were born in the late 80's, their Boomer parents plastered those stupid signs in their car windows, and a whole pattern of narcissistic parenting traits followed. The use of the sign was symbolic of their whole approach to being parents: "My baby is the most special bundle of Me Jr. that ever lived on Earth, and I fully expect that the rest of you riff-raff will defer to its safety and well-being at all times, even if that means you can't drive over 5 mph in my presence. Aren't we great? We fucked and THIS came out! We're the first people in history to fuck and make babies!"*

* - I understand these are generalizations, and I know YOU are an amazing exception, so keep your whiny rebuttals to yourselves.

[Hello_Kitty]

39. The young people I encounter who are in the workforce seem to be quite focused

The unmotivated ones don't bother to get jobs because their parents seem to be content to let them mooch.

[gratuitous]

43. Does this surprise them?

After 30 years of declining wages, stuffing the pockets of the overrich, starving schools of money, teachers and resources, and generally fucking up America, the moneyed manager class is realizing that they have an entire generation doofuses coming into the work force. "They don't understand" stuff! Well, duh. If you don't teach something, it won't be understood. Crowded classes in dilapidated schools are no place to learn anything. A broken society that would rather give billions to Blackwater than spend one cent on affordable health care is going to reap a confederacy of dunces.

Side note: I'm not condemning the entirety of a generation. There are in the present generation of 20-somethings probably a blend of the savvy and the stupid comparable to other generations. The complaining managers are talking about the entry-level folks who may or may not have finished high school and had very little or no secondary education. These are the backbone of any work force, and the skills required to function in today's work force aren't being taught or aren't being absorbed by the young people we're turning out. We have a funny system in this country where the solution to a military problem is to throw more money at it, even if it's totally unworkable (star wars missile defense), but the solution to the education problem is to starve schools of money to see if teachers and administrators can do far more with much less.

[omega minimo]

59. The college graduates are the product of the same broken system/can be just as clueless

and -- or more -- narcissistic.

[Dulcinea]

64. We have a winner! *ding*ding*

"A broken society that would rather give billions to Blackwater than spend one cent on affordable health care is going to reap a confederacy of dunces." Can I quote that?

[madville]

44. It more about maturity and experience than a broad general paint stroke

The last three people we have fired were in their 20's.

One showed up to work drunk and then was told he would just be suspended for two weeks after a passing drug test because we all liked him and he was a good technician, failed that for pot.

One was stealing gas off the company vehicle fuel card because he had no cash. Now why is a single guy with no kids making $50k+ a year in a rural area broke all the time? We made everyone take a drug test and caught this guy with cocaine in his system. Turns out he was staying up all night playing WOW and needed a stimulant I guess.

You couldn't keep the last guy off his cell phone, texting nonstop, checking facebook, etc. He was told to knock it off so then he started taking 20 minute restroom breaks 3-4 times a day and would hole up in a stall with his phone. Consistently late and hungover as well. We finally told him if he brought his personal phone to work he was fired and he quit the next day.

During the same time frame we also hired two retired military guys in their 40's. Show up to work 15 minutes early, work hard, don't waste time, and appear to have all their ducks in a row.

Don't get me wrong, when I was in my early 20's I could have partied those younger guys we had under the table and had quit and been fired from more jobs than all of them combined. I just eventually grew up and they probably will too.

[GoCubsGo]

45. Very good point...

That's why it seems like so many more of them have issues. But, I don't remember partying like that when I was in my 20s. It never would have occurred to me to show up to work drunk or steal from my employers. On the other hand, my older sister and brother didn't steal, but they knew how to have a good time. It's not surprising that their children are same. My brother did grow up. My sister, on the other hand... And, her daughter is just like her, sadly.

[Odin2005]

46. BULLSHIT!!!

More like we are sick of being worked to death.

[AllentownJake]

49. Well the baby boomers and late Gen Xers have managed to destroy

Everything handed to them and they raised the Gen Y crowd. If you think the Gen Y crowd are bad employees the older folks bear part of the responsibility.

[KonaKane]

50. There may be some substance to this.

Now, hear me out before you get all pissed off.

I have seen this very thing described in the article, in many circles these days; and it pretty much gets down to the fact that Gen Y has been robbed of aquiring some social skills thanks to all the gadgetry for communication we have now. Think about it. Cells, texting, coccooning with your iPod, how else could it work out? These folks are tragically delinquent on some basic protocols of working with other humans face to face. It's not totally their fault, it's clearly a symptom of the times.

The other day we were in a restaurant and I actually watched a couple of 20 something texting each other. At the same table. Not talking. No matter how you cut it, that is just plain weird. What happened to the art of conversation? Diplomacy? Relating to your fellow humans with gesture, word and feel?

For the record, I'm not fossilized yet. This is an honest, and well meaning observation.

[RoyGBiv]

52. There's quite a lot to this ...

The word choice used by some of the individuals quoted is not the best and not what many sociologists would use, but there are "generational" traits that are meticulously studied just for these kinds of trends and groupings.

Gen-Y isn't universally lazy, but the work ethic is certainly different on the whole. I have an employee, for example, who is anything but lazy. The problem is getting this person to do what I need them to do rather than what they believe they need to be doing.

[omega minimo]

61. and all those gizmos replace

reading.

[Xicano]

57. Sounds like a lack of spanking when they were younger.

n/t

[Swamp Rat]

58. Ok, then HIRE PEOPLE OVER 40 WHO ARE UNEMPLOYED!!!

Stop the fucking agism!!!

[Atman]

65. I'm fifty...amazed I got hired...work with three "twenty-somethings."

They are all like this. They can never EVER take their eyes off their Blackberries or iPhones, even if you're talking to them about something important. If a text or a call comes in, that always takes priority over your conversation. We taught "manners" to our kids. I don't know if that word even exists anymore.

Perhaps we taught them that loyalty and respect gets them nowhere. Seriously. They saw their parents work for years for companies who only rewarded them by taking away their life savings and leaving them on the street, or working as a line cook at Denny's. Why should they show any respect when they see that employers won't show any respect to them?

[L0oniX]

66. I'm sure that there are plenty of older people who would be much more responsible and dedicated.

The hiring of younger people is a suckers game. Does anyone young person plan to work for any company for 20 years? DOH! You'd be better off hiring an older worker because they are more dependable, dedicated and more devoted. What young person expects to stay with the same company more than 5 years? I certainly wouldn't and I didn't. It's more when someones in his or her 40's that they think about how many more years that they have to be working and what do they want to be doing for that last 20 some years.

[PVnRT]

68. I'm so glad certain kinds of ageism are allowed here

It lets me know who the jackasses are when I need a reminder.

[MineralMan]

70. Another silly distinction, I think.

It isn't about age. It's about the individual. I know boomers who are completely irresponsible, and I know 20-somethings who are super workers.

Since businesses started hiring off resumes instead of hiring the best person for the job, they get all sorts of problems with new employees. Then, they can't fire their asses or make them behave.

It's all based on the numbers these days, rather than on the person. When HR does the hiring decisions, instead of the supervisor who will be supervising the person, all sorts of craziness goes on.