Generation Y Will Work and Complain
A generation pigeonholed into whiners
Generation Y is quickly becoming generalized into a workforce of nothing but whiners who want to run with the big dogs making a pretty penny. The New York Post article "Hill Scolds Lazy Gen.Y" quotes Hillary Rodham Clinton exclaiming,"Kids, for whatever reason, think they're entitled to go right to the top with $50,000 or $75,000 jobs when they have not done anything to earn their way up." The article continues to showcase Clinton's perception of laziness, which she blames on "instant gratification" technologies such as iPods and high-speed Internet. Is this feeling of entitlement merely a figment of imagination being blown out of proportion, or is there validity to all of the hype?
Linda Conner Lambeck of the Connecticut post writes "Poll by SHU confirms Generation Y's sense of entitlement." The article details responses to a poll conducted by Sacred Heart University in which 82.3 percent of Americans polled believed today's "young people feel entitled to more than peers did a decade ago." So as thousands of Millennials enter the workforce, managers must brace for a bolder, assertive and aggressive generation ready to climb corporate ladders faster than they drive their powerful SUV, download pirated movies, send text messages to their peers and add Panic! At the Disco as a friend on MySpace.
posted by MindComet at 6:04 PM
5 Comments:
Hey, I resent that!
Although, Gen Y is the FIRST generation to not do better than our fathers.
'better' is dependent on definition
I think Gen Yers have a more precise view on what then want simply because previous generations have fought to ALLOW those freedoms.
segregation, women stuck in the kitchens or working as secretaries, gender and age descrimination- these things are all passé
for Gen Y, all the cards are out on the table, everyone is for themselves, so we have a much more independent attitude
1:04 PM
I don't think it's about the environment we, generation y, was brought up in. I think it's about the dependency on certain products that make us feel incomplete without them.
For instance, I don't know ANYONE without a cell phone, or anyone without an email address...and lately, I don't know anyone without either a MySpace, Flickr, or TagWorld account!
These 'necesities' allow for much of our lives to be accesible- for example, years ago, I knew all of my friends' phone numbers, by heart. Now, I don't know any of them- that's my cell phone's job.
The user-enabled websites (myspace, etc) allow to better keep in touch with family members, friends- and even people we haven't contacted in a LONG time (hello high school sweetheart!).
These sites, coupled with portable mp3players, instant messaging, online games and online diaries distract the gen yer from school, college, and even work.
is that laziness? hardly- if anything, gen y's need for instant results have made us masterminds of instant research. Ask.com, google, and a slew of other online sources have enabled the gen yer to retrieve information quickly and efficiently, banging out that last minute report (for work or school) in no time flat.
take that, gen x!
1:21 PM
Hmmm..I don't think lazy is the right word. I like to consider it working "smarter" not "harder." Suddenly I sense the abacus coming back into fashion--
1:41 PM
I like how a poll that tracks the perceptions of other Americans is being touted as "confirming" the Millennial sense of entitlement, rather than actually trying to find some way of measuring what "entitlement" means. If I were to use my own unqualified perceptions as evidence, I would question why the baby boomers, perhaps the most narcissistic generation in US history, and the only one on track to leave the country in worse shape than they inherited it, feel they are in any position to complain.
2:02 PM
Hmmm...Generation Y as narcissistic? Let's reflect... Perhaps it was all of the reality shows, American Idol episodes, MySpace and YouTube entries that has made them believe that they too, can have their names in bright lights. After all, doesn't everyone want to be discovered?
10:39 PM
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