Recent polls about "Millenials"

[Lilsia]

Sounds like you should be complaining about the people that raised them to act that way...

Yeah, I don't understand why people would not teach their kids discipline and respect and responsibility. You can tell right away who has had good parenting and who has not. It seems like a lot of parents do not give a fig about their kids now.

 

[Lilsia]

Some of the teens who are working in your place of employment probably do have attitudes. Get out among other teens, especially the 18/19 year olds going to school and working to further themselves. You will find kind, compassionate, hard working, enterprising teens.

A lot of those even adults, in jobs such as you describe acquire negative attitudes for many reasons.

You can also find another place of work or work perhaps in a school cafeteria if those who seem to be drawn to your employer are negative.

I know not ALL of them are like that, I have 2 teens. But there are more of the bad ones then their should be.

 

[Southernmiss]

I know not ALL of them are like that, I have 2 teens. But there are more of the bad ones then their should be.

My experience with teens is very different.

 

[Lilsia]

My experience with teens is very different.

You are lucky! Please come to where I live and to my job and you can see what it is I am talking about. Oh and these are the "rich" kids.

 

[tex1989]

I am almost finished with my Master's in History. As I first entered the program I had to take a couple of basic classes that taught you how to study History. Now I know that sounds sort of strange but if you study History you become to understand why you take the class. While dates are important, that's not History. You have to look at the economy, the sentiment of the day, the players and how influential they were, the Global outlook, the political climate and a hundred other things. Then you have to look at the documents that are available to determine these things. Then you have to weigh all the things that have been written before you to form your take on the situation. After that class you then choose what part of History you want to concentrate on. This means you are going to go with Ancient History, Pre American History, European History, Pre Civil War America, Post Civil War, Modern, etc. I chose Pre Civil War with emphasis on Texas because that is where I live and what interests me.

Okay so a long dissertation about studying History. The reason I did this is to say that some will not study the Holacost, while others will. People have said that due to the significance of the event and the numbers involved that we cannot not study it. But in that vain the are literally thousands of tragic Historical events that had significance. Not defending nor advocating the study of it, just merely saying that even a PhD in History is going to focus attention on a particular era. Given all the many things today's generation is expected to know it just gets hard to expect everyone to know it all. What is important and significant to you, what you may be passionate about is not always at the top of everyone else's list.

 

[Southernmiss]

You are lucky! Please come to where I live and to my job and you can see what it is I am talking about. Oh and these are the "rich" kids.

You need to find the plain middle income kids...

 

[Hikergirl]

It is different, we were taught differently. I am sure there were smart alecks when I was younger. But no boss would have ever allowed someone to speak to an elder in a disrespectful way. They were called out on it. Now it seems that anything goes. I never once would even consider telling someone that was old enough to be my parent to shut up. Still wouldn't. Do you talk to people like that? What if some teenager said that to your Mom, you would be just fine with it, right?

Ok, you've got me- the kids you work with represent an entire generation, and no generations before them ever behaved in such ways.


To answer your question, no as an adult I wouldn't say that to anyone but as a teen I sure did, mainly to my teachers. I was a rude, obnoxious twit, and had quite the rebellious attitude back then, and got away with it more times than I didn't. I'm sure there were plenty of adults who felt I represented my entire generation too.

 

[Lilsia]

You need to find the plain middle income kids...

LOL probably. But the nicer places pay us more. That is how I pay for my Disney vacations. I just wish it was legal to smack some these people upside the head sometimes.

 

[Lilsia]

Ok, you've got me- the kids you work with represent an entire generation, and no generations before them ever behaved in such ways.


To answer your question, no as an adult I wouldn't say that to anyone but as a teen I sure did, mainly to my teachers. I was a rude, obnoxious twit, and had quite the rebellious attitude back then, and got away with it more times than I didn't. I'm sure there were plenty of adults who felt I represented my entire generation too.

Can I ask what your parents did about that? Because I have 2 teenager girls and do not allow them to say stuff like that. They quickly learned life would be very very uncomfortable for them with that kind of attitude.

 

[rkstocke5609]

LOL probably. But the nicer places pay us more. That is how I pay for my Disney vacations. I just wish it was legal to smack some these people upside the head sometimes.

Just be sure no one has their cell phone recording video & go ahead and smack ‘em upside the head. Then send them a bill for knocking some sense into them...

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

You are lucky! Please come to where I live and to my job and you can see what it is I am talking about. Oh and these are the "rich" kids.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

While the college degree does add a perceived value and thus typically a higher starting salary the disparity of $15K also can be caused by mom actually earning a bit less than she was probably worth. Sadly, folks that ha e been around awhile often are comfortable with their wage and don’t even realize that if they shopped their skills they could be earning more somewhere else. Employers know how to identify those that are “comfortable” and aren’t likely to make a change (and thus they are more likely to pay them less than the prevailing rate because they know the employee isn’t out there shopping the job market).

Actually my mom is paid slightly higher than other counterparts if one considers the longevitity she's had with the company. It's easy I suppose to assume she's just not getting paid enough but in reality not the case.

Funny thing was according to what other companies paid in my area I was actually underpaid by a few thousand per year.

Where you are coming from is what things are like now. But you'd have to consider the corporate culture 35 years ago (which is how long she's worked at the company now). Back then a college degree didn't hold as much importance, back then you were taught and it was expected that you still with a company for a long long time. But times changed, the corporate world shifted and one of the things that became more valued was college degrees and over time salaries became dependent on college degree or no college degree before shifting again to a preference but not requirement for a college degree (speaking towards my position however) in that company.

Nowadays shopping around earns you the very comments that have been in this thread where "kids these days don't want to stick with a company" or something similar (I forget the wording used). Unfortunately for my mom shopping around would not equal higher pay, and would actually be of an extreme detriment. She's got 401K , benefits, seniority when it comes to time off requests and pay, etc. It would not be easy to just jump ship now unfortunately.

Also, employees with college degrees don’t always make more — where I work those with technical training actually fair better in many circumstances. But, there is no question that those with the college degrees believe they are worth way more.

I didn't say college degrees=more pay . It of course depends on field.

I've said it elsewhere long time ago on this Board that my job position I was working in did not need a college degreefor what you were doing but it was what the company preferred (and they even had tuition assistance depending on what field you were going for to earn your degree). I didn't demand nor ask for the starting salary it was just given to me. I was eternally grateful however for their starting pay as at the time I was making something like $8.65 at age 22 for retail and the corporate job more than doubled that plus added benefits.

 

[Hikergirl]

Can I ask what your parents did about that? Because I have 2 teenager girls and do not allow them to say stuff like that. They quickly learned life would be very very uncomfortable for them with that kind of attitude.

My behavior certainly wasn't tolerated at home, I wasn't raised in a way that disrespect was allowed, encouraged, or shrugged off, but that is why I never acted up there. The school stuff resulted in the typical punishments. I wasn't a hellion all the time, there were some authority figures who got the brunt of my attitude and behavior but it wasn't a 24/7 thing, and I grew out of it by the time I entered college.

 

[Colleen27]

Well when an 18 yo thinks they can tell you to S T F U when you are being nice and explaining the job to them just because they think they can do whatever they want, there is an issue with the way they were raised. How many people here over the age of 30 would have ever thought that was OK? I work in food so we probably get the bottom of the barrel but still. The attitude and the way they talk, even to each other is incomprehensible and has nothing to do with what I or others act. And a person who has only been doing a job for a few months should never "challenge" a person with seniority. Maybe get a little of experience first. That is the mentality of someone who is young and thinks that "old people" are stupid, as if we have not been doing things for decades and have already tried all of your "new" ideas. LOL Like a teenager thinking their parents were born the day they were. The mentality that you just come into a job and start bossing others around is ridiculous, do you have that at your job? An 18,19,20 year old coming in with no experience and telling everyone what to do?

Maybe in food service, there are no new ideas or improvements on process. That isn't true everywhere. I've worked in a number of settings where young people (under 25) came in and made very helpful suggestions to the people who had been there forever and thought their way was the One. Right. Way. Particularly in the area of technology, which those older, more experienced workers often under-utilize out of habit, but also in other areas in which teaching/thinking has changed over the years and where someone fresh out of college likely has a different perspective than someone who majored in the same field in the 70s.

Of course there is a right and wrong way to go about suggesting changes or challenging how things are done, but it shouldn't hinge on years of experience and attaining a certain age. But what you describe doesn't sound to me like "millennials challenging the accepted order in the workplace", it sounds like kids with a bad attitude toward their crappy first job, and that's a story as old as wage-employment.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yeah, I don't understand why people would not teach their kids discipline and respect and responsibility. You can tell right away who has had good parenting and who has not. It seems like a lot of parents do not give a fig about their kids now.

Your issue is actually with Gen Z not with Millennials if you're talking about individuals who are presently 18,19,20 year olds. In the end what 'generation' they belong to doesn't matter except when speaking towards sweeping generalizations.

Furthermore your issue actually seems to be teens in general, who are not your own. Your subsequent comments reinforce my earlier Us vs Them mentality however I'm revising that in that it's not Millennials it's just teens in general..oh add on rich teens I guess.

You seem to have a lot of resentment bleeding through in your comments. Again I stand by my earlier comment of a combative approach may not be the best. No one regardless of their age should be telling anyone to shut up using the words you said they do.

But I would challenge you to look beyond "those pesky teens" and to see if a more cooperative approach could work. FWIW every company I have worked for has had issues with people's attitudes and they came in all different ages.

Do you actively listen to their suggestions and ideas? Or so you throw those to the wasteside because you don't feel they have merit as they are too young and haven't worked there long enough? If they say "well what if we did this I think this may save time or money or improve employee morale" do you just ignore that and tell them to get back to work? Sometimes delivery of any idea from any person missing the mark, that's just a fact. Doesn't mean that idea should be written off.

Finally, your workplace mentality seems very hostile. I very much doubt I would want to work for a company who isn't open to ideas on the sole basis of age, who treats me like I'm a robot with no voice, etc. That screams ageism. It has also led to some companies dying out when they refused to change up their game for changing times.

 

[adelaster]

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My husband and I watched that sometime last year. It was really interesting TBH.

 

[Lilsia]

Do you actively listen to their suggestions and ideas? Or so you throw those to the wasteside because you don't feel they have merit as they are too young and haven't worked there long enough? If they say "well what if we did this I think this may save time or money or improve employee morale" do you just ignore that and tell them to get back to work? Sometimes delivery of any idea from any person missing the mark, that's just a fact. Doesn't mean that idea should be written off.

What I am talking about has zero to do with young people wanting to "improve" or have different ideas to "make things better". It is in fact the opposite. They are not wanting to do the job at all. They come right out and say that it is too much work and that they want to do the least amount of work and still get paid. They come in and set up 1 or 2 things then get out their phones and just stand around. Nobody wants to clean their stations, no one wants to stock. They have to be babysat by management the whole time and told over and over and over to do the job. At the same time coming up to a 45 year woman and telling her how to make an omelet. I think she knows how to do that. Do you want to eat somewhere that the employees won't clean? You keep defending something you have no experience with.

 

[okeydokey]

This is terrific, and very true. Thanks for sharing, I had not seen this before.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

What I am talking about has zero to do with young people wanting to "improve" or have different ideas to "make things better". It is in fact the opposite. They are not wanting to do the job at all. They come right out and say that it is too much work and that they want to do the least amount of work and still get paid. They come in and set up 1 or 2 things then get out their phones and just stand around. Nobody wants to clean their stations, no one wants to stock. They have to be babysat by management the whole time and told over and over and over to do the job. At the same time coming up to a 45 year woman and telling her how to make an omelet. I think she knows how to do that. Do you want to eat somewhere that the employees won't clean? You keep defending something you have no experience with.

So perhaps vet employees more?

Your issue is a tale as old as time. The only difference is cell phones have entered the world. I couldn't tell you how many times I've been to businesses with people using their cell phones and it's not at all subject to teens. When I worked retail we had to lock our cell phones (which were just becoming what everyone had) in our lockers. What are your rules regarding cell phones? Are they allowed on their person but not to be used or are they supposed to be put up?

To your point about making an omlette no a 45 year old woman doesn't automatically know how to make an omlette. But she learned it and she may have learned it last week as opposed to years and years ago. And just as a funny random example my husband learned to fold towels a certain way from his mom and I learned a completely different way from my mom. Whoever is folding towels does it their way-there's no anarchy in our household because of that.

I don't keep defending something I have no experience with I'm coming at it from an angle that I've worked with people who have crappy attitudes but that they are not confined to teens. You keep attacking an entire 'generation' on something that you have limited experience with.

As to your comment about not wanting to eat somewhere that the employees won't clean: 1) The place should be cleaned according to health code no matter who ends up doing the cleaning 2) If the place isn't being cleaned properly it should be reported as a health code violation. 3) There are no passes for cleanliness on the basis of certain employees don't want to clean.