We range from pre-adolescents to almost 30-somethings.
We’ve grown up with multiple ways to connect. Choose your poison: dial-up telephone, cell phone, chat room, IM, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace or Skype.
We are the kings of multi-tasking. We sat in our dorm rooms listening to music, texting on our cell phones, talking to our roommate, TV blaring, IM’s binging away on our laptops and multiple tabs open on our browser filled with Facebook, MySpace, eMail and illegal music downloads all while finishing a research paper due the next day. We truly would have made our parents cringe if they knew that’s how we were spending tens of thousands of dollars “studying” for our courses.
Sorry, Mom.
We are plugged-in to what is going on around the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We’ve been labeled as entitled, tech-savvy, achievement-oriented, team-oriented and starved for attention.
The Pew Research Center says we are the most ethnically and racially diverse cohort of youth in the nation’s history:
18.5% are Hispanic;
14.2% are Black;
4.3% are Asian;
3.2% are of mixed race; and
59.8% are White
We’re a force to be reckoned with in the workplace. According to Bruce Tulgan, a founder of New Haven, Conn.-based RainmakerThinking, “Unlike the generations that have gone before them, Gen Y has been pampered, nurtured and programmed with a slew of activities since they were toddlers, meaning they are both high-performance and high-maintenance. They also believe in their own worth.”
So while we’ve been raised to “go forth and prosper” and “make the world a better place just by being in it”, I constantly ask myself these two things:
Where has all the common sense gone and where has the drive to accomplish something on your own gone?
In my line of work, I come in contact with a large number of people in my generation. Most of them are in the lower tier of my generation. I feel as though I am talking to brainless zombies who have never had to lift a finger in their life. Did these kids get up, get dressed in the clothes mommy laid out for them, eat the breakfast that was made for them, get on the bus after mommy zipped up their jackets, go to school, come home and sit around until told to go to bed?
Examples of the most current indiscretions:
- Three times in the last four months a baby Gen Y has put dish soap into a dish washer. Suds covering the floor, scraping them up with mops and brooms and mopping them up with buckets and buckets of cold water. I feel like I’m in an episode of “The Brady Bunch”.
- Moms and dads who call in to find out about volunteer opportunities for their college-age kid. Seriously? Is Timmy a mute? Can he not pick up the phone to find out what he needs to do in order to volunteer at this establishment?
- At least three occasions where dirty dishes have been put away in the cabinets from the dishwasher. Who can’t spend 15 seconds asking the people in the office, “hey guys, are these clean or dirty”? Nah, just go ahead and put them all away anyway. It will help us build our immune systems up for flu season.
- The constant need for an “attaboy” every time a task associated with a job is accomplished. I didn’t know you were supposed to get constant praise and thanks for doing the job you get paid to do.
- Is customer service a lost art form? Whatever happened to “the customer is always right” or “I don’t have the answer so let me take your name and number and get back to you”? Nope, just tell them you don’t know what they’re talking about and hang up on them. Awesome job. Attaboy.
Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe this Millennial is getting too close to 30-something and I need to take a chill pill. I just wish that I could slap one of these young Gen Y’s and say, “wake up! Mommy’s not here to wipe the corners of your mouth or call the school to let them know you’re not going to make it today”.
Have a backbone. Take some responsibility for your mistakes. Be accountable. Be proud of what you stand for in life. The easy road is a few miles back. It’s time to saddle up and take the high road and make a life for yourself.
Crabby patty out.
No comments:
Post a Comment