If you recall, I said that companies I know are pushing to hire Generation Yers because they're cheaper. So I read today in a story from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that Gen Yers aren't having any of it. These folks are "largely disappointed with the workplace" and are "leaving jobs within a year or two and costing companies big investments in training and turnover."
Firstly, WHAT? American businesses looking at the short-term gains and not the long-term costs? I can't believe it [sic]. And secondly, serves 'em right.
Lastly, the article concludes with saying that "we as baby boomers [current workers and parents of Gen Yers] told them [Gen Yers] they can do anything." The Gen Yers "don't feel compelled to stay in jobs they don't like if they can go back to living with their parents until the next thing comes along."
Man, that's rich! The current workforce raised a generation of kids who are not only replacing them at work, but then turning up their noses at the jobs they get from their parents because the jobs aren't good enough. And then, moving home to live with their parents, the very ones who are being displaced.
What do you think?
Now THAT makes me angry!
ReplyDeleteGotcha!
ReplyDelete-mttw
Dear Mary,
ReplyDeleteHave been rereading Roald Dahl this summer with the kids, and this blog (&6/17's) brings to mind the movie lyrics for the Veruca Salt song:
For those she's spoiled and dreadfully so,
A girl can't spoil herself, you know.
Who spoiled her, then? Ah, who indeed?
Who pandered to her every need?
Who turned her into such a brat?
Who are the culprits? Who did that?
Alas! You needn't look so far
To find out who these sinners are.
They are (and this is very sad)
Her loving parents, MUM and DAD.
As I type this, I'm pointing the finger first at myself. I'm one of those clueless parents who makes mistakes first and then has to constantly edit my parenting skills to fix the damage.
Guess my parents raised me in one helluva bubble (without the trust fund), and I've unwittingly created the same scenario for my kids. You know, getting all worked up about the "ideal teacher," making two dinners (or lowering my formerly foodie tastes for "family" meals), making sure that homework gets in the backpack so it gets turn in the next day, buying every Lego kit ever created, etc.
However, the bubble childhood worked for me. Hell! I majored in English from a liberal arts college and had a tech company relo'd me to Silicon Valley from the East coast in the early 90s. Ah yes, the 90s...
But the world is a different place. Competition for jobs is fierce and on a global scale. Okay, "fierce" is inaccurate. The job market is different and I know that in this day, an employer wouldn't bother taking me to lunch and dinner and asking how much I needed to ship my car here from Virginia.
Plus, whenever I read the news, that Yeat's poem comes to mind, "Things fall apart;The centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..." YIKES! Need to make a major u-turn in my parenting if my kids will have any chance to survive beyond the bubble I've created for them.
Gotta run...my East coast roots are starting to show and I need to cover them up before I get booted from the state of California.
Thanks for making me think, Mary.
Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, parenting. A whole nuther blog, methinks. I'm sure your kids will be able to handle the world when they're ready--we did, didn't we? You're absolutely right--got us here from points there, moving our cars and boxes of books from Virginia and Connecticut.
But alas, the working world *is* a different place. Our biggest responsibility as parents is to raise kids who can think for themselves and choose the best nursing home for us when the time comes. ack!
yer pal,
Mary
parenting. ha! my dear son has been asking me just how long he has to go to school. i broke it to him outright that grad school is a long ways away. he says that when he gets to college (pronounced "coyyege" and which he seems to think is his next step after kindergarten), he is going to drive mama and daddy in his car with him - us in the back seat. i secretly suspect that this ride will lead directly to the rest home....
ReplyDeleteAh, JP, you make me laugh! Thanks, I needed that!
ReplyDelete-mttw