Once again there is a convergence of observation that is interesting. First, I observed to my son who is a pilot for a regional airline that recently almost all the flight attendants on his airline were older than I expected. He said that the company has trouble keeping younger flight attendants. They don't seem to have a work ethic. If they don't feel like working, they just don't show. Of course, in the airline industry that causes cascading problems. With no flight attendant, the flight can't go. So it's delayed, causing other delays and crew assignment problems, and so on.
Brought that up to my daughter who is finishing a masters degree to become a therapist (psychologist) specializing in adolescents. A majority of the kids she is counseling right now exhibit the same characteristic--if they don't feel like going to work, then they just don't.
There's a little of this self-entitlement feeling that even bleeds over to the achiever set. In an article at Knowledge@Emory from Emory University graduate business school, preliminary results of attitudes of "Millenial Generation" students are discussed. One finding is that these students, while not awed by professors and willing to talk with them, are also not shy about asking for special privilages. One professor notes, "A student might come up and ask her, 'Hey, listen, my boyfriend[base ']s coming into town, is it ok if I take the exam the next week?' Of course the answer is, 'uh, no.' "
This generation also expects more intervention in their lives (especially in their support) from parents. According to the survey, 60% of the Millennials felt comfortable challenging professors on grades, compared to 35% of GenXers. Sometimes even using parents to challenge the grade ("I emailed my paper to my dad and he's a CEO and he disagrees with your comments. He thinks you graded me too low.")
How have you found this generation in your companies? Are you having trouble getting this generation to work (ages 19-25 today)?
Part of the comment about grades, though, may come about because this group is the first in America to be measured by an objective measure (standardized tests with results determining how much they'll get ahead). So they value grades. While I'm from the early part of the Boomer generation, and I've been totally unconcerned about grades since the 7th grade. I've always been concerned with learning, not grades. Personality type or generation? Who knows.
1:26:18 PM 
|
|
