Thursday, July 26, 2007

give me a break: gen y in the office

When Whippersnappers and Geezers Collide - New York Times

as much of an anti-authoritarian i am, i have a rocking work ethic and this article made me laugh but also roll my eyes. i mean, are things so bad that we need to have 'translating' services to communicate with Gen Y now? i mean, really? are they so functionally backward and entitled that they actually need to have things like 'business appropriate attire' explained to them? where were these kids raised? aren't their parents wildly successful and corporate parents?

i've had a couple of Gen Y interns working for me over the past year and they were great. of course, they have no office skills whatsoever, but that's what classes are for.

but what i especially like about this article is the glaring silence from Generation X, the folks standing between Boomer and Y. i imagine my generation looking at the others with this look of bored contempt, while thinking, 'you're both asses.'

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"we have limits." from a 23 year old. sounds like a bunch of privileged asses to me.

super des said...

Ah, gotta love sweeping generalizations.

And for the record, at my old job (the one I left yesterday!) I was the youngest person by far, and none of these things were ever an issue. Plus I was the best worker they ever had.

Delia Christina said...

well, when you're talking about 'generations' you are talking about generalizations. the Boomers are self-indulgent; Gen X is whatever (though i think we rock); Gen Y is sociopathic and entitled and the Greatest Generation is ... dying out. when looking at a crowd it's much harder to see the finer points of detail.

but would you say what the article describes is the exception or the rule? (20-somethings in chicago are a little different, i think, than on the moneyed coasts.)

Wasp Jerky said...

So what comes after Generation Z? Can we start squaring and cubing letters after that? Or maybe go the Prince route?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but most Gen X's are very immature, like sending spam to other peoples email accounts.At least us Y's are pretty upfront and not STUPID!

Delia Christina said...

uh, actually, no.