Generation Y - Spoiled brats?

[Booyakasha2]

I was talking to an old supervisor about a topic on a NPR radio show we both heard about Generation Y (lets say 18-30 yr) in the workforce and why there is a sort of clash b/w us and the Baby-boomer generation/management/ and for some of us in the future, managing/hiring partners at firms.


He basically thought too many of us felt entitled to immediate movement up the ladder and that we had grown up in priviledged lives where everyone was a winner.  Thoughts?  Are we just a bunch of spoiled brats that don't know how to put in a hard days work anymore?  Or are these baby-boomer dinosaurs stuck in a wrong set of mind with an obsolete paradigm of "sucess = working over 60+ hrs/week to make partner and move up at the cost of your personal life"?

[Katie08]

sounds plausible to me, at least from past experience.

[->Soon]

you were spoiled by your parents.

spoiled rotten i might add...

 

[Le Docteur De Peste]

I was talking to an old supervisor about a topic on a NPR radio show we both heard about Generation Y (lets say 18-30 yr) in the workforce and why there is a sort of clash b/w us and the Baby-boomer generation/management/ and for some of us in the future, managing/hiring partners at firms.


He basically thought too many of us felt entitled to immediate movement up the ladder and that we had grown up in priviledged lives where everyone was a winner.  Thoughts?  Are we just a bunch of spoiled brats that don't know how to put in a hard days work anymore?

Maybe that's less of a Gen Y/Boomer disparity, and one of a more simple generational gap.

i.e. Young people want to move up the ladder faster to prove themselves, gather more responsibility/power/money, etc. Old people are like, "Young whippersnappers, thinkin' they can just come on in here and instill their own social order. God damn kids."

[GraphiteDirigible]

Blame it all on the television. Trust me.

[Zam]

I listened to that show too.

I don't think it's universal but I think the entitlement thing is pretty valid.

[Jolie Was Here]

Don't ask me, I'm Gen X

[->Soon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y

[->Soon]

I have heard before that since Gen Y and later all grew up used to competitions where every participant got at least an honorable mention ribbon and the countless "You're special!" PSA's that it's lent itself to a "softer" generation.  Not like our parents who were raised in a society where is was socially UNacceptable if you didn't beat your child when he disprected adults in public.

And of course there is also the theory that every generation feels the need to provide more for their children than their parents did for them, making each generation slightly more spoiled than the one before it. 

I'm sure we can also blame some of this on our parents and their potential for credit card debt and financing.  After all, why it's so easy to feel entitled to things like central air in our houses and awesome new sneakers and great vacations when you can just charge them up and "provide" for your family.

Wow...I remember growing up in a car without AC.  Ick.  And a house without central air.  If we were good, my sister and I got to drag sleeping bags into our parents bedroom, the one room with a window AC unit, and sleep there in the summer.  Don't even get me started on how I would have been honored to trade in my Dollar Store sneakers for some Payless ones!

i had to do that.  we had cots though...

 

[Booyakasha2]

another theme touched on in the show was how are values were very different in terms of what we saw as sucess.  Ei, we're more willing to trade that partnership track and the money and prestige that comes with it for 40/hrs a week, a comfortable living, and a family life.  And if we're not happy with the job, we'll quit!  Damn skippy!