Young knobs who think you’re a beaut

WIO

Not sure if there’s been a similar post in the X number of years since a I’ve been away. I’m sure someone will let me know if there has been, and quite right too. People need putting in their place.

Similar to many on here, I’m in the autumn of my career and have been schooled in a particular way. Own a problem until it’s fixed, respect everybody (cheesy, but true), take responsibility for your own actions; be accountable etc. etc.)

I’m currently in a position where I’ve got these young whippersnappers mithering their boss with a 12 point ‘demand’ list, which has now been ‘escalated’ to me. I’ve read it today, and fuck me. I don’t appear to be in the same dimension. Don’t get me wrong, I was a bit of a lazy cunt when I was younger, doing as little as possible, but at the same time I didn’t expect to be rewarded for my inaction.

When you dig into each of the 12 points ostensibly all of them are about ‘how can I do as little as possible, whilst achieving maximum benefit for me?’ There may be some smart Alec’s on here who’ll say, ‘yeah, so what? However, I personally beg to differ.

Meeting scheduled for next week. All phones off and on the table (we’ve got an employee council.FFS. Grasses). Let’s have straightener. They might teach me something; I hope so, but I’m sure I am right. I don’t have any kids, so I have no references, but is this normal (generally)? Is there an air of entitlement amongst some of the younger generation? Was I the same
When I was their age? Probably, but not to today’s extent.

Anyway, let’s see what happens in the meeting next week. F, R and T probably think I’m a beaut and they’ll run rings around me Perhaps I am, perhaps they will. I personally don’t think so. Fucking knobs.

Jon

WIO

How can I do as little as possible, whilst achieving maximum benefit for me?
In the absence of more detail this seems an eminently reasonable stance for anyone who works for a big company to take. We’re not talking health care or anything important like that are we?

WIO

Jon

should have given more context. It’s a relatively small company with 120 or so people. The remaining founders did a gallant thing a few years ago and sold the company to an employee trust that was set up and they were eventually, recently paid off. As the company is now employee owned every employee is a share holder; it's their company, and they are entitled to an annual profit related bonus. Last year for various reasons we made a loss. No profit = no bonus.

The backlash regarding this from the staff, via the employee council was massive, with the blame being firmly laid at the feet of the management. Whilst there’s an acceptance that the management team’s practices could improve, there was absolutely no recognition of what the employees could, and need to contribute to achieve the company's profitability. It has been death by a thousand cuts. Every little fuck up has indeed fucked us up.

The list of 'suggestions for improvement' from the three amigos still didn't grasp this and that's what astounded me. There's no conceptual link between poor behaviours, crap profitabilty and therefore no bonus. The suggested improvements are all about them stretching the current rules, putting more financial pressure on the company, while trying to make their jobs more cushy. Be careful lads, as Primal Scream once said in Higher than the sun ' I believe you get what you give'. Meeting postponed until next week, noses will definitely be put out.

Harvest

Going slightly off tangent, 18 year old girl at work when I mentioned a CD I that I had.

'CD? Get with it, we're in the 26th century now you know?'

'Eh? How d'you work that out?'

'Think about it, what year are we in?'

'Ah ok, so last year was what century then?..in fact don't tell me. Was it...was it..the 25th by any chance?'

'Yeh. And?'

Sigh.

CharlieG

Kids these days they think they've been hard done by
But they've never even looked at an iron lung like I did once
They've got the whole thing wrong, just bumbling along
On the bottom rung sucking each other off and huffing designer bongs
It's a constant hit, it's not worth what they paying for it
In my day, the gear on the street was so weak
It could eat your ambition in a matter of weeks
Just tryna envision the peak, and that's bleak
And that's bleak

Mitaman

I work for one of the ‘Big 4’ consulting firms. We have a team of data gatherers who are aged 23-29 I guess, graduate trainees. Ostensibly educated with good degrees etc.

The quality of their work, 18 months into the project is f@cking shocking. What they are doing is not so difficult. In a fit of temper I recommended that we go into Tesco, take 9 of their staff and get rid of ours. I swear to god, they couldn’t do a worse job. The lack of interest/ care/ attention to detail is simply staggering.

At 23/24 I would have bitten my own arm off to get into a firm like this. It leaves worried about the future of this country.

Jon

Mitaman Sounds to me like you need to get one of the big consultancy firms in to assess what’s gone wrong and make recommendations.

Travis_Bickle

Quite an issue in the law at the moment.
We have some entrants who tick every box of the 'entitled' checklist. And we also have kids coming in who would have struggled to even be considered for entry into the profession when I started given their background but who display everything someone in that profession should.
There is unquestionably a sense of entitlement in a lot of young people. And, in a sense, a detachment from some of the realities of life. Technology, particularly how we communicate, has played a massive part, but when it comes down to it, these kids weren't grown in a laboratory.
We raised them.
I have my own, not necessarily popular views, about the contribution children being in some form of childcare for almost all of their waking hours can have to that detachment. And our obsession with consumption plays a part too.
Add in the guilt that comes from absence from children's lives and the reluctance to discipline and criticise that's born of that, the sense that children need to be told how brilliant at certain things they are (when they're often not) and you can see why many of them have the view of themselves and of the world around them that they do.
The irony is, WIO's initial post, one I recognise and have some sympathy with, is probably not much different to some of the things our parents would have said about us.
Like most things in life, it's about getting the balance right. I don’t for a moment suggest I have with mine. In the same way we can rightly critique the younger generations, we need to ask what we contributed to them being that way.

CBIT

Get the 12 questions posted @WIO so we can give a proper critique

Kevin_Stapleton

In terms of attitude and getting shit done, our graduate analysts shame many that are twice their age. It's the 40-somethings who are happy to coast, expecting others to make their job easier who boil my piss. I'd have 90% graduates if I could.

I was thinking yesterday, if I met the 27 year old me today at work, I'd give him a slap.

Under-the-ground

I disagree with this I see my kids & their friends and all of them have worked hard and the biggest thing they get right is they look after each other, rather than rip the piss into each other.
Good luck to them

Jon

WIO Changes my opinion greatly. That said, I think it’s fair to question the hiring practices that have let three people who can’t connect the dots slip through.

What do I know, I’m in property maintenance?

WIO

Quite right to question that. Previous hiring policy was - First class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bath University- Check. Worringly, there are a lot more than three. Anyway, we'll fix it. 😁

Jon

WIO Do you have an internship program for university students while they are studying?

WIO

Jon

Yes, in the past we had a few placement students every year. At the time, I wasn't involved in the selection process. In the past year, the selection criteria for internships/placements has changed. INow that I'm more involved, I've been able to cast the net wider and I'm focussing on other backgrounds and routes to progression (apprenticeships, hands on experience etc.). Not wanting to sound trite, but more females as well. It's typically a white, middle class, male dominated area.

Jon

WIO What’s special about Bath? Why not , say, Coventry?

Jon

WIO Not wanting to sound trite, but more females as well.

It doesn't sound trite, anything but. There's a lot of seriously intelligent, capable and driven women out there.

WIO

Before my time. There was a tie in with Bath, via the founders and in their eyes it worked well. Because Coventry was a former polytechnic, it didn't make the mark, unfortunately.