1545 India's Work Rant

India,

Sorry you have to put up with that awful girl. I, too, wonder why employers don't just fire people like her. My guess is that it is getting harder for employers to find hard-working, responsible employees. Maybe your employer figures that if he fires Miss Thing, he will just have to hire another Miss Thing to replace her. I would much rather work with people in their 50's and 60's than with people in their 20's because most of the twenty-somethings just don't have the work ethic and common courtesy that older workers do.

Most teens and twenty-somethings were not taught to respect authority or to accept the responsibilities associated with working a full-time job. I know some parents who have to call their college-age children every day to wake them up and remind them to go to class on time! These kids are in college and they aren't responsible enough to set their alarm clocks each night! If they can't get to class on time without help from mom and dad, how on earth will they be able to hold down a job?

I think the boomerang generation is a result of this, more than a result of a poor job market. Many of the young adults who choose to live at home with parents seem to feel entitled to their parents' standard of living. They just don't want to accept that your first job will not pay enough to duplicate your parents' standard of living. They don't want to have to live the way we and most of our peers did when we got our first jobs: rent a small apartment and get a roommate to help defray the cost of rent, drive a clunker until you can save for a new (used) car, pack your lunch each day instead of eating out, etc. So they live rent-free with mom and dad. They spend their paychecks on what used to be considered luxuries or extras rather than necessities: dinner out, drinks out ($14 for a martini adds up!), mani/pedi, designer clothes, etc. The boomerang generation has entirely unrealistic expectations about what kind of lifestyle a first job can fund. When they find out that they cannot pay for the good life on their own, they go home to mom and dad. It seems that living frugally and within your means is looked down upon now. It seems that starting at the bottom and working your way up makes you a chump to these entitlement-minded people.

Sorry for the long response, India. Thanks for listening, and I hope things get better for you at work.

My boyfriend's sister is a part of this boomerang generation. She's 24 or 25 and recently got married. She works for a small television news station. She's some type of producer who basically makes sure that the on-air folks have what they need, where they need to be, etc. She lived with her mom and dad right up until the time she got married (in March). For all I know she may still be living with them. (Her and her goofus of a husband were waiting for their McMansion to be built.)

I first met her early fall last year. She started talking about how she got her job and that starting salary was $10 an hour. She worked her way up, was dedicated, blah, blah, blah. I remarked that $10 an hour wasn't very much to make a living on (she lives in Phoenix). She was haughty with, "Well, that's what you have to deal with when you are starting out." Really? Well, no shit. But of course, $10 an hour is fine because she was living at home with mom and dad, paying no rent and buying philosophy body products and other crap.

Now her two older brothers (the oldest is my BF) have always been more on their own. But they aren't that much older. My BF is only five years older than her. Her parents paid for all her college, yet my BF has college loans up the wahzoo. And my Gawd, she is an uber-wannabreeder.

Wow, you hit the nail on the head, Grace. My husband is the head of his department and has a horrible problem hiring and keeping employees. His last firing was a 23 year old who was accessing porn from his computer, and who ran up an $400 ir so in collect calls he accepted from his relative in prison. Happily he wasn't the one responsible for hiring this guy. He always has some crazy story about the younger hires.

Please don't apologize for the long response, Grace. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to MY long rant and to share your experiences with such people. This generation of young adults are awful and are full of entitlement attitudes. Yes, the Boomerang Generation do feel that their first job should be earning them 65K per year with a cushy chair in a fancy office! Never mind that some of these people have not even completed two years at community college.

My first "real" job outside of babysitting and doing chores for people in the neighborhood was working as a cashier and a sandwich maker at Burger King for $3.35 an hour. I was 17 when I got the job and d*mned grateful because I moved out of my mom's home. I lived at a friend's house and paid $50 a month for rent and bought food. When my friend's brother moved out, I no longer slept in the mom's room when she worked late (on her nights off, I was in the living room) and moved into his room. His bed had a wooden frame and a foam mattress. I was more than happy with my humble arrangements.

At Burger King, I worked hard. I went from nights to day shift to learn a different part of the business. I got promoted to production leader and then assistant manager. After a little time, I became the night manager. I was proud of my accomplishments. Nowadays, seventeen-year-olds think they are too good to "flip burgers" and will turn their noses up at most other jobs. So...it is no surprise that they come to this call center where it is a relaxed enivronment in an air-conditioned building where we sit rather than stand on our feet all day only for these overgrown brats to act out. I am grateful to have my old job back and have been working hard in class to learn the new system for this account.

Grace, you are right about work ethic and common courtesy being gone. At first, I was bummed when the other call center I worked had "fired" the account I was on. However, it was best that I returned to the one I worked for last year. This company is all over the US, Canada, Europe, the Far East, and the rest of the world. It is a very reputableand well-known company in my line of work.

Another thing is that there was NO common courtesy at the last call center. I hate to say it but the young people acted so "ghetto". It is nothing about color because white, black, and hispanic young people were all the same -- just plain rude. I cannot count the times I was practically shoved in the breakroom when a pushy young woman felt she did not have to wait to get to the sink or cooler to get her lunch. It was THAT bad! That account being gone was a blessing in disguise. The energy there was so negative and oppressive.

And...you are right how another Miss Thing will be hired if this one in my class if fired. The company I work for casts a very large net because the recruiting department knows that many of these people will not last. The turnover is still very high despite the pay rate increasing along with shift differential. Oh boy...I better get to bed. My response has also been long...

I got married at 22 and now i'm 26 so I guess I'm part of the boomerang generation. However, since I got married so young, i really woke up and realized I had to live for someone other than myself (and one is enough thanks - no kids!!!). Most people in my generation are really materialistic (as illustrated by my friend who moved in with his grandma when his parents refused to buy him an XBOX) and are very self-centered. They need a wake-up call fast. This however, produces more accidental breeders (you know, the kind that go out every other night as long as mom is there to take care of the baby). So I guess what I'm saying is don't lump us all into that asshole group. Thanks and I'd just like to say "Damn I love this site!!!!!!!)