Study: College Grads Unprepared For Workplace
Celeste Blackburn SPHR
248 Posts
Heard this story on NPR today. Basically, researchers at York College have come up with the groundbreaking conclusion that today's graduates lack the professionalism they need to enter the workforce. (link: [url]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127230009[/url])
My favorite quote from the piece is:
[INDENT]"But Polk says researchers did find one area where recent graduates stand out:
'There's a sense of entitlement that we've picked up on. Where people think they're entitled to become, let's say president of the company, within the next two years. They're entitled to five weeks of vacation.'"
[/INDENT]
Seems like I've been hearing this same complaint ever since my friends and I started entering the workforce about 15 years ago.
My question is this: Is this really a new generational thing or is it really pretty much how every older generation has viewed the newer generation coming into the workforce?
For those of you who have been in the workforce longer than me (those who started in the 70s or 80s?), did you feel like this is how you were viewed coming in? In 20 years are Gen X and Y'ers going to be looking at the graduating class of 2030 and saying "These kids today just don't have what it takes. They are such slackers."
Is it just a case of "Tenth verse, same as the first" or is each generation really less prepared for the world of work?
OK, time for me to get off the message board and back to the grind . . .
Celeste
My favorite quote from the piece is:
[INDENT]"But Polk says researchers did find one area where recent graduates stand out:
'There's a sense of entitlement that we've picked up on. Where people think they're entitled to become, let's say president of the company, within the next two years. They're entitled to five weeks of vacation.'"
[/INDENT]
Seems like I've been hearing this same complaint ever since my friends and I started entering the workforce about 15 years ago.
My question is this: Is this really a new generational thing or is it really pretty much how every older generation has viewed the newer generation coming into the workforce?
For those of you who have been in the workforce longer than me (those who started in the 70s or 80s?), did you feel like this is how you were viewed coming in? In 20 years are Gen X and Y'ers going to be looking at the graduating class of 2030 and saying "These kids today just don't have what it takes. They are such slackers."
Is it just a case of "Tenth verse, same as the first" or is each generation really less prepared for the world of work?
OK, time for me to get off the message board and back to the grind . . .
Celeste 
Comments
Yes, when their time comes, they will find something to pick on the 2030+ generation also.
I've been hearing "slacker" about my generation and the next for a long time. Were any of you ever called "hippy" or treated like you were part of the hippy generation when you started work? (and somebody help me out . . ."hippies" were late 60s and 70s and "slackers" seems to apply to 90s and 2000s, so what was the not-so-nice term for kids/young adults in the 80s?)
I was wondering more what the term would be for people who grew up in the 70s and were entering the workforce in the 80s. Was that the "me" generation? What did they do that really bristled the hair on the necks of the ruling rank in the office?
I don't remember many being called hippies to their faces, but lots of times I heard the term "long-hair" spoken with disgust. It implied laziness and disrespect for authority. Makes you wonder why the Cowsills had a hit with Hair doesn't it?
HAIR
She asks me why...I'm just a hairy guy
I'm hairy noon and night; Hair that's a fright.
I'm hairy high and low,
Don't ask me why; don't know!
It's not for lack of bread
Like the Grateful Dead; darling
Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there, hair!
Shoulder length, longer (hair!)
Here baby, there mama, Everywhere daddy daddy
CHORUS:
Hair! (hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair)
Flow it, Show it;
Long as God can grow it, My Hair!
Let it fly in the breeze and get caught in the trees
Give a home to the fleas in my hair
A home for fleas, a hive for (the buzzin) bees
A nest for birds, there ain't no words
For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of my
CHORUS
I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy
Snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty
Oily, greasy, fleecy, shining
Gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen
Knotted, polka-dotted; Twisted, beaded, braided
Powdered, flowered, and confettied
Bangled, tangled, spangled and spaghettied!
O-oh, Say can you see; my eyes if you can,
Then my hair's too short!
Down to here, down to there,
Down to where, down to there;
It stops by itself!
doo doo doo doo doot-doot doo doo doot
They'll be ga-ga at the go-go
when they see me in my toga
My toga made of blond, brilliantined, Biblical hair
My hair like Jesus wore it
Hallelujah I adore it
Hallelujah Mary loved her son
Why don't my Mother love me?
[/quote]
Yeah, but you kids can really work that microwave!
And the VCR! For years every time I came home to visit, my mom would have me write out directions for working/programing the VCR. She never lost the old set, just always managed to find a way to accidentally hit a button and end up completely confused -- and this is a woman who can cook for a group of 10 without breaking a sweat and manages the commodities for the state's school lunch program, but the VCR continues to be her mortal enemy.
and Millennials are the DVD generation (go instantly anywhere and all over the place at a touch of the button).
We Boomers on the other hand - steady and slow -- just like a cassette player or 8-track. Just try and get us to open our horizons.
The Traditionalists - more like a record player -- you gotta listen to the whole story/song and wait to get to the one you wanna hear.
Hey -- I made some of this up but you know this topic gets me going. LOL