Study: College Grads Unprepared For Workplace

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

Comments

  • 12 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • It really is a generational thing -- and there are +'s and -'s. The current entrants into the workplace do have some very unrealistic expectations (we Baby Boomer parents helped that along when we taught them that they deserved EVERYTHING). That being said, they can be some of the brightest and techno savvy workers around.

    Yes, when their time comes, they will find something to pick on the 2030+ generation also.
  • I was watching something on the history channel this weekend about the Greatest Generation. It touched briefly on how the Boomers were affected by their parent's desire to return to normalcy after the war. It reminded me that before Boomers were running companies and stuff, a lot of them were hippies.

    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?)
  • Celeste, the 80's were the latchkey kids. Can't recall a negative label for them when they entered the workplace. They were really sheltered because that was when parents got disillusioned with babysitters(molesters, etc.) and every stranger was going to snatch the child from parks and shopping centers. So there was a lot of over protectiveness on the one hand, and children being left to look after themselves in a locked home on the other. It really translates to some dysfunctions and lack of interpersonal skills (IMHO) in Generation X'ers.
  • Ha! That's me. I was totally a latchkey kid in the 80s (and I resemble that "some dysfunctions and lack of interpersonal skills (IMHO) in Generation X'ers" remark ;)).

    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?
  • Long hair. It was all about the hair and the short skirts.

    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=Celeste Blackburn;719967]Ha! That's me. I was totally a latchkey kid in the 80s (and I resemble that "some dysfunctions and lack of interpersonal skills (IMHO) in Generation X'ers" remark ;)).
    [/quote]

    Yeah, but you kids can really work that microwave!
  • [quote=ACU Frank;719969]Yeah, but you kids can really work that microwave![/quote]


    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.
  • Some say that Generation X is the VCR generation (stop, go, rewind, forward)

    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
  • I heard Dutch is more like a player piano. I think it was Paul who told me that.
  • I actually think these things are cyclical and that the Millenials will prove to be a fairly traditional generation that values structure and responds well to authority.
  • I did "once upon a time" pick the piano and electic bass a bit - but I was in a few gospel quartets not rock-n-roll bands; so I missed everi being called a hippee.
  • I was a hippy, much to my (army helicopter pilot) brother's chagrin. Being a hippy was great fun! No more hose and skirts/dresses, or high heels. Bluejeans and sandals were the order of the day.

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