Those disinclined to cast stones argue that the issues surrounding the Slackoisie in the workplace, or the courtroom, fall back on the old truism that every generation thinks the ones after it aren’t as good as they are. But as Dan Hull and Stephanie West Allen discuss, the Slackoisie are different, and there’s a reason for it.
[T]ake a look at Stephanie West Allen’s post at her Idealawg entitled. “Are Gen Y kids harder to teach? Are Gen Y employees harder to manage?“. She highlights one part of the puzzle being discussed by John Dunford, a prominent British educator, who has suggested that English children currently in secondary school are “harder to teach” because they are so oriented to the Internet and television that success in school “cannot come fast enough”. In short, they require instant gratification.
The internet has changed everything, and no prior generation has been subject to anything like it. From Dunford’s work:
Children are increasingly reluctant to put real effort into their studies because they expect success to be instant.
The attitude has apparently spread to A-level classes, where few teenagers read books other than those produced for the syllabus which tell them exactly what they need to know–and nothing more.
Research shows that young people spend an average of 1.7 hours per day online, 1.5 hours on games consoles and 2.7 hours watching TV, Dr Dunford added.
‘They live in a celebrity-dominated society where success appears to come instantly and without any real effort,’ he said. ‘It is difficult for teachers to compete. Success in learning just doesn’t come fast enough.’
But don’t we keep hearing that the Millennials simply care less about money, more about people? They’re just not like those nasty, mercenary boomers, who will work themselves to death over the almighty dollar. Not according to San Diego State University Psychology Professor Jean M. Twenge, whose study finds otherwise. Twenge found that what Gen Y wants is easily summed up as more money for less work. Put another way, lazy and greedy.
Striking differences emerged for valuing leisure. GenY was much more likely than previous generations to say they wanted a job with an easy pace and lots of vacation time, and less likely to want to work overtime. They also saw work as less central to their lives and were more likely to agree that “work is just making a living.” At the same time, they placed more importance on salary and status. In other words, the younger generation wants to have their cake (big salaries) and eat it too (work-life balance).What’s that sound? It’s teacups breaking.
Press accounts often mention that GenY wants to help others and have a positive impact on society, but the study found no differences in preferences for jobs that helped others or were worthwhile to society — GenX’ers and Boomers embraced such values just as much when they were young. GenY supposedly want interesting and fulfilling jobs where they can make friends, but analyses showed that GenY actually values these things less than previous generations.
So what exactly does the Slackoisie hope to accomplish when they take the reins? Will the cash keep flowing as they sit there during their three hours of really hard work, two to three times a week, whining about how it’s not their fault?
Unless your admiration for Neville Chamberlain knows no bounds, maybe you should rethink the afternoon ice cream parties as your primary HR recruitment and retention policy? Enough of trying desperately to find ways to rationalize or enable the Slackoisie. There is no substitute for hard work, and being a lawyer, even a half decent lawyer (if that’s all you aspire to be), is hard work.
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It’s not only the GenYers. Back on Feb.10, David Bernstein opined in the comments on the Volokh Conspiracy that $25 per hour is acceptable wage for snow shoveling. The disconnect is stunning. Consider this: A US Census temp job which according to the test requires more than just a HS diploma pays less than $13. My wife, highly skilled and motivated, dreams of making $25. The jobs are just not out there. I thought I was lucky when my last job paid $20 for work requiring attention to detail and lots of skill which takes at least 5-10 years to acquire. No benefits. There appears to be a widening gap between what’s needed to make ends meet and what’s really being paid for good work and an especially wide gap between the perceptions of those in well-paid, secure jobs and the reality for the masses. Witness how casually pols and lobbies expect the masses to be able to pay for their various agenda items. No wonder the kids expect lots of money. They’ll get a rude reality check some day. It’s too easy to say they just don’t want to work. They have been misled to a degree.
Neville Chamberlain’s speech-Peace in our Time-is available on Youtube.
My wife is a college English professor, and I hear her horror stories about the expectations this current generation of students has regarding their grades. “But I turned the paper in on time” is often given as a rationale for why they think they deserve an “A” level grade! Lord, I hope they don’t ever graduate from an accredited med school. I don’t need these kids operating on any of my favorite body parts.
Dan Hill is a stand-up guy, too, I hear.
A non-wanker would have just said, “you spelled my name wrong, diprod.”
Would make too much sense. It’s Friday, bubbala.
I actually AM inclined to cast stones and I still think “the issues surrounding the Slackoisie in the workplace, or the courtroom, fall back on the old truism that every generation thinks the ones after it aren’t as good as they are.”
Why? Because the same critiques were made of the baby boomers, whose virtues you extol, in the ’60s and ’70s when employers feared a generation of rebellious, long-haired young’uns would never fit into the modern workforce. Those folks were wrong about your generation, and I suspect for the Gen Y’ers it will also turn out to be a misguided stereotype.
The evolving attitudes you describe IMO are more a function of changes in the relationship of the worker to the employer and the means of production. The economy has changed and it would be absurd (not to mention foolish) for them to have the same expectations about work as someone who came of age 30-40 years ago.
Around the Mediverse: July 17, 2010
Fun tidbits, health-related and otherwise, from around the ‘tubes: How do the media deal with new research? How should the media, or anyone else for that matter, interpret new research? Unfortunately, the New York times only devotes a couple of parag…