Community Chat

[sandy53]

OP:  I think the idea of workplace treatment being illegal stems from the all the years that young people have been taught "equality."  If taught that everyone is equal, then children think they are equal to parents/adults, students think they are equal to teachers, and employees think they are equal to employers.  Legal equality is not the same as having equal roles, but it has all gotten blurry in our culture.  Perhaps your mentors could have that discussion with your mentees. 

[Caligurll]

When I was working, what surprised me was the different attitudes about using sick and vacation leave.  My employer had a very generous leave accrual program, and the longer you worked there the more vacation time you earned.   Yoy carry over a part of your vacation leave from year to year. Sick leave was static, same amount earned for everyone no matter how long you worked there, and you could carry it over year to year, you never lost any of your sick leave except when you used it.

For the most part, people of my generation tended to be very careful about how they used their sick leave, but the younger generations (not all, but a surprising percentage, at least to me) tended to use it as soon as they earned it, carried zero or close to zero, leave balances, then wold be upset when they got sick or wanted to take a real vacation but had no leave!

I always thought of my sick leave as another "insurance policy," I knew if I were ever off sick for several months that my full paycheck would always be there. 

[Jacie]

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@deepwaterdotter wrote:

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@Jacie wrote:

Congratulations if you have a young person who has a work ethic, works hard and does not feel entitled. You may very well be in the minority.

In my HR experience, I have seen those great kids who are grounded, willing to learn and start at the bottom.

More often though, I have seen the young people who think they should be the President or CEO right from the start, are not willing to "pay their dues" and think the world owes them a living plus paid vacation.

They get angry when they are told they cannot be on their phones and/or the Internet while working their assigned jobs, when they cannot go to lunch exactly when they want to because we have to break many people and are on a schedule. They become out of joint when told to dress to dress code, no they cannot leave early or they have to park in the employee parking lot. Every basic company code is challenged.

They are not a ton of fun to work with. I often wonder how long they have been whining. Infancy?

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Why would companies even consider hiring an applicant with these requests?

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This company employs 350,000 in the US. I hired from entry level to VP and everything in between. The entry level positions were and are often filled by High School and College students seeking a flexible schedule. We have 2 interviews,  do drug testing and background checks. We became quite good at spotting issues, but there is still a lot you don't find out about an employee, until they are on board. Thank goodness for a 90 day probation period.

[IamMrsG]

@MaggieMack  Your comment reminded me of a young woman who was hired to be my assistant. She interviewed with two people and gave all the right answers. The decision to hire her was their mutual decision.

It turned out she had a poor work ethic, had exaggerated her qualifications and seemed to expect looking cute to cover shortcomings.  Her day began before mine, and, after several instances of finding her with her upper torso sprawled across the desk, propped up on one elbow and talking on the telephone with her boyfriend when I came it, I spoke with her about it.

Inside three months she stopped coming to work without explanation or notice.  After three of us made several attempts to contact her, we eventually got her to come in for an exit interview by holding her last paycheck (that she wanted mailed to her) until it was accomplished.  In the interview, she wept and said expectations of her were unfair.

[Moonchilde]

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@MaggieMack wrote:

@deepwaterdotter, often they nterview very well, and the attitudes don't come out until the work begins. Been there (hired some).

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That's true no matter the age.  My last job before I recently retired, interviewees spoke to our supervisor, and to each of us, i.e. the 3-4 people who would be his or her co-workers. Time after time, people were simply on their best dress/behavior and flat out lied. You would not, in some cases, have had any idea until they started working and revealed their true nature/worth. Waste of everyone's time and money. And these were people in their 30s-50s.