I think it's no secret here that I have an especial scorn for Generation Y. I also think there are a number of people here who feel the same. Maybe you could say I'm a Gen Xer who feels his generation was passed by a bit by the media in favor of the new shiny Gen Ys who were supposed to supplant the Boomers as the Next Big Thing. There might be some truth to that. But moreso, it's because now that they've grown older, Millenials have shown that not only do they fantastically not deserve the laudations that thrown their way by eager reporters and pundits a few years ago, but they are in fact one of the most childish, regressive, and self centered generations we've ever seen.
Let's look at how Gen Y was (and sometimes still is) described in the media:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/boblutz/2012/07/06/why-generation-y-isnt-catching-car-fever/They no longer see the driver’s license as liberating them from the suffocating embrace of their parents. The car, to them, is a passe form of prestige, of assuming, through the BMW or Mercedes label, a dignity beyond what the owner knows she’s worth.
Generation Y eschews all this. To them, that electrifying moment we all experienced when Dad first gave us the car keys and told us to be back at 11 p.m. (no beer stains or other spots in the car, for God’s sake) has been beneficially replaced by the glowing moment when their eager little fingers lovingly, incredulously caressed their first smart phone.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2005-11-06-gen-y_x.htmGeneration Y: They've arrived at work with a new attitude
hey're young, smart, brash. They may wear flip-flops to the office or listen to iPods at their desk. They want to work, but they don't want work to be their life.
Get ready, because this generation — whose members have not yet hit 30 — is different from any that have come before, according to researchers and authors such as Bruce Tulgan, a founder of New Haven, Conn.-based RainmakerThinking, which studies the lives of young people.
Unlike the generations that have gone before them, Gen Y has been pampered, nurtured and programmed with a slew of activities since they were toddlers, meaning they are both high-performance and high-maintenance, Tulgan says. They also believe in their own worth.
"Generation Y is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in much of today's workforce," says Jordan Kaplan, an associate managerial science professor at Long Island University-Brooklyn in New York. "They've grown up questioning their parents, and now they're questioning their employers. They don't know how to shut up, which is great, but that's aggravating to the 50-year-old manager who says, 'Do it and do it now.' "
That speak-your-mind philosophy makes sense to Katie Patterson, an assistant account executive at Edelman Public Relations in Atlanta. The 23-year-old, who hails from Iowa and now lives with two roommates in a town home, likes to collaborate with others, and says many of her friends want to run their own businesses so they can be independent.
"We are willing and not afraid to challenge the status quo," she says. "An environment where creativity and independent thinking are looked upon as a positive is appealing to people my age. We're very independent and tech savvy."
Angie Ping, 23, of Alvin, Texas, lives in flip-flops but isn't allowed to wear them to the office. "Some companies' policies relating to appropriate office attire seem completely outdated to me," says Ping, at International Facility Management Association. "The new trend for work attire this season is menswear-inspired capri pants, which look as dressy as pants when paired with heels, but capri pants are not allowed at my organization."
At first, when these twee assholes began flooding the workplace 8-10 years ago, everyone talked about how they were the "game changers," that businesses would have to adapt to them. 50 year old Boomer managers would have to change workplace policies to be more relaxed, allow a loose dress code, people to come and go as they please, be allowed to check Facebook all day, etc.
Now that the economy tanked, people are realizing that there are a ton of Gen Xers and Boomers left who need work who will work long hours, not demand a lot of stupid perks and coddling, and now Gen Y is whining about how they can't find jobs.
This was inevitable, because this generation was coddled by it's late Boomer/Early Gen X parents as no other. They were not to know privation or hardship. Schools and parents ensured everyone was a unique snowflake who always won a trophy. They were bubblewrapped and kept inside to play video games and only allowed out for carefully monitored extracurricular activities designed to get them into the best schools. They were put on pedestals and never criticized and told they were going to Change The World.
Now things are a bit harsher, a bit more real, but these idiots are still careening by on the idea that everything should be handed to them and everything should adapt to them. They interview for first jobs and demand all sorts of conditions and don't respond for weeks if you do offer it to them, because they are trying to find something better because they've been conditioned to believe they are a commodity. I've had 10 interns in the past year and when I ask them what their short term goals are, 8 of them say "owning their own business" in the next couple of years.
So this thread is for posting examples of Gen Y stupidity. They can be from SA, or Reddit, sanctimonious Gen Y blogs or fawning pundits from mainstream media.
Here's my first example: Blue Pony (surprise surprise, complete with Ponytar) from SA posted a thread in Ask/Tell about how she could live illegally in England:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3470892I'm an American gal in her mid twenties who HAS always wanted to live abroad in England for awhile. I've always gotten along swimmingly with Brits that I've met over the years whom have told me that I neither act or sound like an American(I hear that from other Americans as well) and I have always dreamed of spending a few years over there.
Unfortunately, as many would be expats have learned, I just can't show up and get a job. You can't get a working visa unless someone over there wants pay the money for the visa to hire you AND the only way to be hired is if you have job skills that they can't find in any native workers.
Seeing as I went to Art School(Easily the worst decision a pre-recession highschool student could make) and do not have any talents that would warrant such a thing, I'm pretty much screwed.
So now I'm basically looking at my only other option: Sneaking in.
I have friends and have met people who have traveled/studied abroad and exceeded their travel/student visas and lived illegally and worked paid under the table type jobs. They've made it seem pretty easy and I've been heavily considering this for some time.
I don't mind working a crap job, I'm currently working one here in the US. I'd rather be waiting tables or bar tending in a new country where I could meet new people and experience new things than continue doing so in the same boring town in the same boring state, day in and day out.
I'm not scared of being caught and deported, I want to be able to travel and have adventure while I'm young. I'm already stone poor and up to my teeth in student debt, I'll probably never have a career at this point, so I might as well live now and without regrets!
--I wanted to highlight only part of these two sentences but found I had to keep extending the bolding. It almost perfectly sums up the Gen Y attitiude
Skeptical? Well she does have a pretty solid 10 year plan guys:
Well my ten year plan is to save up enough money to move to New York(Another life long dream of mine) work, enjoy life, and unless I met someone or an amazing job prospect came up, eventually beebop on over to England and maybe spend three or four years there.
After that, maybe come back to the USA, maybe go to Australia, they have much more lax immigrant laws there.
You can literally have whatever you want if you just want it to be so.
Now you might wonder how it is that she figures she can get so much money working as an illegal immigrant. Well you see, she has first (second) hand experience of how one illegal immigrant was successful, and since this business owner who has been working for 20 years longer than her has nicer things than her, illegal immigration must be the path to success! All situations are exactly the same!
Well so far thats the most positive thing I've heard so far in this thread, but considering my current boss is an illegal Mexican immigrant who is about the nicest, funniest guy you will ever meet, and has lived undetected for 20 years in my country and raised two adorable kids without any persecution or threat of deportation, no offense, but that really isn't a meaningful statement.
Here in America, illegal immigrants are a part of life, and are pretty welcome, despite what the popular media might say.
I mean Christ, the man owns two Ipads and each of his kids own the newest iphone! I own a mac I got for free in 2005 and could never replace if my life depended on it currently and a cheap as humanly possible go phone. If I ever got hurt, I would die in the street because I can't afford health insurance, he can. I haven't seen a docter or dentist in 15 years, welcome to America, best country on Earth!
Two Ipads!? Insanity! He must be RICH!!
I have never known privilege, I thought was told, like many other young americans, that taking out huge loans to pay for college was the right thing to do, and that I would immediately get a job after school and pay it off for the rest of my life.
The the economy imploded on itself and that all became a lie. I'm all on my own now and have to make my own way, without help from my family or my government. I want to see the world even though I'm so poor that $300 a month for rent is obscene to me. I've seen too many 50 year old women at my shitty fast food jobs who wasted their lives believing that things would get better if they just stayed put.
I was told I was a special and unique snowflake who could go to college for anything and would be handed success, but then the Real World happened and because I don't have what I want Right Now I might as well stop trying for a career and just live a life of Fun and Adventure!
If I've said it once, I've said it a million times, thank God for these idiots though, because that just means there's that much less competition in the workplace for me.
Post your favorite Gen Y people or quotes ITT.
