It's a myth that baby boomers have a stronger work ethic than later generations

[Vacanegro]

Originally Posted by 43north87west

As a whole, I do believe that the baby boomers have ... gutted pretty much every industry out there for their own gains. If you can name it, they probably wrecked it. Health care, education, finance, real estate, etc.

What do you call this Millennial Cool-Aid ? Is every baby boomer a captain of industry ? Rockefeller-style industrialists ? How does getting a job, working hard for 30 years or more and then collecting a pension and SS constitute wrecking industries ?

...

Many of these things have fueled an enormous generation gap, especially in the workplace at the present time.

It is the type of things you are saying that to lead to the stereotypes of ignorant/naive but entitled millennials.

It will be interesting to see how the country changes as boomers retire and eventually pass on. There is going to be an elder care bubble, probably an assisted living bubble, a death care bubble, and who knows what else. There might be a vacant real estate bubble too, because all of those younger workers aren't making the money that their parents were making and can't afford to have multiple homes or huge property. The previously mentioned educational expense is a serious problem. My undergraduate degree now costs over $250,000. Yep, a quarter of a million. Just undergrad. Obviously there's a diminishing return here, but even at a fraction of that, a young person is starting out financially handicapped.

Yes, perhaps, so I assume you are positioning yourself to benefit in some way from these changes which BTW have taken place every 30 years for the past 150 + years.

Not saying boomers are bad people at all, but they had some big advantages that aren't extending to younger people.

Sounds exactly like what you are saying - resentful and bitter at a young age that your "elders" who had to wait to have sex, get married, work hard just to get into college heck- had to go the the library just to use a set of encyclopedias, had it SO much easier than you.

Perhaps you should befriend some of these boomers and try to learn as much from them as you can before they disappear for good, then maybe you will have a greater appreciation for your elders, although not necessarily betters.

[eddie1278]

It's not a myth that previous generations have a stronger work ethic. I'm not a boomer i'm a gen xer and i truly believe that my generation was the last to have a strong work ethic. Reason being is we had to work for just about everyhing including entertaining ourselves. Cell phones and the internet just started to become popular when i was in highschool 92-96. We didn't have instant gratification with anything. It took us 10 minutes just to load a webpage. We had to rewind tapes to listen to music and rewind tapes to watch movies and physically go pick them up and return them. You might say what does this have to do with work ethic? A lot. When you are used to having instant gratification with so many things in life you get spoiled and it goes with you into the workplace. I go into stores and i always see young people playing on phones. When i was in my teens and 20s working in stores we had to clean the counters, sweep the floor, face the merchandise when customers weren't in line. These days they just hop on the phone. And since most of their bosses are millennials it's fine with them because they do it too.

[srschirm]

Originally Posted by Vacanegro

Sounds exactly like what you are saying - resentful and bitter at a young age that your "elders" who had to wait to have sex

Say what?

[tamajane]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

Finally, it took his dad literally cutting off the money (not sure what his mom is doing - she's probably run out of money by now), for his son to realize dadgummit, he had to get a job. And guess what - due at least in part to his incredibly skimpy resume which does nothing but showcase what a special snowflake he has been for the past eight years, he had to get a job at a restaurant.

He is FURIOUS. But the truth is, he needed to be working in that restaurant five years ago. If he'd started there five years ago, he'd be further along a career path by now. He set himself back voluntarily. He HONESTLY expected to start a full time, professional job making at least $50k a year right out of college (with a Business degree) with a resume that clearly shows he hasn't been working this entire time.

We tried to tell him. He wouldn't listen.

Why did you give him money when he wasn't working?
Even if mom subsidized him doesn't mean you and your husband had to, so you would not be contributing and enabling him to not gain work experience.


I will never understand the psychology of this, many boomers do it then complain blaming the kid they spoiled for being naïve.

[beachrr]

Pfft. Nonsens. I have all age groups running around in my company and you have slackers in every generation, just as you have hard workers in every generation.
There is one truth, though: older workers come on time, younger workers, not so much. I know why. Old farts have it easier to come in on time. Their lives are settled, there habits chiseled in stone and their kids out of the house. I don't mind lateness too much if the latecomers stay later and if the operations aren't impacted. I usually schedule the young parents into timeslots that fit their schedule better.

Good people management takes the life stage of a worker in account. I'm not going to aks parents tocome in at 8:30, because that's when they should drop off their kids in school. They can choose, come in at 6:30 and leave at 3pm to pick up the kids, or start at 10 to leave at 6:30 pm.
We also run a daycare in house. Parents who bring their baby/toddler are required to help the nurses on feeding times. Works like a charm and the personnel cost is greatly reduced by having the parents help out during meal times. Some of the old farts even come down to help out during their breaks, because they like the kids so much.

Companies lack pragmatism. If you make it easy for people to work, they'll work better and harder. Someone who doesn't need to stress over family life can concentrate better, is less often sick and is less prone to jobhopping, even if the pay could be better elsewhere.
And the best part is that I can back all these claims up with cold hard figures. Sick leave is only half of the average and my bottom line is healthy.

Treat people like human beings instead of a commodity, you'll be surprised what results you get...