Are the 20-somethings soft, or do Boomers need therapy?
Peggy Claus's The New York Times article, Thank You for Sharing. But Why at the Office? both exposed me and confused me. I am guilty of some of the dialogue mentioned in the article but completely stunned by others.
I desperately want to know the 20-something-year-olds who were behind this, "A human resources manager for a manufacturing company told me that several young workers had asked her how many times they could be absent before she fired them." Reading this statement initially made me feel stupid for being in the same demographic as the people who talked to their boss like that. The way the question was asked made it that much more problematic. They may as well have said, "So what's the least amount of time I can be here? How much can I get away with?"
I have a hard time believing that a person in their 20's referred to calling out of work, or otherwise not showing up to work, as being "absent." Then I thought to myself, there's no way this can be real. Is all this information correct- are we sure these aren't teenagers at their first jobs? I know how older generations like to lump the younger generations together- I remain skeptical.
At the start of the article, Claus reported on young people lacking a level of professionalism, as seen in how they speak to their managers. Then, she added cloudy examples of us being overly emotional and that we love to tell everybody everything.
Claus wrote, "The workplace has become our second home, the place where we spend a majority of our waking hours, so we want to make it as comfortable as possible, which often leads to a lot of sharing." I want to know what you all think of this- Why is this a bad thing? Why shouldn't your place of work be your second home?
The younger generations make great friends with their coworkers, and sometimes managers (Claus seems to draw the line there), and work becomes a community; there's a socialness to it. If my coworker is having a bad day, I know it immediately. Why can't we talk about it while we work? Does the younger generations sociability and capacity for empathy offend Baby Boomers?
I like to think that Millennials and Gen Z are a lot kinder to each other than Baby Boomers were (and still are). Regardless of political standing, Boomers are known for being in bad moods all the time. Rejecting emotions, and how they affect the mind and body seems to be a Boomer mindset, and for that I'm glad. I'm not saying all us younger folk are experts at handling our emotions by any means, but we are way more likely to talk about our feelings than that generation. How is this a negative? We, the younger, oversensitive, dramatic, and dumb ones, understand how to listen to each other and how to be vulnerable about how we feel in order to feel better.
All in all, Boomers grew up in an era of affluence, success, and The Beatles, and are still unhappy. If anyone needs to have a therapy session in the workplace, it's them.
Something that I find myself always being confused and frustrated with is the generational divide, specifically between when the millennial generation ended and when the gen z generation began. I see so many people online, and in real life conversations, basing so much of their personalities from what generation they were born in when there doesn't even seem to be a clear distinction. To me I just don't see the appeal I guess. Is that because the millennial and gen z generations have a bad rap about them being lazy and mooching off of the older generations (i.e. living with their parents until they are well into their 20's [even if it's because the cost in housing is so much more than we can afford working 2, 3 or even 4 jobs]) in media? Maybe.
ReplyDeleteHowever, your post this week was interesting to me. Often times I do see the older generation(s) complaining about millennial and gen z being "snowflakes" and that everyone needs to get participation trophies--I've even had my mom, who I love more than anything in this world, say this to me. And it is hard being grouped in this category of people, most of who I have never met before, and being generalized as such. But, are we, the younger generations, really the ones who wanted the participation trophies? Or was it our parents, the older generations, who were upset when we didn't get an award because they thought we did, solely for being their child?
While I do agree that Peggy Claus' article came off as somewhat poorly researched and very condescending towards the younger generation, we have to realize that most of its faults aren't unprecedented. Making claims about an entire generation based on a research that collects date only on how the MAJORITY of a generation behaves based on the shared experiences of their time, in itself is already a logical fallacy. Furthermore, Claus also made the classic mistake of presenting information in a subjective manner using unreliable sources such as her own personal experience to create a point.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't condone the negative viewpoint of millennials expressed in Claus' article, I do see where it comes from, and admit that the fallacies she fell for are more common than people think. After all, you yourself are also judging an entire generation of people based on one internet post, claiming that they are unhappy and need therapy.
Rather than feeding from the tension between Baby Boomers and Millennials , we need to first understand the implications behind this generational classification. Both the terms “Baby Boomers” and “Millennials” both came from researches in the Pew Research Center which studied generational differences in the workforce. Therefore, we can assume that said researches are meant to provide managerial positions with information that can help them shape the most accommodating work environment for both sides. This is especially true nowadays when the development of technology and many sociopolitical factors have created such a large cultural gap between the age groups.
Bottom line is, I think it’s time we left our differences aside and simply sneer at ignorant viewpoints about our age group, lest our reaction might lead us towards making the same mistake. If you are unhappy with unjustified criticism from another generation, outperform them in a professional setting. We can have the last laugh then, provided Baby Boomers are still alive.
I like to think that our generations are completely the opposite, but we didn't necessarily choose to be.. Boomers that I work with and chat with almost daily when I am home for the summer to work are SO against the way that our generation works. I cannot seem to understand why? We are all human. It bothers me how they like to call our generation lazy. I have seen some people my age work way harder than someone from the Boomer generation.
ReplyDeletePart of me thinks our generation is so "lazy" is because we have been growing up with the internet and social media for most parts of our lives. Boomers didn't have that when they were growing up. Our generation doesn't have the luxury to move out before age 20 and buy their own house. We have crippling student loan debt, expensive car payments, and everything else that has inflated since the Boomers were my generation's age.
Reading that statement about how people from the Millenial and Gen Z generations asking to call out of work makes me really angry. I think its very unprofessional to beat around the bush and ask your boss when you can be "absent". From my pespective, you should be professional at all times during ANY job that you have. This is defintiely one of the reasons why Boomers are not impressed with our generation's work ethic. However not everyone from the Millenial/Gen Z generation is lazy and unprofessional. Some people can absolutely work harder and be smarter than the Boomers.
I definitely agree that there are distinct differences between the baby boomer generation and generation Z, but I do not see a clear distinction between generation Z and millenials. The only clear difference to me is that millenials are aware of a world where technology didn't absolutely dominate society as much as it does today. Millenials know what it's like to turn on a computer and wait for the dial up to load for about eight minutes. My memory of this is cloudy but It is something I will never forget. I feel that the author was a little harsh in regard to talking about generation Z. I can agree that generation Z is definitely more comfortable in sharing their thoughts and feelings with one another, especially in the work place. I know that sharing feelings in the work place is absolutely prevalent at my job. I am a manager at a fast-paced tourist confectionery shop. I would work 55 hours a week on average, this would require me to really get to know my coworkers and care for them during a 10 or 11 hour shift. It was almost impossible and inhumane not to share how we were feeling because the job took a lot of energy and focus all the time. We needed to socialize with each other to get through such lengthy and involved work shifts. I do understand where there is a line drawn in certain inappropriate subjects being shared between each other, especially depending on who the person is. I can see sharing personal information say about your romantic life with your coworker who you consider to be your equal, but avoiding doing that with your superior in which you would like to remain professional. I feel that depending on individuality rather than assumptions of a generation, you as a person should know where the line is drawn in order to sustain professionalism.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that I have been witnessing a lot of change within the younger community. Although there isn't a huge age difference between those born after 2000, I can see that there are definite generational changes for a majority of that population. I see that the younger kids on instagram who are about 14 or 15, can edit their instagram profiles to make it look like they're 20. I've seen many cases of this for a lot of young girls that have grown up adapting to internet use of making themselves public. The reason I bring this up is because I do find it quite astounding that my friends and I were taking silly pictures on facebook with cheesy edits when we were that age. We all had our middle school pre-pubescent stage in which we cringe at the old pictures we took. These girls presently going through that "stage " are starting to look older and older, mostly just from edits and makeup.
I do feel that there are clear differences between the baby boomer generation and generation Z, but I don't necessarily think they are all negative in regard to generation Z. I feel that there are also a lot of benefits that have come out of the birth of the digital age.
I found this blog very interesting for a few reasons. To start, the workplace conversations have definitely changed from generations. This summer, I started my first professional, in an office job. My colleagues and I would have conversations, that my dad would later acknowledge as not conversations to be held in the workplace. For us, we thought it was normal and fine because we are all around the same age, including our boss. I feel like the whole workplace conversation topic, really depends on who you work with, and how you interact with one another outside of work.
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about millennials being more emotional than other generations, i found this relatable article on why that could be. It is called, Facing Fragility: The Emotional Fragility of Millennials, and it talks about why the world we live in now is a place where feelings matter more than ever. The way we label millennials is, millennials are lazy, and millennials are “soft.” This article will agree, but disagree with those statements very well. I can completely agree with the fact, we are more emotional and fragile today, but there has to be many more explanations for why that is so.
Pinto, C. (2019, February 21). Facing Fragility: The Emotional Fragility of Millennials.
Peggy Claus's The New York Times article, "Thank You for Sharing. But Why at the Office?", made me think as well. I actually had an experience the next day were I covered work for a friend because she had went a little to hard at the dog the night before. I told her to tell our boss that she was not felling well. She was perfectly fine with us telling our boss that she had a few too many the night before and that she would not care as long as the shift was covered. This is true. The dynamics at the office with our NH minimum wage job, it probably would have been completely fine, but was it necessary? Probably not. I also started thinking about the person you wrote about who referred to not coming to work as being "absent" and asking how many absences they would be allowed. My first reaction to this was, its not syllabus week hunny. But then I started to thinkk,most of us at Plymouth State work and have been working since we were legally allowed to. We are a proud hard working bunch! But many post graduates are going out for their first ever job where their only "work experience" is the college courses meant to get us ready for those first big kid jobs. I think maybe the example that Peggy Claus used was a rare example of someone who is privileged enough not to have worked before/not had the privilege of building work example rather than a poor example of our entire generation.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post is very relevant to me and I am assuming a lot of other working students. I for one have noticed a lot of different things while working. Yet, there was a couple of things that I noticed that differ from what was said in your blog post. This time it’s both the younger generations and the older generations. I have worked at a restaurant with coworkers younger than me and older than me, and I also currently work at Marshalls in my hometown. At the seafood restaurant that I worked at the coworkers that were a year to two years younger than me would share a lot about their lives. We became pretty good friends at that time. Rather than the adults who usually mind their own business or talk about their significant other, but I didn’t become good friends with the adults.
ReplyDeleteAt my job at Marshall’s when I was in high school all of my best friends worked with me so of course, I did “overshare” with them, but that was just catching up or wasting time. Yet, now when I go home during winter and summer break I worked the day shifts. These shifts I would work with the older women and men. They were significantly older than I was and some of them “overshared” just as much as the younger generation. I found it nice sometimes and then other times when I’m on break I just want to be alone and quiet. I think it goes, either way, depending on where you work. Although, I have never heard someone asking how many times they could get away with not showing up to work.