GenY sucks in the workplace. Wow...who saw that coming?

[Bob Dole]

http://tinyurl.com/2agnelf

From tattoos to temperment, younger workers are missing the mark at exhibiting professional behavior in the office, a study finds. Entry-level salaries may be attractive to the bottom line, but a sense of entitlement and a deficient work ethic are leaving a bad taste in the mouths of hiring managers and upper management.

Technology workers concerned about younger people taking their jobs should listen up: GenY may be a generation raised on the Internet, but their communication skills, work ethic and overall professionalism in the workplace need some serious attention.

Recent college graduates are not living up to expectations of what it means to be professional on the job, according to research from York College’s Center for Professional Excellence, which polled 520 hiring managers, human resources leaders and business executives.

More than 88 percent of those surveyed said professionalism is related to the person not the position they are in. Nearly 40 percent found GenY to have poor grammar skills; Almost 30 percent found GenY to have a poor attitude, with 27 percent reporting these workers are “disrespectful and inconsiderate.” In terms of GenY’s IT habits, almost 40 percent found an increase in incidents involving IT etiquette, including the accessing of unauthorized company information.

“HR pros and business leaders identified five primary characteristics of the professional they are looking to hire,” David Polk, president of the Polk-Lepson Research Group, which conducted the survey, said in a statement. “The research also found that a lot of college graduates nationally are not measuring up well in these areas.”

If you are wondering what exactly defines a “professional,” here are the characteristics executives and managers rated as lacking in GenY workers, according to the York College research:

- motivation to see a task to its completion;
- overall interaction skills, including courtesy and respect when interacting;
- listening and communication skills;
- appearance; and
- self-confidence and awareness.

More than a third of those polled found recent graduates’ professionalism to have decreased over the last five years, but more than half found no change in professionalism over the same period. Of those who cited a decrease in professionalism, 61 percent found GenY to have a strong sense of entitlement and a lack of work ethic.

“Business leaders complained that many recent college graduates have a hard time accepting personal responsibility for their decisions or acting independently,” according to the report. “Managers also said graduates seem to not have a clear sense of direction or purpose in the office.”

Let's see... You coddle an entire generation of children and adjust EVERYTHING to their "different learning style", and it's a shock that once they leave that artificial environment, they don't play well with others?

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by cdcox

patteeu --

I think you are over emphasizing production.

Certainly you see the need for balanced production and consumption? So the US consumed too much for 20 years. Yes, we are now paying for that. It needed to be brought back into balance.

But you can go too far on encouraging production on two fronts:

1) Without consumption, there is no market for the production.

2) All production and no consumption makes Jack a dull boy. What is the incentive for the individual to contribute to production without consumption? That just makes you a slave to the corporation. That's no way to live a life. Money and wealth are fine and good, but they are only means to an end.

This smacks of government central planning being needed to manage what you consider a balanced outcome. The market handles this on it's own. The people drive the market—not govt. ( unless the govt is too involved in shaping outcomes which has been the case with globalization which is managed trade.)

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by magicman

words

Since I don’t know of a band called Wall of Text here’s this.

[jspchief]

Nice necro of a 3 year old thread.

[frazod]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

Since I don’t know of a band called Wall of Text here’s this.

I love that song!

[Comrade Crapski]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Get with it.

Learn to be a computer programmer or you're crap!

(P.S. Many many many folks with compsci degrees, etc... are currently unemployed. Those that have jobs are going to be the first fired when they get more expensive and can be replaced by the next wave of college graduates that grew up on the new science/technology, but let's just ignore that for the moment...)

Nevermind skilled tradesmen and men that can actually build things - this country needs more IT guys!

God help us...

"MOVE."

[Comrade Crapski]

Originally Posted by chris

The skills are on the site. Technology, leading edge marketing, on and on and on. Read.

Be honest.

You're a human resources dick, aren't you?

[jettio]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Are you illiterate? I didn't say it was all the unions' fault. I said it was the fault of workers and consumers who have, frankly, grown lazy because the US had a lot of competitive advantages in the wake of WW2 that have gradually eroded over time. Unions are definately a part of the problem, as are democrats in general, and populist Republicans and independents.

But the biggest problem is that our system is antiquated and our population has grown up thinking that what once made us a great economic power can keep us there. The best example of this is the tax code. As it's currently designed, it encourages consumption by taxing income that you save at the same rate as income you spend and then turning around and taxing the growth of that savings. A tax code designed to encourage production instead of consumption would tax the consumed portion of income not the portion invested in ongoing productive activities. But we all grew up being told that dividends and interest are not only income, but they are the kind of excessive income that fat cats earn but that hard working laborers can't afford to earn. That kind of thinking needs to stop so we can compete with foreign producers who aren't similarly hung up.

(1) In what country is tax policy set up the way that you suggest?

(2) What about the supplies that go into production? Under your model, are they consumed and taxed when they are used to produce something else?

(3) Wouldn't there be more black market and tax avoidance by businesses and individuals under your model?

[Detoxing]

The OP sounds like a bitter old man.

[BucEyedPea]

Learn to sell very well. You will never be without money.

[Cephalic Trauma]

Go into a field that will always pay well.

Like mine

[gblowfish]

My wife said when she was working on her masters in education, this 20 something kid went up to her professor, threw his "homework" assignment in his face and said "I paid my fee, gimme my "B."

Then later sued the school when he got an F.

Generation Y in a nutshell.

[Garcia Bronco]

I won't hire you with visible tats or piercings. Sorry. Go work at the record store or the fast food chain.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by jettio

(1) In what country is tax policy set up the way that you suggest?

(2) What about the supplies that go into production? Under your model, are they consumed and taxed when they are used to produce something else?

(3) Wouldn't there be more black market and tax avoidance by businesses and individuals under your model?

1. I don't know. This is a forward looking policy prescription.

2. They could be but they don't have to be. It's the difference between a VAT and a retail consumption tax. There would be pros and cons to either form.

3. I don't know that there would be more. Some people would no longer be able to avoid taxes by working under the table. Some people would find a new incentive to avoid taxes by selling under the table.

[jettio]

Originally Posted by patteeu

1. I don't know. This is a forward looking policy prescription.

2. They could be but they don't have to be. It's the difference between a VAT and a retail consumption tax. There would be pros and cons to either form.

3. I don't know that there would be more. Some people would no longer be able to avoid taxes by working under the table. Some people would find a new incentive to avoid taxes by selling under the table.

What foreign producers are you referring to in that last sentence of the post I quoted?

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by jettio

What foreign producers are you referring to in that last sentence of the post I quoted?

We need to maximize our competitiveness with all foreign producers.