General Chat

My son was talking to me about 'my generation', lol well not exactly 'my' generation, but in response re Millenials, Generation Z, "Snowflakes" etc ( I asked his opinion on this thread :-) ).

Did 'we' all work, were we self-sufficient and capable, upright citizens when young? What about the 'Teddy boys', The 'Mods and Rockers', Hippies, etc etc all of whom were criticised by their elders ( "The Beatles, long haired layabouts, need a good haircut" ;-) ).

The point being yes some of this new generation fit the labels, but not all, any more than 'we' did :-)

I worked a 41 and a half hour week at 16, I was learning as I worked...did I make mistakes, or not think of things that were 'obvious' to someone with more experience, I expect so :-)

Wasn't quite sure who the Millenials. So one description is
The millennial generation is the generation of children born between 1982 and 2002,

Do they all feel 'entitiled'? Obviously some do. Initially they are probably idealistic and expect the salary, living conditions etc that they've been exposed to by social and other media. After all, the older ones are the first cohort to have access to it all their lives.

Don't worry Tawny - once your employees have grown up a bit, they'll realise that life isn't the same as 'the Movies'. Weren't most of us the same, to some degree, when we were that age?

LOL thanks Les !

Reference the topic of this post--CAROLINE IS SO SO RIGHT...It's the fault of the parents...Some of it still goes on today...The parents are so interested in their own little lives the kids come a sad second...Yes,,you have to give the kids a bit of freedom,,but sometimes their moralistic manners and duties are sadly lacking..That's all down to their parents ..A lot try to blame the schools etc., OOOHHHH!!!! Caroline pressed my button there didn't she...Well said Caroline..I'm beside you all the way..... <3 <3 LES...

One of the major criticisms of the minimum wage was that it would have a strong tendency to flatten out the wage curve. Additionaly it would drag down wages overall for a very big chunk of the population.

The predictable net effect has been that a substantial proportion of the workforce cannot maintain their households through work but have to rely on working tax credit etc.

The Treasury has been trying to control the runaway benefits spiral by cutting back on housing benefit, wtc etc. All this is doing is to decrease demand in the economy and needlessly create a great deal of misery.

Quite why a Tory govt chooses to pursue an unworkable policy of the far left is unclear. Maybe Tesco et al have got used to what amounts to a large govt subsidy for their payroll.

The minimum wage laws should be repealed. Firms would no longer be all hugger mugger paying a pittance but would find themselves once more competing for staff. Real wages would rise sharply and the costs of in work benefits would nose dive. However life for the bottom 10% would become dire without serious action to meet their needs.

The likelihood of any real change are remote yet the low wage / benefits circus is one of the UK's biggest problems.

Of course people paid buttons and given little respect are unlikely to work very hard!

I know that not all Millenials are lazy as my own brother who was born in 1990 is a branch manager for a uk based electrical wholesalers. I have found though having worked with Millenials for a number of yearsa lot of them are lazy. I work in a charity shop and get paid for it. The wages are always minimum wage and a lot of Millenials struggle to understand why.

The old never see good in the young while the young have never been patient with the old.

The old especially dislike the joie de vivre of the young their capacity for hard work and still have the energy to go dancing, the old especially despair at seeing a lifetime's skills no longer of any account.

So it has always been. My own impression is that those born since 1990 are a golden generation with many qualities. Being stupid is not one of them.

There are a lot of young people being taken on in jobs ( because they are cheap labour) who are given absolutely no training on the job.

I was talking about this yesterday with my son ( he's 21) in regard to the new restaurants that have sprung up in town, all the major chains, all employing very young staff with seemingly no one with experience to steer them as it were. They are mainly part time so have even less chance to learn.

The same applies to a lot of the stores, there are lots of young part timers and very few mature full timers to train them in customer service or even what to do with their time, eg if there's stuff on the floor stop talking and go and pick it up! ( that's my particular bugbear ;-) ) I know from my years as a manageress, some are naturally quick and pick up what needs doing without being told, and some aren't lol.

We had some lovely young students taken on for Christmas who queried why they should clean the 'play area' (in a toy store) to which the answer was "well the manageress and assistant manageress both do it so why shouldn't you?", they were fine about it after that :-)

Among the people my son knows, I would say the majority of those around his age are working hard at what they do, be it an apprenticeship or uni or a job or even in some cases their own business.

Maybe it is somewhat down to the education system? Kids in school for longer and not expected to be self-sufficient until later? Straight from school to college or university with not too much experience of 'real life'? Too much emphasis on passing exams in order to "get a good job" and then finding it is not as easy as that when there are fewer "good jobs" and more competition for them?

My Grand-daughter (b1999) has been to college, passed A lelvels and is now working for an Accountant.

I agree with Sheila. My granddaughter, born 2000, has just finished her first year at 6th form college, doing Animal Husbandry. This involves not just normal school hours but also going in at weekends (on a rota) to care for the animals.

Both grandchildren walked to school, although Dad did take pity on them occasionally if the weather was very wet, and would give them a lift in the morning, but they still had to walk home, rain or no rain!

As for meals, quite a lot are cooked from scratch, and elder one, because her college hours are a bit odd, frequently does her own lunch. When I was visiting she did mine as well, and very nice it was too.

Unfortunately, like all labels, only a minority deserve them, but all get tarred with the same brush.

I blame the parents!

Bear with me here, this is the generation that from the cradle has been driven everywhere, never expected to walk even around the corner. They've been given everything they want not need no matter what the cost. Meals are cooked to order or more likely bought to order as no one seems to cook from scratch these days. Their every waking moment has been organized for them never having to entertain themselves. The list goes on..........

Edit.....trust me my kids were never driven to school or sports if they could walk or use public transport; got some of what they needed never wanted :-D; ate what was cooked or went hungry; were expected to work and volunteer...not all kids are the same but many have been bought up as demi gods.....

Whilst some have been raised with too-great expectations of the world of work, and been overly fussed-over by parents and/or schools (wasn't it ever thus?) some are realistic and hard working. My friend's daughter (b.1998) is currently working as a health care assistant in a large hospital, aiming to go into nursing. She works hard and has dealt with illness and death and taken it all in her stride.

A curiously strange breed that I have yet to understand and I was born in 1984 so barely escaped the label myself. A number of articles have appeared recently describing them as generally lazy and difficult to work with as what they want there salary to be and what it actually is are two different things. As is the respect they think they deserve versus what they get. By this I don't mean being rude to them but if they make a mistake in my workplace just like any other employee they are expected to try and fix it and not rely on everyone else to run round after them.

We have two girls in the shop I work in at the moment who were born in 1999 and one who was born in 1993.

One girl who I will call Flossie(1999) was in the basement collecting clothes to restock shelves and I was wrapping post. As she was leaving I asked if she could please say to the manager Glasgow, 3 boxes and 26kg as he is looking for the information. Flossie repeats back Inverness, 3 boxes and 22kg. Three further attempts later she appears to understand what I'm saying.

The second girl who I will call Lazy (1993)will stand there on a quiet day going I'm bored for an hour and then sit down and refuse to move whist still whining. It never occurs to her to look for something to do.

Does anyone understand this strange breed???? Are we raising a generation that can't do anything for themselves???