Morley Safer reports on the new generation of “millennials.” They are in their late teens to early twenties and could be ill prepared for a demanding workplace.
Morley Safer reports on the new generation of “millennials.” They are in their late teens to early twenties and could be ill prepared for a demanding workplace.
What we’re seeing is the inevitable harvest of the tsunami of self-esteem boosterism of the 1980s-on: self-absorbed, empty egoists with little to nothing to offer an employer or a spouse.
My 19-year-old college freshman daughter watched the program with her parents and objected to the stereotyping of a whole generation. My son, a Marine, was home on leave at the time but missed the program. I look at as a lot of half-truths edited into a news story to boost ratings. If, at age 56, I want to point the finger at an overindulged generation, I should look no further than my own.
I’ve met the overindulged 18 year old ….. always mom & dad to the rescue. I’ve also met the 18 year old Marine – as good a warrior as we have ever had.
But that story was very scary – particularly when I appears to be most prevalent in the East Coast Elite …. the class that assumes they have the prerogative to power.
“it” not “I” …. must edit better!
I’ve seen this phenomenon to a certain extent in my line of work: engineering. It usually lasts until the facts of life are explained to them. It’s the difference between [url=http://www.amazon.com/Hard-America-Soft-Competition-Coddling/dp/1400053242/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-2957809-4251164?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194915371&sr=1-1]hard America and soft America.[/url]
I am nauseated. And I am only 31 years old.
It strikes me that this is entirely the result of poor parenting by the middle classes (a conclusion mentioned several times in the piece itself, I think).
As a sideline I teach a management leadership course centered around the basics: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The last class of managers was heavy with engineers. Nearly all of them vented their frustrations with younger workers just like those in the clip. They expect the company to meet their whims/needs and if not, they just walk out. The tension between the turnover of workers and the attitude makes life difficult for those trying to actually manage their end of a business. There’s a reason so many people want to hire engineers from overseas. I caught that reference right near the end of the clip too.
Maryland Brian
I saw the report and found it interesting. It is worth remembering that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
See also Christian Smith’s article, “Getting a Life” in the Nov/Dec [i]Books & Culture[/i]. It will probably be [url=http://www.booksandculture.com/]online soon[/url]. It focuses more on the “emerging adults” in relation to churches but is clearly working from the same page as the “60 Minutes” segment.
Something that just occurred to me–the Baby Boomers (my own generation) are often compared unfavorably to the “Greatest Generation” that preceded it (I dislike these kinds of labels, but use them for the sake of discussion), and yet it is the “Greatest Generation” that produced the Baby Boomers. So yes, we’ve all sinned and fallen short…
These folks will be my home-schooled children’s competition. Obladi oblada life goes on brahhh… Lala how the life goes on…