Young staff at work

Hmm, no amount of birthday cakes and nice gestures and lah di lah look how we're all good friends makes up for the day when you are unexpectedly made redundant and feel like you've been kicked in the teeth.

Experience has told me to come to work, do the job, get paid, go home, and do no more or less.

Yes it “does happen”

but as this thread has demonstrated….. very very very rarely and absolutely not a “young person” thing!

And, yes, all of them get a thank you card signed by the people who worked with them and thanking them.

I’m wondering if this will happen to me over the summer. Haven’t had an intern since before Covid. Those interns usually sent an email thank you or profuse thanks in person, usually on their last day when I’d take them out for a coffee and chat about their careers. One got me a card and I remembered how touched I was by the effort she’d put in. It wasn’t an expensive one, but what she’d written in it gave me a big boost and I’ve kept it. They were paid and, yes, it was a part of my job to support them, but only a tiny part of it so the reality meant it was a lot of work to ensure they had a great experience.

I’m due to have one for two months over the summer and the level of entitlement and expectation of everything being arranged around them is already far in excess of anything we’ve had before. It was advertised with fixed start and end dates, all communicated really clearly, but we’ve had endless changes of date and plans. Still don’t know exactly which date they’re even starting on. There seems to be no awareness on their part that we all have a lot of other work to do!

I think that @partyetiquette made the point that the mentors at her workplace went above & beyond.

Someone needed to nudge the trainees and point out that the mentors did things that were way beyond the basic "doing the job they're paid for."

Sometimes it is just a nice thing to do - to show some appreciation for the efforts someone has gone to on your behalf. (Whether they are paid to, or not)

I'm 60, I recognise those moments, realise that someone feels good if you appreciate their efforts. Hell, even in a computer game, if someone helps out, I let them know they made my day.

My Dds, at 23 and 24 sometimes still need a bit of a nudge... "when's your last day? Are you going to give your mentor a card? You need to think about picking one up before then."

Just like when they go out to a "proper grown up dinnerparty" for the first time ... remember to take some wine/flowers/whatever.

You don't grow up just knowing this stuff. Someone usually shows you the way, gives a nudge here and there until it is second nature. I'd say I was in my early 30s before I fully understood the world didn't revolve around me and that it was nice to be grateful.

We're too nice is the problem.

Give an inch, take a mile!

I think most work in ‘friendly’ workplaces but the gestures are generally between closer
groups. It shouldn’t be an expectation.

Yes I've seen that at my local Caffé Nero. I thought what a nice gesture & I must remember to copy it, or give them a whacking great tip every now & then.

Totally agree with this @partyetiquette but reading this thread, there are a lot of people who seem to resent their workplace & their colleagues.

You & I are obviously lucky to work in collegial friendly workplaces.

Maybe they're miserable sods like me ;)

Your workplace sounds great but people are a mixed bag and young people just starting work can struggle with the expectations if its not what they are used to.

There might be at your job but there certainly isn't at mine or many others.

There is turn up early, work late, for free, for minimum wage, put up with constant complaining (work with the public) and get absolutely nothing more than your basic pay.

I'm glad your workplace is a fun place to be but it is not universal - quite frankly I do not like my job but it pays the bills so I turn up.

I’m a nurse in a department that facilitates a lot of students. They invariably bring chocolates and cards on their last shift (once I even got a v nice bottle of wine from a med student!).

We certainly don’t expect it, but when a student takes the time to write a card saying how much they enjoyed the placement we feel really pleased that we’ve given them a positive experience, even if it’s not where they’d like to work when qualified.

Oh an email is fine. It's the card and gift I find odd.

Our students generally get taken for a small lunch by the team they are placed in and given a gift (generally connected to their future career). They become part of the team and it's nice to mark the occasion 😀

I was thinking the same thing! I don’t see how this reflects badly on the young people at all, why the need for showy gifts and praise?

We have a similar trainee set up where I work and I manage the trainees. They're an ungrateful, entitled bunch in the main. They're also crap at being proactive about their progress but will happily complain if they think they're not being stimulated enough.

My husband is a nurse and I work in a nursery so we see our fair share of students, trainees and work experience school pupils. We are always given a card/token gift at the end of their time. I wonder if it’s more common in these types of roles rather than a corporate/office type role.

Is this an industry-specific expectation, receiving cards and gifts from trainees? I've mentored graduates, interns, students on work placements for 20 years, they say their thankyous and how much they enjoyed the experience and that's enough for me. I'd find it very odd to receive a gift from them.

Sounds like your organisation has a lot of management issues.

Examples from my workplace:

• moan that we haven't organised any social events recently. We organise one and hardly anyone goes. (Why does no-one just go out with their work colleagues to the pub after work on a Friday any more?? Why do I have to arrange and pay for some organised fun??)
• give a gift and Christmas bonus each year as well as pay for an all expenses paid party. Four or five people say thank you (all those over 40)
• moan that they're not happy with their (above inflation) payrise, yet barely ever turn up to work on time. And, when we say "any performance related payrise is dependent on your performance, including timekeeping" they reply "well, I'd have more of an incentive to get to work on time if you paid me more". Yeah mate, I'd have more of an incentive to pay you more if you got to work on time!
• realise that our contracts give them up to 20 days paid sick leave per year, so have been overheard basically telling others that they should use it!

Honestly, it's exhausting.

I'm kind of glad I'm not alone in this pain though!