To think that by financing our teenagers lifestyles we are creating a generation of people that don't know how to work.

[Sunshinegirls]

We own a business and when we employ a young person (18/24) we struggle with them. They have no idea how to work, they are lazy, they are entitled.
Reading another thread just now it has occurred to me that it is the fault of today's parents.
When I was a teenager, I had summer and weekend jobs to pay for anything I wanted. My parents still fed and clothed me for school, but fashion items, possessions and leisure activities were financed by myself. It seems these days that (some) teenagers get everything bought for them and as such are growing up to be entitled and work shy.
Surely if a teen wants a gadget, they have to get a job to pay for the gadget?

My DD15 dislocated her kneecap but still turned up next day in a brace to her Y10 work experience placement (unpaid) , she was offered a (paid) summer job, I am proud of her.

Kids work hard where a work ethic is ingrained in them. Ours get their phone, clothes etc paid for by us (parents - we are parents and actually take providing for our kids as a duty), but they still work hard to get on.

DD16 has just finished an NCS placement where she raised over £500 for those less fortunate - rather than taking on a job and earning extra for herself, she raised money for others. So I will pay for stuff for her, because I think that by us financing her, she has shown what a damn fine person she is, and I am proud of that.

I don't think all teenagers are work shy but I do think many struggle to understand the value of money and it starts not just with gadgets and the latest iPhone but also with £3 for lunch every day to buy shit.

Its not teaching good financial management.

I pay for my 13 year olds phone etc.

She does jobs round the house for because we pay for alot for her.

Personally the teenagers i work with are, in general, no worse than the teenagers 20 years ago.

Some do well at work. Some take a while to realise.

I know people in the 30s/40s/50s are lazy and entitled. Some people are just like that and some arent

There don't seem to be the Saturday jobs around that there were when I was a teenager - or rather, supermarkets and other retailers want more flexibility from their workers and need people who can do their 12 hours over any day of the week rather than a Friday evening and all day Saturday as I used to do.

I disagree though that teenagers don't know how to work. Some probably don't and haven't a clue but this is nothing new. My 14 year old works Satruday mornings in the local charity shop, they're not paying him but he's getting exactly the same experiecne as I had working in a supermarket as a teenager and being paid.

Otherside of coin, My parents gave me an allowance so I didn't need a job so I could concentrate on my education.

I don't think I would have done half as well if I hadn't had enough free time to volunteer , do my hw and wind down socially.

Most of the young adults I know work hard in their student/school holidays. Good work ethic, I'd say, and that goes for some kids from very privileged backgrounds, multiple homes around the world, swimming pools, ponies, etc, along with those from housing association houses whom my children are also friends with.

Oh and I've never had problems saving or working hard because of it!

I have a teen and for the amount she could earn (if she could find a part time job) I would rather she studied and got better grades. When she is at uni she can get a summer job but we are happy for her to not work during term time.

I'm opening a discussion not tarring a generation.

Your thread title says "we are creating a generation of people that don't know how to work."

These two statements contradict each other. if you're not generalizing, why start an entire thread about how the younger generation wants everything handed to it on a plate?

The younger 'millennials' I work with definitely have higher expectations but hey are still willing to work hard.

My dh struggles with the young apprentices he's employing.
But I think there's a difference now, where we would get a weekend job they don't exist anymore. Zero hours contracts have killed it. also you'd have week day staff and weekend, now your expected to do it all and always be available.
So the basics of people skills are lost

What a horrible and agist thread.

As pp have said they said this about the last generation, and the generation before that and so on!

Oh MN do love to sneer at teenagers and parents of teenagers.
Of course if your child is a cute toddler it's ok to buy them a birthday present but if you buy something for a teen you are making them lazy and entitled.

I am 59 and I had a Saturday job from 13 but that would never happen now.
So OP in your business do you employ 13 year olds?
Or 14, 15, 16 or 17 year olds? If not then you are like 99.9% of businesses which is why it's so hard for young teens to get part time work.
Mine got a few hours part time work at 16 paying £3.00 an hour. Hardly enough to make them financially independant.

UserX.
That's what half my title says, please read the whole thing.

I have also not said that the younger generation want everything handed to them on a plate,
I have suggested that because there are some who already get everything handed to them on a plate, by the parents, that maybe it is detrimental to their work ethic and approach to money.

My teenager works saving lives as a RNLI lifeguard during her holidays.
Please do not stereotype her as lazy and useless because she pulled a child from the sea yesterday who was caught in a rip and that is not useless

The trouble is more that the requirement to work hard and be dedicated etc is a psychological trick designed to get labour for free, and there's few parts of the deal that is attractive to the person whose behaviour you are trying to influence..amd they can see through the trick.

It used to be rents were about £30 a week, and pay for low wage jobs around £300 a week, but now it's rent at £700 a month with wages at £300, and higher food, beer, energy and telecoms cost, so in the olden days working as a teen was. Reasonable deal. Now you get few financial advantage, and even lower recognition or trust. Any negotiator should know that no win for the other party means no win for you.

I don't think its the younger generation who've had everything handed to them on a plate.

I think there are a lot of smug middle aged people out there who have no idea what it is like to be young, and try to compare like for like. "We never had mobile phones" well duh!

"I'm not generalising I just said an entire generation were X and it's all their parents fault"

"Lazy young people today"
graffiti on the walls of Pompeii

I tend to agree with you to certain extent but I do think it's a massive generalisation.

Both mine had paper rounds at 12, café jobs at 14 and retail jobs at 16 so full time NHS placement and work with a long commute wasn't a shock to either of them.

So yes, some kids have not been encouraged to work and be useless employees due to entitlement. Others will be good employees and get on in life.

They always were for parents that could afford it, and they aren't now for parents that can't.
Do you think the richer kids in my school worked when I did? They did not!
Nothing much has changed.

My parents could afford those things, I was one of the "richer kids" in my school. I still worked from 15 onwards (babysitting, shoe shop, then cafe, then restaurant) if I wanted money for those things because my parents gave me a small allowance and expected me to earn money to pay for luxuries as described.

It was good for me to work, was useful for my university applications and made it easier to get part time and summer jobs once at university because I had some work experience.

I'm not sure it's as easy for 15-18 year olds to find part time jobs now but if they can, I'd always recommend they do.

I agree about the older lot. Some really ineffective people with final salary pensions ruling out the same benefits for people younger than them, who expected detached houses and hols at specific points in their career irrespective of results or contribution...
Don't get me started on old smug judgemental useless older people men

Hardly a good day to post that when a lot of us and our teens are on edge and will probably have a sleepless night becausr of A level results tomorrow morning

I do think teenagers these days are quite entitled and not appreciative of how good they have it.

BUT it is much harder for them to get part time jobs.

I always had at least 2 waitressing jobs, in pubs/cafe/takeaway/ plus babysitting jobs, plus a job helping out at an accountancy firm, from ages 14-21.

You wouldn't be able to get that now.

I agree that some young people have no need to work. I try to hire local teens 16+ to babysit and none want to! It interrupts their own socialising - which their parents subsidise.

I would like to think I will be different with mine but I probably won't!