Overly sensitive employees/apprentices

[OhGoodnessItsSoExhausting]

Ok, so I pride myself on being a strengths focussed supervisor. I always want to mentor and help my employees and apprentices as much as possible. But the last two apprentices (all apprentices in this role are graduates if that's relevant) have been soooooo sensitive and just plain.annoying!

I can't give any feedback because they 'know it already.' I can't say anything right because apparently I know nothing about transgender issues or decolonisation of the workplace and I need to hear them 'educate' me on it all and lend me books because they (20 years younger with zero experience in this role) know how to resolve ingrained, inherent systemic racism and prejudice and clearly if they were in my role they'd have solved all the problems in society which impact the role, already.

They are always 'curious about X...' and 'wondering about y...' instead of just speaking in normal language

They are driving me insane!!!

They can't manage their workload (even though I'm so worried about upsetting them I give them half what I've given to previous apprentices). Apparently it's important to be 'boundaried' and assertive with your needs. (Yes,.I know that, but I'm just asking you to do your job - you are paid more for these apprenticeships than many of the more senior staff in the organisation).

They are so bloody self absorbed and self riteous. I find them so patronising.

Is this entitlement, condescending attitude and use of fluffy language a generation thing? Or (please tell me), I've just had a bad run of two extremely annoying apprentices!!? (who I found out today are friends! So I guess they feed off each other discussing how amazing and riteous they are and how everyone else in the organisation is incompetent.)

Grrr..

People in creative industries or technical industries or basically anything that involves drawings or designs on a PDF needs to be able to rotate the PDF.

It depends on how the business is set up. Some will be structured to have lots of more junior resource to free senior resource up for more important stuff. He's not being paid 80k for his abilities with PDFs, he'll be delivering other things.

Of course not, and I agree that work/life balance could be better for many.

However the world of work generally does run along 9-5 lines, especially if you have clients who generally expect you to be available in those hours. It's beginning to change but that unlikely to start with 22 year olds who generally don't even have to make their own tea when they get home.

Also, I'm sure I'll get a pasting for this, but I think flexibility like this has to be earned a little; rocking up at an interview for a full time role demanding to work 4 days so you have more chill time is rarely a good look to a hiring manager.

What annoys me is how they refuse to do routine tasks like making drinks for people or setting up meeting rooms

I've had grads like that. I just tell them to do it, and make sure everyone else has them doing things like that for a couple of weeks. One in particular sticks out as he was asked to cover the phones - as we ALL did - one lunchtime. "oh that's not what I'm training for, I'm very important and clever". So we rostered him on reception until he got the hang of keeping everyone's schedules in order, setting up meeting rooms etc etc as well as doing the MDs travel expenses etc etc. He had a healthy regard for our excellent reception staff by the time he was done.

Teenagers working at 16 is actually a lot more common now in the last year or so than it was a few years ago. DD1 (17) gets paid £9.50 an hour for a hospitality industry job at the weekends and most of her friends work who are doing A-Levels. They are a fantastic generation who have had a lot to put up with in the last couple of years. I find them mature, super-bright and sensible but tremendous fun and quite refreshing to be around.

I'm in a chat on FB with a young person who feels that no one should say nothing that makes them feel 'unwelcome'. It's an extraordinary idea to, that we are expected to sanitise life and speech in order to ensure that people never hear things they disagree with.

Apparently it's better to exclude people with the wrong opinions, than make people who don't like to hear the wrong opinions feel unwelcome.

Baffling.

for context, she was a headteacher and the pdf thing came up regularly, but she wasn’t amenable to listening to a simple explanation of how to do it, so would send mass emails. I think maybe her pride was a barrier, her tech skills were pretty nonexistent. Of course she was excellent at other things and had other skills, but she would not learn new systems, which did come into her role a lot

@TheKeatingFive I think she thought it was proving that no particular generation has a monopoly on workplace incompetence, which has very much been my experience.

There is a real shortage of headteachers. So if she was excellent at managing the school, the Governors will not have cared if she could rotate a pfd or not.

A stark reminder too the they will be the generation who look after us in our old age - yikes!

Have you fed any of this back to them?

'I'm curious about X' is definitely an up and coming business speak thing. At my company people of all ages have started use it over the last couple of years. It can be a polite/passive-agressive way to suggest a flaw in someone's approach, or a safe way of saying "I don't understand X' without admitting you don't understand
something that you feel you probably should.

@Gwenhwyfar It must be a generational thing then because I don't associate using Google images or rotating a pdf with any particular job as opposed to general life skills akin to being able to use standard Google search.

I agree! And she was a wonderful head in most ways. However, tech comes into school a lot (doing registers, emails, reporting sickness, using safeguarding software to document concerns) and she was very resistant to learning any new tools, which would be a huge issue in any job now. The pdf example was just the silliest one I could recall, because it’s clicking a button and she wouldn’t hear of it!

I am not senior enough to make them do it and our senior management just ignore it.

I agree- in the same way most people my age wouldn’t put the ability to use standard Office tools on their CVs: it’s assumed

@pucelleauxblanchesmains I would not be surprised if my manager in her sixties does not know how to do google image search. But she does not have personal social media and not once have I ever had to use this at work. She can update our website and is a whizz at databases, which we use at work a lot.

I think she thought it was proving that no particular generation has a monopoly on workplace incompetence, which has very much been my experience.

Sure, but there's more nuance around whether new grads can actually recognise what skills make someone valuable in a role, particularly when they're looking at the more senior end.

What they might see is someone struggling with word, what aren't aware of is the client list the length of your arm and the value that has to the company's bottom line.

Obviously that may or may not apply to the situation in question and yes there's incompetence everywhere, but things like tech ability are the type of skills that new employees may think are more important than they are in reality

I think it's the "dumbing down" effect of apps which are usually a lot simpler than what I'd call "proper" software on a laptop. I.e. "bite size" small simple tasks in isolation rather than more complicated software requiring lots of different entry data and doing a sequence of steps.

@Namerchangerextraordinaire
Politics to work not at all new either. I well remember in the early 80s a sanctimonious vegetarian colleague's lectures whilst treating humans like shit on a regular basis

That is interesting and probably correct. It really surprised me as I had just assumed young employees would be far quicker learning how to use new work software than I am, and they struggled far more than me. Not that I am a great whizz, but I know how to intuitively figure out what will probably be required.

I have had some amazing apprentices, think you just got a bad bunch. I don’t think it’s to do with the generation. I have met awful people to work with across all generations.

No one is denying there are lazy and incompetent staff at every age level.
But there are trends across generations.
So the generation above me had too many men who thought sexist jokes were just a bit of fun. That is not something you see at all in the younger generation.
And there are traits within the younger generation too.

yup. I remember people putting stuff like "committed vegan" on their CV. My jobshare partner was a vegan and she used to snort "so bloody what"

really? well you may not see it but I sure do!

If I understand this correctly, these students are being paid the equivalent of 5 days but due to attending university are only present for 2.5 and during that time are working at 50% capacity. In that case and say your office is on a 37.5 hour week, they’re working just over a 9 hours per week, which could be done in a day.

If this is the case, I would be wondering how much value they’re adding. I also don’t like the idea that they didn’t interview ie fight for the position. Not doing so can give a general level of entitlement, which is not only bad for you but also for them and setting them up for failure. This definitely needs feeding back to the university. I also think you should shut them down and tell them they’re not performing well.