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..

Do you mean the employer sets the entry requirements for the degree?

Not if you spell it correctly.

Utter nonsense! Dh walks at a very casual pace - his work ethic is overdeveloped if anything.

Have the same issue with some of our trainees and my best friend has same with some of hers.....makes me feel about a million years old saying this (I'm 40...) but I do think there's something up with some of that generation!

Yes, this. When I was a uni my learning was very much my responsibility- it was a huge shift from school. I did law qualifications about 10 years after graduating from my undergrad (bit if a career change) and felt like we were utterly spoon fed in comparison (I wasn't complaining as I was working full time and doing law conversion course then LPC part time) - I put this change down to it being post-grad professional qualification rather than undergrad academia, but would be interested to know if that has changed too.

Most trainees I see now in my firm are excellent but there is a decent whack who very much have this attitude - what are you / the firm going to do for me? One trainee asked someone what the firm was going to do to make her next seat a better experience. The response was "what are you going to do to make it a better experience?".

Yes .Sorry I meant entry rquirements

Please tell us what kind of reading lists these were. Were the books on the thing that your organisation specialises in, to make sure that you're up to date, or were they to do with Equality and Diversity?

@OooPourUsACupLove I completely agree. I think a lot of graduates entering workplaces now are used to virtually every aspect of their lives being ‘curated’ and then they find they can’t cope with the messy reality.

This generation grew up being able to select their favourite music and tv shows and watch only these on demand. They have virtual echo chambers where they can essentially screen out anyone they don’t agree with. Trigger warnings let them know what to expect and help avoid unexpected situations.

None of these things are terrible in themselves but added together these factors have definitely led to a certain mindset / way of being that is different to previous generations.

And yes I think working from home full time in their 100% curated home work environment will be massively debilitating to some of these people.

I saw my learning as my responsibility at school and at Uni. Ds was complaining about the quality of teaching at Uni - I asked him how that was going to work out for him when he failed - are employers going to give you an out? We have always had shit teachers and shit lecturers, I wish it were different but meanwhile back in the real world - some people are shit at their jobs, if you are resourceful you'll figure a way around it - if you aren't sadly you''ll have to get to the back of the queue.

OMG all of you should just see the thread about a DD working 5 days a week and the amount of people suggesting that a 3 day job is brilliant. Making me reverse my opinion, you lot should comment on there...

I agree totally with this post. How do we get them to see this? I mean, individually we can tell our own children to knuckle down but as a nation how do we bck track from this?

The books were on general business theory, I'd have applauded him for his enthusiasm to educate himself and research ideas - but I'd have been making a note that I was concerned and he needed extra prodding to ensure the reading list was not driven by arrogance but his application was generic, he did not suggest that he knew what our company's purpose was (got the industry wrong) and who we were - he'd have been better extending all that reading skill to at least reading our website and demonstrating that he had understood the case studies documented - I know it might be boring but its the basics in job research.

Reverse your opinion in what way and can we have the link please?😊

The post upthread about echo chambers struck a chord with me. As a teen, I was forced to endure my parents tv and radio choices and had lively discussions as a result.

Young adults today, have been able to consume their own entertainment choices throughout their teens. It's no wonder some of them think the world operates as they'd like it to.

That said, I have been involved in preparing year 10s for interviews for work experience through a programme with local secondaries and have been impressed at the number of pupils who have outside commitments to sport, theatre groups, volunteering etc. They were interesting and engaging to talk to and some already had identified career paths. Is it these outside interests and teamwork that helps them be more empathetic I wonder?

"Ds was complaining about the quality of teaching at Uni"

I think it's a fair point seeing they get no training and also inevitable that this kind of thing would happen once fees were introduced.

To be fair - the quality of teaching was appalling at times in the 90s when I went to Uni - we just weren't paying £9k a year for the crap. When we complained. we were told to go away pop our names on the top of the paper and we'd pass (and that's what happened) - that was a top ten Russell Group Uni!

I went to uni first time around in the late 90s (one of the MN beloved ones) and I've just finished a second undergrad degree this summer at a uni that would have MN clutching their pearls in horror (vocational oriented course at an ex-poly)... and the quality of teaching now is an incredible increase upon most of the quality of teaching I got first time around - still with the same emphasis on self-directed extending things beyond the absolute introductions in lectures, but so much better than the lecturer in the 90s who would just stand and read from the course textbook at high speed for an hour.

We had one really shit lecturer on my current course - and we clubbed together to share resources and figure out the holes in what we needed to know among ourselves. Likewise when we lost a huge chunk of one module due to strikes - I went through the module outlines, worked out what we needed to know in terms of exam content and pulled together crib sheets for us to work from while we tried to work with the department to get the missed content accessible in some format.

We also did that for a Maths course. Those of us who have taken A-level Maths could see clearly that the others were going to struggle as the explanations were appalling...we arranged informal tutoring sessions to help the students who were struggling, I'm in two minds on whether this was a bad thing - I mean the teaching should have been better but it did encourage us to pull together and support each other. I also remember as Class Rep being asked by the whole class to complain about the quality of teaching in Statistics - omg I was given a short shift 😂 told the quality of teaching had nothing to do with me or the students - you got what you were given and you were bloody lucky to be there!! Of course no league tables back then - no way to express dissatisfaction with the course. It was what it was.

Cancel the cheque…

I let my grad employee go last week as she simply couldn't be induced to actually work the hours required - and when she was at work she spent half the time in the toilet on her phone.

Well, she was furious with me, it's all my fault, how could she be expected to know she had to be here from 9-5 (not least because it's in your contract and you've been warned about it a dozen times). The HR Manager was absolutely agog at how little responsibility she took for her own actions at age 23.

Upshot is she has learned nothing and will take her attitude to the next job despite me doing my best to show her what normal professional behaviours are.

@MacKenzieMcHale I can't get my head around that. How did she perceive the situation? How did she explain her view?

She couldn't, she was absolutely flabbergasted and indignant 'that you can do this to me'.

I can't tell you how often I've had to explain the basics to her, and the fact that she comes in late, leaves early, and takes 2 hour lunch breaks whenever I go on holiday is easily reason enough not to keep her on after multiple warning conversations.

It's a pisstake but she absolutely cannot see that she's responsible for her own behaviour. She kept saying 'but I'm not a manager, I can't be expected to control my own work' to which I said 'but the very least you've been asked to do is manage your own time, and you haven't bothered to do that'.

🤷🏻‍♀️

My nephew was a piss taker at work. He was sacked and was shocked to be sacked. It gave him a good shake up and he is now doing brilliantly in another job.
In his case my sister was a classic overprotective mum trying to make his life easy so I think he genuinely thought he could get away with being lazy at work and turning up late. Being sacked was the best thing to happen to him as it happened when he was only 19, so plenty of time to turn things around.

Yes @antelopevalley I think my grad is also very mollycoddled at home. It doesn't do them any favours at all does it?

I really hope she can reflect and go on to make a success of her next role, genuinely.