Do today's teenagers/20-somethings lack resilience?

[ToutesetBonne]

Prompted by another thread, I'm reminded of the number of times, at work, when I shake my head in disbelief about the dramas some of the younger staff create out of nothing!

I work for a lovely organisation in beautiful surroundings, with some of the best 'perks' I've ever encountered. Our salaries are well above average and we have free lunches, parking, and private health care.

Despite this, so many of our younger staff throw complete wobblies if asked to do anything that they perceive to be outside their role description, and have close to a breakdown if a manager (I am not one - no-one reports to me) queries any aspect of their work or asks them to change something in a written paper, or suggests that they might need some help with a task.

Where is the resilience? I am a labour voter who cringes at the expression 'snowflake' but, gosh, I'm beginning to see where it comes from!

That.

Resilience is about holding on.
Self respect is about having healthy boundaries.

In this thread both are mixed up in order to fit the bill.

There's a reason unionised industry died a death in this country and it's because of staff throwing a wobbler over having to do the same job just in a different room.

Good for you, but the manager is whinning about having to do other tasks as well as her day job while expecting her staff to do day job and other tasks.

Im not clear what other tasks staff are being asked to do. Unplug laptop, walk to new room, plug laptop back in again. Possibly move a few files but this is more likely to be done by a removal company.

I agree to a certain extent. I was flaky when i was younger. It took me a few years to mature. However i also think that you can be resilient for too long. I pushed through when my grandma and granddad were ill. I hstayed strong when they died to support my mum. Then i sustained a series knee injury and i just crashed.

My understanding of that post is that the workers are complaining about having to work in a different room, not about the physical act of moving rooms.

She was pointing out how the staff were (not) coping with having to move to another room, thus illustrating the truth - in some cases - of the OP's original post. Do keep up!

She shouldn't have had to do these these other tasks but is having to because the delicate little flowers CANNOT DO SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS MOVE ROOMS!!

I know someone who recently had a couple 20somethings start at their workplace and have made a complaint about being spoken to in the staff room. This was existing staff trying to be friendly but apparently being spoken to causes these young people anxiety.

🏅

Gen Zers need to wake up and smell the coffee.

I find it weird that so many people are blaming Gen Z for the way "they are" as if they all hatched fully formed from eggs or were beamed in from another planet at the age of 18 rather than any characteristics they may share as a generation being (like literally every other generation) a result of their lived experiences - i.e. the world they grew up in, how they were brought up and interacted with...

If they are lazy, arrogant, over-important or whatever (and I'm not saying they are) then surely it's our fault for making them that way? as a pp pointed out, if the 'Our free-range, street roaming, independent, minimal electronics 1970s/80s/90s childhoods were so perfect" posters were correct, why did they bring up their kids in a way that turned them into the hothoused, immature, over-parented, spoilt Gen Z'ers they're now maligning?

The delicate little flower should manage her workforce in a way that doesn't create unnecessary tasks for herself.

Jesus no. The example given is a perfectly good one. I bet you're just great to manage

What an absolutely pointless and ageist post

I agree. There's another thread that's been going for a good few weeks about retirement age being increased to 71 and that's full of 'boomer' bashing , and how the older generations are hoovering up all the properties and their amazing pensions 🙄so the opposite end of the spectrum.

We need to wake up to the obvious attempts at divide and conquer under a different name.

She asked them to move rooms - how difficult can it be? For crying out loud

If you think being asked to move to a different room is enough to cause untold amount of stress then that tells me all I need to know about you. I would hate to be in charge of you in a work situation and pity anyone who is.

It really is quite pathetic, even if they have to move to a worse room they need to get over it. Someone at work lost his nice private office because it needed to be changed to a meeting room, he didn't throw a fit, or complain of stress, he just moved his stuff (next to someone else's desk in one of the main working rooms, so often noisy) and got over it like a normal adult.

there's an argument that can be made with a slight stretch, and then whatever extreme yoga contortions this "gotcha" is...

what on earth are you envisioning office staff "moving rooms" to entail?
build furniture, paint the walls, sort out the asbestos, do a bit of plumbing?

have you ever actually worked in an office, or anywhere?

The poster is expecting her staff to come in one day and sit in a new seat one room over, which will have already been set up for them. At most they might have to pick up their laptop and carry it out of one room and next door. No impact whatsoever on their jobs.

In the social work field we get the young ones on placement heaving and getting upset about going into dirty houses. A massive part of the job! Tried to discuss eith one of them how it might have made the person feel and was met with tears about their own needs etc etc. I have to say this isn't true of all the younger staff just some of the students and you used to have to be 22 to do SW training but can do it from 18 now.

In the social work field we get the young ones on placement heaving and getting upset about going into dirty houses.

I think many people would be shocked at what we see in social work - the theory and the reality hit quite differently and the point of placement is for students to gain experience and learn. Including seeing first hand some really horrific situations and develop coping mechanisms for them. That applies if you’re 18 or 38 and I’ve seen both age ranges really struggle at times. It’s easy to forget the sheer culture shock when you’ve been in the job a while.

Jellycat, you are right. I may be being overly harsh!

I think a student focussing on their own needs at the expense of the person they’re there to support is poor - once it’s pointed out you’d expect them to put their needs aside for the moment so I don’t think you’re being that harsh.

YANBU
This is an expected consequence of poor parenting, lack of consequences for poor behaviour in schools and mollycoddling in school and at home. Part of growing up is learning how to cope with failure and taking responsibility for your actions. Most of the current generation have little experience of this.

Very very true.

Maybe we shouldn’t have such a negative view on someone else actions. Everyone is entitled to some level of self care.

100% yes.

Of the last intake of people I worked with in their early 20’s, two asked for pay rises within the first month despite still being trained because they’d seen videos on Tik tok about being paid lots of money. Utterly pathetic. They both made countless mistakes in their work, they were late and moaned non stop.