Young staff at work

[partyetiquette]

Hello this is a bit of a moan really , can't really talk about it in actual work as it wouldn't be my place to do so.
Each year, we have a set of new trainees, they are with us for between 3 and 7 months depending on their training. This last batch have been here 6 months. They are between 22 and 28. There are a team of 2 staff who look after them. These two have worked solidly for all of them for 6 months. They have also organised extra things for the trainees like birthday cakes etc A big part of their training is 'soft skills' as we do a lot of client work. The mentors have been unanimously good, professional etc. Our trainees left last week and not one of the 6 trainees gave their mentors a card, or a gift or even a nice email. The two mentors were quite inward about it and started to think maybe the trainees has been unhappy etc
Yesterday, we had a site visit from an equivalent company, the mentors there said the same!
Has this sort of normal niceties gone out of work?

We're too nice is the problem.

Give an inch, take a mile!

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.

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."

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!

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

Yes it “does happen”

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

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.