Youngsters now days are very entitled

[Themagicfarawaytreeismyfav]

Is it just me or are younger people now days very entitled? I work in an industry that often attracts lots of younger people mainly early 20’s ( im in my 50’s btw). Im noticing more and more that they have lots of entitlement and some bad manners/lack of social skills as well as a terrible work ethic. For balance i have 4 dc ranging from 20-30 years old and while all 4 have excellent manners the younger had a really bad attitude towards work for a year or two but is now a very hard worker and the elder 3 always have been. Anyway back to my fellow employees. They seem to know every single one of their rights but not so much about their responsibilities, they lack social skills and manners as well. Will happily talk over people during conversations, pick and choose what work they want to do, have appalling customer service skills and will never agree that something is their fault or they have done something wrong. My work is based heavily on seniority and usually the more senior a member of staff they get first choice in certain aspects of it. However the younger staff seem to completely disregard this and often push themselves to the front for these things and show absolutely no respect to those who have worked there for years ( fwiw im also very junior). Im finding it harder and harder to tolerate and beginning to detest having to work with them, but im wondering if its actually a “ thing” that others have noticed or its me and my perimenopause? 🙄

No it means forming a queue. The person at the front gets served first.

It doesn’t mean forming a queue in order of heirarchy.

The people thinking they are different and special are the ones getting special treatment...

The ones who have earned that privilege through years of hard work?

Theyve only earnt them though seniority though. Not through peefoemance.

That sounds an awful lot like disparaging the hard work done by the "lower classes" ...

Not at all, you don’t get promoted to those positions through just being with the company a long time! You get promoted through being very good at your job and working hard.

What a twatty hierarchal little team you work for @Themagicfarawaytreeismyfav . I can just imagine the cats bum expression on your face as these younger members of staff collect their room keys before other senior members.

So if you’re the same level as these “entitled” youngsters, presumably you stand by ushering more senior members to go ahead of you to collect their room keys? How… well, subservient. And i would feel so uncomfortable watching a woman in her fifties stand there like a lemon so I can fly past her to collect my room keys before!

Sounds you're annoyed they are standing up for themselves and making demands, instead of being meek and a pushover. Might there be something to learn from them

You sound like a lovely person 🙄

So standing up for yourself includes being rude, demanding and lazy? Thank you for letting me know!

She sounds like a level headed empathetic democratic woman.

Not someone who lets this crap happen.

Maybe you're the lazy one, being in a junior role in your 50s

It's possible to be assertive without being rude. My DH is a master of it. He knows his rights, especially with shops/consumer law, and makes sure he gets whatever resolution is warranted. But he never resorts to raising his voice, being rude, nor being aggressive. He is always calm and measured with every word he says, but because he's done his research and knows the law/T&Cs etc he has the confidence to be assertive and gets far better results than those who rant and rave and hurl abuse. The customer service staff/manager etc hate it but they don't have a leg to stand on as they know he's right. They seem to be trained to pick up on the slightest hint of "abuse" and use it to their advantage against customers, ie banning them, threatening security etc on them, but DH never crosses that line so they can't do it to him! He drives them insane by standing there smiling and continuing to talk in a calm respectful manner, often with a printout of the law or their T&Cs in his hand! There's more than one way to skin a cat!

Never heard of nepotism then? Yes, of course, people get promoted despite not being the best person for the job, often because of family connections, but more often because they've become friends (or more) with the manager/boss. Hence the sheer number of incompetent spouses who are engaged as office manager/HR manager etc in smaller owner-managed firms - they'd never get such jobs in the open market with proper competition and recruitment. Same happens in larger organisations. Anyone who seriously thinks people only get promoted on ability and merit are deluded.

OP I could predict how the response would go when I first read it. Mumsnet loves to pick a fight.

I totally agree with you by the way, and of course it's not ALL young people but it's a definite cultural change.
Living life through phones hasn't helped with social skills. Teens often have no practice of picking up a phone and being a customer, everything is done online. There is a culture of self obsession and entitlement coming through in the next generation unfortunately. They are always told about their rights and boundaries, and told any issue they struggle with is due to a mental health condition or disorder. It's not good for them.
I was amazed when our new starter complained about her commute on her first day. She then asked to reduce her office days due to it affecting her wind down time in the evenings. She requested that we didnt go on group lunches as she doesn't like eating in front of others. The list was endless. This is something thats been noticed widely across the company.
I work for a very well known company and the CEO wrote an article that was in the press, citing her concerns about the generation coming through. That they lacked resilience and social skills and most importantly, struggled to listen to points of view that differed to their own.

I was amazed when our new starter complained about her commute on her first day.

I remember my father telling me about one of his new starters that did this! Apparently hadn’t realised how busy the Tube got.

This would have been in around 1993 and I imagine the new starter is probably almost retirement age by now if not there already, but, sure, let’s pretend it’s unique to the current younger generation.

Maybe i changed career a couple of years ago and thats why im in a junior position!

That's a remarkable memory you've got there. I can't imagine a random employee's tube annoyance would survive 30 years in my brain!

The older generation have been complaining about the youth coming through since time began.

Driven by jealousy, they have had their time, their looks have gone and they are full of regret and bitterness.

As my Mum said to me "Never forget that you were once young too" she loved the young nurses coming through to ward, watching them make the same mistakes she once did, help pick up the pieces and enjoyed watching them mature into fantastic people.

I'm retired now but remember only too well being told as a 17yo "You'll never amount to much, got your head stuck into music and boys"

He was very wrong.