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? 🙄

There's a few 20 somethings where I work and they are all professional, respectful and hard working. Any that are more awkward or more into their rights are older (though that isn't the case for all of the older staff). In my experience younger people are mostly willing to learn and open to seeking advice.

We had a temporary member of staff recently who was like a big kid and couldn't or wouldn't stick to what he had been asked to do. We were shocked to discover he is 30.

I get it, I've seen this dynamic (not along age lines but just in general) - it is definitely crappy management, at all levels. The middle managers need training, robust policies, and proper support from HR and ELT.

It doesn't make it an age issue though - you know the saying, correlation doesn't mean causation. Younger people who are managed this way, especially if it's their first job, will be shaped by this rubbish culture. Older people may be more immune to it and just rise above it so to speak, if they've worked elsewhere before. Might be an explanation?

I work for an organisation that has quite a large graduate intake each year.

I’m generally amazed at how much more switched-on and career-focused most of them are than most of my peers were at the same age.

I think the best results come when you have a mixture of new ideas and organisational memory in a team.

But then I’ve never worked anywhere that seniority trumps all. I find that a very old-fashioned mindset (and I’m in my 40s, so hardly young).

While i agree with the majority of what you say i will say that there is a difference between not trying to impress senior management for promotion and just generally making your co workers lives difficult and the work environment not very pleasant.

Thats very true ive never thought of it that way.

Im putting this the best way i can without being outing. We have periods at certain times on our shift that are very busy, frequently a younger colleague will be nowhere to be seen for ages leaving the rest of us to pick up the slack at the time. If we were to go looking for them it would then slow things down even more for the others. One of the most frequent excuses will be “ i was in the toilet with stomach ache/period pains” knowing that it cannot be disputed. Another is a customer will ask for a specific thing and colleagues will just walk off and not get it. Another college will come along 20 mins later to an irate customer who has been waiting 20 minutes for a simple thing that would have taken 30 seconds for them to get. They will frequently ignore customer contact and said customer will then write a shitty email to customer services saying their attempts to contact us were ignored. As well as speaking to customer in a demeaning way or sometimes being downright rude. Its hard for me to explain without being outing.

Just you.

i’m in my 50s and remember the same being said about my generation when they were young.

Someone made a great point the other day. When I was starting out, the job you worked stupid hours for paid for a decent life, decent place to live, decent holiday etc. (generally). Not sure I’d be as keen to knock my pan in for the shit they get these days. I applaud the younger generations for not putting up with the shit I did back then. I certainly don’t put up with it now.

You did state it as fact. Your thread title is a statement rather than a question.“Youngsters now days are very entitled”

I don't really notice this. We have a lot of young people, but it depends more on personality as to how they act.

Again - this is piss poor management

YANBU.
We’ve taken on apprentices, they’re sick constantly, one incident was a broken finger nail which resulted in two days off work. When they do show up, they’re slow, they don’t remember anything, constantly on their phones, make the same mistakes over and over again. None of them will be taken on in permanent roles. (Thank God).

In their defence the managers working with us on shift will also be extremely busy during our busy periods so they cannot have eyes everywhere all the time. If they do speak to a colleague about their actions 9 times out of 10 it will end up with colleague refusing to accept or acknowledge they have done anything wrong and then complaining to senior management about them.

Again
inept management

especially as the examples you give are very extreme rudeness to customers

These threads always differentiate their own children/family.

Another example is we have to work some Christmas’s it is a part of the job and you are told this when you start. We all have to. However sickness at Christmas is very high and it will be 80/20 younger colleagues to older colleagues calling in sick on Christmas day. They know full well they are dumping someone else in it if they call in sick but they simply don’t care and will happily announce to colleagues that they will simply call in sick if they get their December rota and are expected to work Christmas day.

Gen Z are entitled but the entitlement is appearing in other generational groups now.

Back to Gen Z, from entitlement to cosseted childhoods to unrealistic expectations of the workplace they will have a major reality check when they hit mid 2Os onwards.

we had one call in sick once because their pet hamster had died the day before!

And the company said “sure take it as sick leave”?

Perhaps it would be better to look at your recruitment policies.

My ds17 has a job and has to deal with the public, clean changing rooms and toilets, supervise children's parties etc. and seems to be well liked by his boss, happy to turn his hand to anything etc.

Sweeping generalisations are never fair.

And management training

As someone who has always looked younger, I find I sometimes have trouble with women in their 50s in the workplace because I look younger and they expect more ...reverence from me. Rather than speaking to them as the 36 year old I am.

I look young too, and deliberately never ever reveal my age at work.

For me as I've gotten older (45) I have found I value work life balance more. I think 20 somethings value this too. 30 somethings tend to lean in quite hard.

I'm quite direct and specific with feedback about expectations on behaviour, ultimately we all have things we can improve on, but I always make it a shit sandwich as in my years of managing, no one, literally no one, likes hearing stand-alone criticism.

This is what l think.

Im quite admiring of them trying to upset
the apple cart.

I'm afraid you are going to have to step back and let issues emerge. Management will not act if things get done anyway. So they will receive more complaints and then that's their issue to address not yours. Same when one disappears. You just continue at your normal pace and the rest won't get done.

How much do you pay for working Christmas?

We don’t get extra, we get certain benefits though. It is part of our contract that we sign when we accept the job.