What’s up with people?
Maybe I’m just getting old, but it seems like people in the workforce are real jerks. Especially some of the younger folks.I had to send some people to a meeting in Philly. It’s a day trip from here. It’s a really long day trip, but doable. I’ve done New York to DC as a day trip more than once for business. In fact, doing a DC to Philly day trip doesn’t even rank among the memorable crappy things I’ve been asked to do for a job. I’ve had employers ask me to do some really sucky things.
So, I ask these people to go. No, I tell them to go. It’s a critical meeting for a mission critical project.
What happens? They whine. They cry. They complain. I get to hear all about how one of them is breast feeding and it’s going to be such a hardship to take her pump on the train. (It's ONE frigg'n day!) I get to hear about how long they day is going to be. (So?) I get to hear about how much this is going to be for inconvenient them. (Yeah, working is inconvenient.)
In my whole entire career I’ve never complained to my boss when I was asked to do something. Once or twice there have been real, serious constraints (e.g., I was past the point in my pregnancy when the doctor said not to travel.) But I’ve never complained about inconvenience. I might have bitched to my friends… but never to my boss.
But these people… what’s wrong with them? I’m not their boss – I’m their boss’s boss. Can you imagine that? Can you picture yourself going into your boss’s boss and saying, “I really don’t think I should have to go to Philly because I’ll get home late!”
UGH!
But that’s not all… these people don’t even want to do the niceties for EACH OTHER. One woman in our department is out due to surgery. I tried to organize a collection to buy her flowers. There are twenty-five people in the department. THREE of them contributed to the flowers.
Now this might sound cynical, but I always give to these things. If I like the person, I give a lot. If it’s someone I don’t know or have neutral feelings towards, I give a reasonable amount. If it’s someone I don’t like, I give a non-insulating amount. The reason… I worry about how it makes me look to superiors. I mean, you want to be seen as a team player… right? Part of being a team player is taking care of your co-workers. I always worry that management will view me negatively if I don’t play nice.
I was shocked that people don’t care. No wonder the world is going down in flames… people don’t even know how to PRETEND that they care.
posted by Liz at 11:17 AM
7 Comments:
Heck when I was working a day trip to Philly was an adventure!
I do hear what you're saying. I think it's become a world where people can have whatever they want, whenever they want -- I feel like I've ranted about this before. You can even tell the difference in advertising. YOU DESERVE this! Society is being coddled into whiny entitlement.
That said, I feel for the breast-pumper. I can imagine the difficulties involved. It was very restrictive. And awkward.
However, she probably should have said, "If there's any way out of this, I don't feel I can go." Or else kept her mouth shut. My dad would say that the business-casual attitude has us all being more casual about everything in the workplace. But which came first -- the relaxed attire, or the apathy? Hm.
Unfortunately, I do feel that this tends to be a generational issue. Young people today are very entitled, and they always have been. Not all of them, but a lot. I like to think that I'm not. I mean, I've taken day trips to Detroit before, and that involves slogging through National Airport at 6:30 AM, not strolling leisurely through Union Station. And I for one cannot imagine whining to my boss, let alone my boss's boss. Of course, my boss's boss owns the company, so....
The one time when I did object to traveling was when they wanted me to fly on the Sunday afternoon after Levi was baptized and we were planning a party. So what did I do? I asked nicely if there was any way the schedule could be changed, but made sure management knew that I was willing to stick to the old schedule.
Just watch, these kids who complain and bitch and moan will be complaining even more 5 years from now when they have been passed up for promotion after promotion because they are selfish, whiny jerks.
If I sound mad, it's because all of these hosers give my generation a bad name.
in my day, we trekked up hill, in a snow and ice storm BOTH ways to get to the little log school house heated by our BREATH. And we didn't HAVE these fancy shmancy weekends off. WE gutted chickens and planted the back 40 acres! And a mule!
Schuyler, I don't think there is anything wrong with asking for special considerations because your child is being baptized. I am extremely pro-family. Heck, one time I had the entire project team rearrange stuff so one guy could have dinner with his wife on their wedding anniversary and it wasn't even an "important" one. And the lady who is breast-feeding... last year her father had a heart attack and things looked really bad for him. I moved mountains so she could be with him. I like her telecommute from the hospital when telecommuting was officially against company policy. I had schedules rearranged so she didn't have to travel. I guess that's what really bugs me; a lot of people don't give a rat's ass what's going on in the lives of the people who work for them. I go out of my way to make sure people don't have the big work / family stress issues and I feel like 1) they feel so entitled they don't appreciate it and 2) I end up getting taken advantage of. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And man... if I didn't truly believe family was important; I'd stop going out of my way for them and then they'd really have something to cry about!
Israel ... it was an adventure ... that I encountered on more than one occasion!! In a car, not on a train. And didn't complain about to anyone about. Ross could tell some real work travel doozies. Like when he went to England for a month and stayed in a colosseum ... or when he had to go to Texas for 10 days and Lillie was 3 months old with colic. The Army doesn't **do** family issues.
Schuyler ... it's interesting, they were saying the same things about my generation when we hit the work place too. We were whiney, and didn't know anything and how would we ever make anything of ourselves. It was obnoxious then and it's obnoxious now. Some people know how to work and some don't ... in every generation. The media likes to make a big deal out of those who don't. And Liz is apparently "blessed" with a bunch who don't right now. Ross is working with a couple of young people who are great and work from home to boot and one from my generation who whines and complains incessantly and is always looking for time off and loopholes, etc. So I think it is possible to over-generalize the generational thing.
Liz ... keep up the good work. Remember what I say to my children when I'm done arguing, "I've given you my answer. You may not like the answer, but it's the one you have." Your employees sound as tho they may need a little dose of reality like that.
I took the train to Philly for a day-long business trip when I was 36 (may have been even more, but I know it was at least 36) weeks pregnant. I was appreciative that I was able to take the train, where I could get up and move around, and not have to drive myself there. Never occurred to me to balk at making the trip at all... And after Ethan was born I did an overnight trip to St. Louis - breast pump and all. Yeah, it felt a little crazy to be carrying something like 36 oz of breast milk home on the plane with me, but, again, it didn't occur to me not to go...
Crazy.
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