MILLENIALS IN THE WORKPLACE

23 comments

Posted on 4th December 2012 by Administrator in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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23 Comments

  1. card802 says:

    My son has a small business. The following is an email from him to me.

    “Unemployment is high, we have clients on a waiting list, but there are no employees willing to work. We’re offering a very competitive starting wage, on the job training, + zero deductible health coverage. No college education required, but we do required a well rounded knowledge of computers.
    Most businesses advertise for customers…………….all of our advertising dollars are for employees. Frustrating.”

    You know why Romney lost the election?

    “When I’m elected, I will put Americans back to work,”

    ………………and the FSA said, “Fuck That!!”

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    4th December 2012 at 9:38 am

  2. Pirate Jo says:

    I didn’t know there were any Millennials in the workplace.

    Hot debate. What do you think? Thumb up 8 Thumb down 4

    4th December 2012 at 9:49 am

  3. Eddie says:

    I’m not sure why any Millenial would think that working in the corporate world would be any kind of career path, anyway.

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    4th December 2012 at 10:00 am

  4. Pirate Jo says:

    Eddie, I was recently in a meeting with several co-workers who all used to work for the same large corporation. They all lost their jobs through a round of massive layoffs – all had been there anywhere from 10-20 years. All of them expressed surprise at not being able to work for the same company their entire working lives and then retire from that company. All of these people were a bunch of Gen X’ers, too, which really REALLY surprised me. I’m right in the middle of Gen X and have never had the expectation that I would work for the same company my whole life, nor would I want to.

    I’ve done my time in big companies and hate working for them. I can barely stick it out with any of them for more than two years. I can’t stand all the layers of bureaucracy, and how there are always twice as many people with their hands in the cookie jar as you need to get something done, and every process seems to become a cumbersome relay team of hurry-up-and-wait. I’m still on the lookout for a controller position with a small business, but unfortunately there aren’t many of them left. If it takes twenty years, I’ll be too old to get hired for a job by then, and the prospect of putting up with corporate hell for that long, just so I can eat, makes me question whether eating is really worth it.

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    4th December 2012 at 10:52 am

  5. Colma Rising says:

    Holy shit, that cartoon about sums it up.

    At least in my experience doing big projects over the last few months and…. well…. right now, these whipper-snappers can be amazing if you simply clearly define the objective, stay on the text/email line and apply what I call “The Hipster Shield” which is to do everything possible to make the project better than everyone else’s and project the image that we really believe that.

    Because we are cooler than everyone else and we really believe that.

    We’ve been pulling off some pretty good shit at very big hoity toity meets with private college blue-bloods and shaming them. We make them cry. We make them look like a waste of money. We make them snivel in daddy’s argile.

    Fucking put on the headphones, call the ball and watch them run. Really…

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    4th December 2012 at 11:19 am

  6. Eddie says:

    PJ

    One of my millenial kids worked for a bank right out of college for about three months. It was an eye opener for her. She could have made more money slinging hamburgers. And the work environment was terrible. Pecking order, shit rolls downhill, her at the bottom.

    She then went to work for Aspen Ski Company in their accounting dept. After two seasons of being a seasonal temp, she got tired of waiting forever to get hired full time.

    She moved to Spain and worked (off the books of course) as a nanny for a couple of lawyers for a season…and now she works for me, at the moment. She’s thinking about Med School, although she has no illusions about the downside there. She knoows the only way that works is to have a niche practice that doesn’t take insurance

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    4th December 2012 at 11:41 am

  7. Colma Rising says:

    Eddie:

    Its a shame when you can make massively more money tending bar or waiting at an upscale joint…. feeding yuppies overpriced wine until the saunter awaay with vomit on their silk ties…. than putting time in at a desk.

    There is a major disconnect going on.

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    4th December 2012 at 11:46 am

  8. Christopher Harrison says:

    Colma Rising wrote:

    “Its a shame when you can make massively more money tending bar or waiting at an upscale joint…. feeding yuppies overpriced wine until the saunter awaay with vomit on their silk ties…. than putting time in at a desk.

    “There is a major disconnect going on.”

    SERIOUSLY? “Putting in time at a desk” should guarantee a more significant income? I think that this idea — that by getting an education we can get access to a job that allows us to sit at a desk and make a significant salary — is the major disconnect.

    It used to be that the people received a good income from MAKING THINGS WITH QUALITY and PROVIDING EFFICIENT SERVICES. None of this revolves around sitting at a desk. One of the biggest drains on our economy is the number of people we have sitting at desks, moving pixels around a computer screen, and receiving excessive compensation for the “management” they provide.

    And for the record, I even place myself somewhat in this category. I work F/T on construction sites as a resident engineer. The time I spend sitting at a desk is utterly soul-crushing and a good bit of it is just navigating the bureaucracy between the client, operating agency, design engineer and contractor. The time that I’m most productive is when I am out from behind my desk, in the field, identifying and solving problems. My longer-term goal is to get out from behind this desk permanently, and spend my time solving problems in my community and bioregion using permaculture principles.

    The goal of putting in time at a desk is eventually going the way of the dodo. Those who will be able to succeed will be those who can unite practice AND management. Most of the managers I’ve worked with/under will be completely lost in this regard.

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    4th December 2012 at 12:00 pm

  9. Colma Rising says:

    Chris Harrison: I was talking about skilled positions in finance, you’re talking construction.

    Make no mistake, though…. they are BOTH service jobs. I hate to admit it, as I work construction, but it is now basically assembling 90% of the time.

    You have to understand that unless you’re working a union job with seniority (large commercial/infrastructure) those jobs are a losing proposition. I view things from the interest of high earning potential and from the view that I don’t associate with people who don’t work, are not driven, etc….

    Immigration leaves two choices: Find a marketable skill, experience a drop in REAL wages and work dirty OR, as I advise any young person looking at trades, to join the Elevator union, Electricians union, Longshoreman’s union or get ready for a wild ride…. in that order.

    Because the sad fact is that there are no borders and we are not going to be producing much domestically. Shuffle paper, serve the rich, learn a higher skilled trade or get ready for subsistence…. politics aside, there is no better advice to give a kid who actually gives a shit besides putting on the Mean Greens which I hesitate to say may be the only option elsewise.

    Colma Has Spoken…. now I have some floodwork to deal with so get to work, Nancy.

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    4th December 2012 at 1:44 pm

  10. Roy says:

    Todays new word for all you shit throwing monkeys. Sinecure – A position or office that requires little or no work but provides a salary.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

    4th December 2012 at 1:53 pm

  11. ThePessimisticChemist says:

    I could have went to a large company and fought for the next 15 years to get as much responsibility as I have now. Granted, the pay would be a touch better, but the kind of experience I’m getting here is incalculable.

    The idea that working for a company for 20+ years was the best way has gone out the window. Its become blindingly obvious to me that just because you feel loyalty to a company, doesn’t mean they feel loyalty to you.

    I get asked by people my age how me and my wife have done it, and here’s the advice I give them:

    If you aren’t moving forwards, you are getting left behind.

    Don’t expect to stay at the same company for a long time at the same position. I’d say 5-7 years TOPS, and then its time to move on.

    Life’s not fair.

    =====================

    That last one I find myself tossing out more and more.

    “I paid into medicare my whole life, I should get my fair share!”
    “I showed up to class every day, how come THEY got an A and I didn’t???”
    “Hey, why did you just take my meatball sub?”

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 0

    4th December 2012 at 2:10 pm

  12. TeresaE says:

    @card, I used to find employees, when no one else could, if you wish, I’d be happy to see if maybe your son is missing something, or accidentally misrepresenting the job. Managers are not always marketers and finding employees is a weird combo of marketing and human nature that goes against the thought processes of most successful managers. Hard to explain, and I didn’t understand it until I was responsible to fill hundreds of jobs, but anyway, would love to help if I can.

    Large corporations begin to cannabalize themselves – and they are too big to see it. They allow the least skilled people to hold some of the most important – but misidentified – positions. Did you know that in order to get a job in most corporations, you have to appeal to the likes of a receptionist, or clerk, or intern, with exactly ZERO idea of what the skills that would be needed to successfully do the job.

    And that is before you are even contacted for a phone interview, let alone hired.

    Meetings and committees and busywork with no logical profit motive. Spending millions just to have meetings about having meetings to do something. Amazing they don’t just collapse in on themselves like a dying planet.

    Our modern government followed the corporate models, and then one-upped them.

    And we wonder why we are headed for disaster? How could we not be?

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    4th December 2012 at 2:29 pm

  13. Pirate Jo says:

    “I think that this idea — that by getting an education we can get access to a job that allows us to sit at a desk and make a significant salary — is the major disconnect.”

    Yet that’s actually what happened to me. Throughout my entire childhood and teen years, only one adult ever gave me career advice. That was my dad, a carpenter, and his advice was: “Get a job in a building that already has air conditioning.”

    I had no idea what I would do sitting at a desk all day – I just wanted to wear clothes like the gals on that TV show “L.A. Law.”

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    4th December 2012 at 2:34 pm

  14. Pirate Jo says:

    “Meetings and committees and busywork with no logical profit motive. Spending millions just to have meetings about having meetings to do something. Amazing they don’t just collapse in on themselves like a dying planet.”

    THAT’S IT!!!!!! That’s my life!!!

    In my job search, I’ve decided that if a company is big enough to have project managers or business analysts, it’s too big.

    I see such gross inefficiencies due to having too many people in the chain – yet the way we have to deal with it is with ever more and ever longer piles requirements/documentation/paper to keep up to date, instead of just removing some of the links in the chain. Like more busywork is going to make a constipated process move along quicker, somehow. It’s maddening.

    Also, when companies get too big, you have to endlessly, fruitlessly, ask other people for things. You can’t just go get the inputs you need by yourself. You can’t start or finish anything without waiting for crap from ten other people. So when you ask someone else to provide you something, you also have to create a task for yourself, so you remember to follow up.

    I’m ready to forgo the air conditioning and compete with the Mexicans picking strawberries. At least I’d have a box of strawberries at the end of the day as evidence that I got something done.

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    4th December 2012 at 2:43 pm

  15. Stucky says:

    TeresaE — your post regarding least skilled people holding important positions reminds me of The Peter Principle.

    To all — some of you are not old enough to know how it used to be; … there was a time if you had more than two jobs in the previous ten years, you were basically unemployable.

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    4th December 2012 at 3:22 pm

  16. Colma Rising says:

    “Did you know that in order to get a job in most corporations, you have to appeal to the likes of a receptionist, or clerk, or intern, with exactly ZERO idea of what the skills that would be needed to successfully do the job.”

    -TeresaE

    Why yes! I do! I also know that they are women usually….

    I’m not worried in the least about finding employment after graduation… at least a foot in a door.

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    4th December 2012 at 3:49 pm

  17. Llpoh says:

    Welcome to reality, millenials. Work is not fun. Rewarding jobs do not exist. Bosses will not kiss your ass every five minutes. Want a good job? Be the best in your field, work hard, do not complain, and keep one job for a few years at least. Job hopping is the path to ruin.

    But the millennials have been told they are special and to do something they love. And they believe it. Too bad. It was a lie, and jobs people love are few and far between.

    Do something challenging instead – it will be personally rewarding. Seeking a job to love is a fool’s errand.

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    4th December 2012 at 4:05 pm

  18. card802 says:

    @TeresaE,

    Thank you for your offer, I ran it by my son and he said:

    “Well that is a fantastic offer, I may take her up on it but after some brainstorming we did identify some issues with the way we were advertising for the position, and applicants have picked up since then. Also, Baker college developed a class for the fall semester centered around our hiring process.
    They are presenting the results of the project to Lou and I tonight at 6:00.”

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

    4th December 2012 at 5:05 pm

  19. Card802 says:

    Teresa,

    Now he is interested.

    Kids………

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

    4th December 2012 at 5:55 pm

  20. Novista says:

    This lot hasn’t even got to the workplace. I saw this ep:

    http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/young-scientists-0022397

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

    4th December 2012 at 6:10 pm

  21. TeresaE says:

    @ Card, this is my throw-away account, shoot me an email and I’ll send you back my used-everyday- one for you to send to your son. Tell him to send me ad copy or links so I can see what he’s trying.

    gem fem 67 at yahoo remove spaces

    Glad to help if I can.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0

    4th December 2012 at 1:13 am

  22. TeresaE says:

    @PJ, I’ve worked little companies and big ones, in sales, hr and accounting, and both have their pros and cons. But I’ve figured out that my personality is best fitted with a smaller company where I can wear more hats. Sitting in front of computer terminal and making calls, or figuring payroll, all the live long day drives me nuts. Give me a job where I do a lot of everything, especially problem solve, and I’m happiest.

    The main problem is that in a small company, the entire organization is very dependent on the speed of the owner. Amazing how many really bad businessmen – that either had a great idea, or have/had a great skill, or got lucky through family or other money – are still surviving in this country. And getting into a good one’s company is hard because their people don’t leave easily and as we all know, the economy sucks.

    In a big company, success, and failure, is spread out, amongst many managers. You might even be able to move out of the bad one’s department and keep the big company perks. But don’t let big companies fool ya’, there is no guarantees there either.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

    4th December 2012 at 1:26 am

  23. Novista says:

    Probably another wasted effort, but there are more high school science fair winners:

    http://www.wafb.com/story/20256574/four-students-join-100000-winners-circle-in-2012-siemens-competition-in-math-science-technology

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0

    4th December 2012 at 5:47 am

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