Hey X-gen bosses - How do you deal with Y-ers?

[CountDeMoney]

So, a lot of people on Languish are "generation X" people, and a lot of you hold mid or high management positions in your companies, corporations, firms and whatnot.

How the fuck do you deal with Y-ers? Or is the difference not as pronounced as in Poland (where X-geners were very hard working and Y-geners are fucking lazy freeloaders).

Oh, it's pronounced;  the problem I've seen with Gen Yers is they are simply not as prepared for entry-level stuff that actually involves human interaction coming out of college.  Good luck trying to get their asses on the phone;  if it's not email, you might as well use smoke signals.  And forget public speaking, presentations, or other "performance arts".

[Zanza2]

The thing is, people these days not only are not happy to put in these hours, they expect to be paid the way people who put in these hours are, which is not acceptable.

Why isn't it acceptable? It's a free market.

[Slargos]

But sure, maybe I come from a background that differs from the norm. The last 10 years, my standard week has seldom been less than 50 hours, and during peaks it has typically crossed 80 hours. My old man still complains that I'm lazy, but he routinely likes to pull 100 hour weeks. Though frankly, I think he's paying for it now.

Same for me. My standard working day is 9 a.m. - 7/8 p.m. In busy times, it's until 10-11 p.m., with perhaps 20 hours per month of weekend work on average being required too.

The thing is, people these days not only are not happy to put in these hours, they expect to be paid the way people who put in these hours are, which is not acceptable.

Frankly, I'm fine with the fact that people want to work shorter hours. If you're happy earning less, go for it.

What I resent is that when the discussion comes up, as for instance when a friend of mine related the story of how he'd gotten a huge paycheck (~$3000 after taxes with a lot of OT and night/weekend compensation, which is admittedly pretty good for a guy working as a journalist in Sweden, barely out of school) and proceeds to ask me about my biggest monthly paycheck. I made a bit over $30 000 my best month, but I can't say that because I know it will only cause resentment. Of course, they don't know that I worked every single day of that month, and that I sacrifice a lot that they take for granted in my job.


Of course, people typically don't think. They just look at the bottom line. Sure, my profit margin is pretty big. Depending on the product it's between 50-80%. If you just look at the time spent with the customer I'm sometimes making in excess of $1000/hour. However, I can sometimes spend up to (and in horrible scenarios beyond) 20 hours behind the scenes, so to speak, and suddenly the calculation doesn't look so good. Somehow, however, those other 18 hours are "free" since I can't bill anyone for them. Likewise, all the nights I spent sleepless because of a bad couple of weeks, sunday mornings spent taking calls from angry/happy/curious customers, and 6 hour drives to deliver a quote to a guy who can't pay but really wants to know "how much it costs" are never considered when bitching about that paycheck.

[Martinus]

Yeah. What I think is one of the reasons is that people expect their pay to be a direct function of education/degree, which is simply not the case.

What your education simply gets you is opening the door to certain professions (more in some than others, I suppose, but in principle that's the way it is). However, once you are within that profession, I learned that a huge bulk of how much you are paid is a function of how flexible/available you need to be.

People think that if they finish a good school and have some additional education in their field, they should be paid a lot, whereas simply this is not the case - because there are dozens of people who are just as good as you. What sets one aside is willingness to put up with frankly "shitty" lifestyle involving a lot of work and having to make personal compromises. Just as you, I do not mind people who say they want to work less/have more "9 to 5" job and be paid less, but what pisses me off are people who think they deserve high pay for a laidback job simply because "a school teacher should be paid more than a plumber" or some elitist shit like this.

[Martinus]

The thing is, people these days not only are not happy to put in these hours, they expect to be paid the way people who put in these hours are, which is not acceptable.

Why isn't it acceptable? It's a free market.

Not really. These people do not get hired. But then they go into the streets and protest, like the slackers in Spain or Greece right now.

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah. What I think is one of the reasons is that people expect their pay to be a direct function of education/degree, which is simply not the case.

I'd rather hire someone without a degree with 5 years' experience on the job or a freshly-minted DD-214 than someone with a degree right out of college whose only experience the last 5 years was date rape and sleeping in their own beer bong vomit.

[The Larch]

The thing is, people these days not only are not happy to put in these hours, they expect to be paid the way people who put in these hours are, which is not acceptable.

Why isn't it acceptable? It's a free market.

Not really. These people do not get hired. But then they go into the streets and protest, like the slackers in Spain or Greece right now.

You project so much that you should get a side job in a movie theatre.

[CountDeMoney]

 

[Martinus]

Yeah. What I think is one of the reasons is that people expect their pay to be a direct function of education/degree, which is simply not the case.

I'd rather hire someone without a degree with 5 years' experience on the job or a freshly-minted DD-214 than someone with a degree right out of college whose only experience the last 5 years was date rape and sleeping in their own beer bong vomit.

Are people you hire among the best paid individuals in your country?

[grumbler]

Not really. In fact, these are pretty lax hours - I know people who stay at work until 3 a.m. regularly.

I know  people who start work every day at 4:00am and work until 5:00am the next day.

[Tamas]

Well I hope you workaholics get decent overtime money for slaving away for other people's profit.
If yes, all is well. If not, you are the crazy ones, not the people who are fine with working 40 hours, especially if they get the same money you do. And if thats roughly the same job too, then you overtimers are the suckers, and you need to realize that.

Me? I have kept it strict principle to never take work home. It is gI have worked overtime a lot of times, on multiple occassions I ended up helping other guys/teams overtime without financial compensation, when shit hit the fan and I stayed in to clear it up. But I work to live not the other way around.

[Legbiter]

I find generation Y to be alot more varied than mine is. Sure you get folks who're like "email or it didn't happen" and they seem to be a little less comfortable being left to their own devices at work, but I wouldn't write them off as completely worthless. They just require a slightly different handling method.

[Barrister]

Gen X is supposed to be hard-working, while Gen Y are a bunch of slackers?

The original stereotype of Gen X was exactly that - a bunch of slackers.  The irony is strong in this thread.

[Tamas]

Gen X is supposed to be hard-working, while Gen Y are a bunch of slackers?

The original stereotype of Gen X was exactly that - a bunch of slackers.  The irony is strong in this thread.

yep

[Ed Anger]

Ed's hiring process:

Plusses:

Hard Worker
Vet (Combat Vets double plus good)
Won't treat their co-workers like crewmen on a Klingon Battlecruiser
Age 30+
Alumni from Ohio colleges

Minuses:

Just came out of college
Sass mouth
Women
Flamboyant poofs
Alumni from Michigan State(morons)
Stiller or Pats fanatics