The Young Labeled 'Entitlement Generation'

AP ^ | 6/26/05 | MARTHA IRVINE

[GPBurdell]

By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National WriterSun Jun 26, 4:43 PM ET

Evan Wayne thought he was prepared for anything during a recent interview for a job in radio sales. Then the interviewer hit the 24-year-old Chicagoan with this: "So, we call you guys the 'Entitlement Generation,'" the baby boomer executive said, expressing an oft-heard view of today's young work force. "You think you're entitled to everything."

Such labeling is, perhaps, a rite of passage for every crop of twentysomethings. In their day, baby boomers were rabble-rousing hippies, while Gen Xers were apathetic slackers.

Now, deserved or not, this latest generation is being pegged, too — as one with shockingly high expectations for salary, job flexibility and duties but little willingness to take on grunt work or remain loyal to a company.

"We're seeing an epidemic of people who are having a hard time making the transition to work — kids who had too much success early in life and who've become accustomed to instant gratification," says Dr. Mel Levine, a pediatrics professor at the University of North Carolina Medical School and author of a book on the topic called "Ready or Not, Here Life Comes."

While Levine also notes that today's twentysomethings are long on idealism and altruism, "many of the individuals we see are heavily committed to something we call 'fun.'"

He partly faults coddling parents and colleges for doing little to prepare students for the realities of adulthood and setting the course for what many disillusioned twentysomethings are increasingly calling their "quarter-life crisis."

Meanwhile, employers from corporate executives to restaurateurs and retailers are frustrated.

"It seems they want and expect everything that the 20- or 30-year veteran has the first week they're there," says Mike Amos, a Salt Lake City-based franchise consultant for Perkins Restaurants.

Just about any twentysomething will tell you they know someone like this, and may even have some of those high expectations themselves.

Wayne had this response for his interviewer at the radio station: "Maybe we WERE spoiled by your generation. But I think the word 'entitled' isn't necessarily the word," he said. "Do we think we're deserving if we're going to go out there and bust our ass for you? Yes."

He ended up getting the job — and, as he starts this month, is vowing to work hard.

Some experts who study young people think having some expectations, and setting limits with bosses, isn't necessarily negative.

"It's true they're not eager to bury themselves in a cubicle and take orders from bosses for the next 40 years, and why should they?" asks Jeffrey Arnett, a University of Maryland psychologist who's written a book on "emerging adulthood," the period between age 18 and 25. "They have a healthy skepticism of the commitment their employers have to them and the commitment they owe to their employers."

Many young people also want to avoid becoming just another cog who works for a faceless giant.

Anthony DeBetta, a 23-year-old New Yorker, works with other twentysomethings at a small marketing firm — and says the company's size makes him feel like he can make a difference.

"We have a vested interest in the growth of this firm," he says.

Elsewhere, Liz Ryan speculates that a more relaxed work environment at the company she runs — no set hours and "a lot of latitude in how our work gets done" — helps inspire her younger employees.

"Maybe twentysomethings have figured out something that boomers like me took two decades to piece together: namely, that there's more to life than by-the-book traditional career success," says Ryan, the 45-year-old CEO of a Colorado-based company called WorldWIT, an on and offline networking organization for professional women.

As much as some employers would like to resist the trend, a growing number are searching for ways to retain twentysomething employees — and to figure out what makes them tick.

"The manager who says I don't have time for that is going to be stuck on the endless turnover treadmill," says Eric Chester, a Colorado-based consultant who works with corporations to understand what he calls "kidployees," ages 16 to 24.

At Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, for instance, administrators have developed an internship with mentoring and more training for young nurses that has curbed turnover by more than 50 percent and increased job satisfaction.

Amos at Perkins Restaurants says small changes also have helped — loosening standards on piercings or allowing cooks to play music in the kitchen.

And Muvico, a company with movie theaters in a few Southern states, gives sporting goods and music gift certificates to young staffers who go beyond minimum duties.

"If you just expect them to stand behind a register and smile, they're not going to do that unless you tell them why that's important and then recognize them for it," says John Spano, Muvico's human resources director.

Still others are focusing on getting twentysomethings more prepared.

Neil Heyse, an instructor at Pennsylvania's Villanova University, has started a company called MyGuidewire to provide career coaching for young people.

"It's a hot issue and I think it's getting hotter all the time," Heyse says of work readiness. "There's a great amount of anxiety beneath the surface."

___

On the Net:

Chester's site: http://www.generationwhy.com

Heyse's site: http://www.myguidewire.com/

___

Martha Irvine is a national writer specializing in coverage of people in their 20s and younger. She can be reached at mirvine(at)ap.org

[weegee]

Interesting to see a Baby Boomer in the workforce be so open about his intolerance of younger workers. I've talked to others about the age discrimination for Generation X (now approaching 40) and the disrepect that some co-workers exhibit towards us.

They would rather give supervisor positions to divorcees with no degree than someone with a college degree and 5-7 years experience.

The way age discrimination is spelled out in the workplace only applies to elderly workers.

We will forever get the short end of the stick.

At least some people are willing to admit their prejudice.

[Melas]

Ummm, GW is a Boomer.

[weegee]

GenReagan will NOT be working 32 years at the same company. What with outsourcing, bankruptcy, and corporate takeovers, you can be sure of that.

Best you can hope for is 32 years in the same field.

[weegee]

And so were Clinton, Gore, and Kerry.

John Kerry was even a leader of the youth movement Baby Boomers. Whether kids accepted him as such or not... Even Gary Trudeau mocked this in a 1970s Doonesbury strip.

Not every member of the "Baby Boom" age bracket (post war birthrate explosion) shared the same behavioral traits although they all grew up in largely the same society.

Just as not every member of GenX/GenReagan subscribes to the same politics or work ethic.

[Nat Turner]

when we speak about a generation we are making generalizations. Not ALL boomers suck neither are all Gen X-ers virtous. But X42 (slick whilly) was the quintessential baby boomer.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

I turn 39 next week -- another one for this thread -- but when I was 30, I made a full-stop on my career, tossed away my degrees (including to masters degrees) and decided I could to a clerical job and devote my "career" to writing fiction and poetry.

I get paid cr@p wages -- and my supervisors admit it, but have little control over it. Though I do have good benefits -- it helps I work for a hospital. Thing is, though, I have a pretty flexible schedule and I get told repeatedly that they appreciate the effort I put in. Makes up for a lot of financial limits.

It also helps that I have had full support from my wife all the way.

[k2blader]

Wow, that's great. I'm happy for you.

[Melas]

See, I'm not going to let you get away with that. I believe whole-heartedly that GW is representative of far more Boomers than Bill Clinton. I would even go so far as to say that Clinton represented in character and in action, a small minority of boomers.

[hinckley buzzard]

I think you're just angry and want to blame someone

Of course he is/they are. This thread is full of wonderful irony. All the newer generation who resent the "entitlement" label and are trashing the boomer generation, are mad because they think they somehow have been getting screwed out of something they are **gasp** entitled to!

[LibertarianInExile]

"In their day, baby boomers were rabble-rousing hippies, while Gen Xers were apathetic slackers."

The most visible baby boomers WERE rabble-rousing hippies. Gen Xers had no visibility at all in the boomer dominated media which expected them to act like rebels without a clue, and so the rabble-rousing hippies CALLED them apathetic slackers.

"Now, deserved or not, this latest generation is being pegged, too — as one with shockingly high expectations for salary, job flexibility and duties but little willingness to take on grunt work or remain loyal to a company."

Why would college grads who've witnessed corporate 'loyalty' to employees dwindle down to in the last 40 years have any intention of being tied to a corporation by anything other than contract? Most states have at-will hiring and a company can fire you for coughing funny. And that's assuming you get hired at all, if you're a white male.

If your plan is to be loyal to and work for the same company for your entire career, unless you own it, you're fooling yourself. And even if you do manage to work for a company that retains you for however long it takes your pension to vest, odds aren't so great that your pension plan will be there any more, and the government certainly doesn't care if United or GM abrogates its responsibilities to retirees, regardless of the companies' promises to do so and retiree reliance on those promises. Cash is the only thing employees can keep and rely on. Small wonder the younger ones know to demand top dollar.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Point is -- and yeah, I got sidetracked -- there are a lot of non-salary benefits that companies can provide that would increase, if not guarantee loyalty. And it's not just the newly adult generation that responds to that.

[Modernman]

All the newer generation who resent the "entitlement" label and are trashing the boomer generation, are mad because they think they somehow have been getting screwed out of something they are **gasp** entitled to!

I don't feel entitled to Social Security. I'm actually not even interested in receiving it. I just don't want to be forced to keep paying for it.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

I only feel entitled to Social Security in that it was taken out of my paycheck and I'd like to get it back.

[Huntress]

Count me as another post-Boomer who doesn't want to hear ANY Baby Boomer lecture me on ANYTHING to do with personal responsibility, career choices, or any other topic that grownups talk about.

I've been cleaning up after Boomers my entire life, and frankly, I'm sick of them. Yes, there are some decent Boomers, but for the most part, their generation has been an absolute pox on the Republic.

Very well said. I agree completely.

[LibertarianInExile]

"I think you're just angry and want to blame someone." Of course he is/they are. This thread is full of wonderful irony. All the newer generation who resent the "entitlement" label and are trashing the boomer generation, are mad because they think they somehow have been getting screwed out of something they are **gasp** entitled to!"

Not EVERY boomer deserves scorn--there are plenty on this board that deserve credit for doing their best to change this redistributionism when they could. But I'm not about to say it's the majority and I'm not about to agree that Gen X has an entitlement mentality toward Social Security, when I don't know a single Gen Xer who believes they'll ever see a Social Security check, let alone believes they're 'entitled' to one. We'll see who screams loudest when the checks don't come in. I bet it won't be Gen X or the Millenials who are bitching about being entitled.

Respect used to be something elders deserved for their wisdom and hard work for their progeny. I see that now it's something some of you feel generationally **gasp** entitled to, without any reason for it.

[JerseyHighlander]

We're talking about being entitled to unencumbered wages/salaries/incomes. Where over 10% of our federal taxes will go toward paying interest on the national debt, and baby boomer politicians dare not even discuss debt reduction, rather they move toward inflation, further lowering the real buying power of our salaries.

From the CBO 2002(Prior to the Medicare Rx plan introduction)

We're going to by hampered our entire working lifetimes of mandatory outlays for Medicare and Social Security that will be greater than discretionary income, we wil see our infrastructure slowly crumble as the previous generation uses its large numbers as a voting bloc to maintain their subsidies, and no politician willing to faceoff against the AARP.

To top it all off, when we are nearing retirement, we'll be outnumbered by younger generations because of immigration, limitingour voting power to maintain the status quo for our own retirement and medical security.

While each American is responsible for his/her own outcome, in many ways we will be trapped inside a rigged system if we want to strive for the illustrious American dream.

Even saying this, I presume most Freepers will strive and succeed, but along the way we'll be paying for the long term negative savings rate amongst the baby boomer generation and our own generation.

[hinckley buzzard]

We're talking about being entitled to unencumbered wages/salaries/incomes

Made my point. If you think you're entitled to that you'll be the first generation saince the 1930's to enjoy such privileged status. Good luck.

[hinckley buzzard]

I don't feel entitled to Social Security. I'm actually not even interested in receiving it. I just don't want to be forced to keep paying for it.

It sounds like you think you're entitled to decide which government fiasco you will fund and which you won't. I feel the same way about Model Cities, Synfuel Corp, and the Department of Education. Good luck.

[wtc911]

When I was in the World Trade Center during the bombing in 1993............................

I was there too, crossing Liberty Street to meet a Comex floor broker for lunch when things went boom.

[wtc911]

But X42 (slick whilly) was the quintessential baby boomer.

---------------------------

You see what you want to see and in doing so insult most of the military echelon that has been planning and winning the war in Iraq...or do you suppose that the Generals are anything but mostly boomers?