Posted on 02/11/2014 12:14:50 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A class that teaches you how to eat or even the basic social skills to get a job – is it really necessary?
Some companies think so, particularly for the generation of twenty-somethings and younger dubbed millennials.
While they are undoubtedly social-media savvy, living their lives online in 140 characters or fewer, many of the younger potential workers lack very basic skills because of it, according to some employers.
“Writing skills -- people don’t write as much as they used to. They’re texting, so they forget to write in complete sentences and articulate their written skills professionally,” said Jeff Dunn, an Intel campus relations manager.
Even if a cover letter scores the millennial an interview, many still flunk their face-to-face meetings because they aren’t being professional, according to the HR Policy Association.
According to many hiring managers, a small number of millennials during an interview use slang or overly casual language, respond to a text message, pick up a phone call, or even have their parents or pets accompany them.
“Everything about you shows. If your email address is screwloose dot com or tequilagirl, that shows (you’re) unprofessional,” said Gina Snyder, a business etiquette trainer.
The need for professionalism at all times is why Sacramento State students attended an event at the college recently, to learn proper dining etiquette from Snyder.
“What should I order? What knife should I use? Where do my solids go? Where do my liquids go? That’s something I’m interested in learning,” student Melissa Aguirre said.
Employers are also calling the attitudes of younger people alarming.
In a recent annual survey by the Center for Professional Excellence, many of the 400 human resources executives surveyed said young employees often appear arrogant in interviews and appear at the office with a sense of entitlement.
“Recruiters want to know: Are you ready to cross the line? Are you ready to cross the line to become a professional, to step into my company?” Snyder said.
More than half the employers surveyed also said millennials are spending too much time on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
My dad railed about the hippies.
Yep.
Thanks for your stories. Just wondering, about these children/nephews/nieces, what was their chosen major in college and on average, how many hours a week did they work while there were attending college, during the school year and during the summer?
My son will turn 20 this spring. He’s finishing up his second year of community college and planning to transfer to a 4-year university this fall. His grades are pretty good; it took him a while to figure out how hard he needed to work and how to study efficiently. Now he’s making As and Bs consistently.
He plans to study business, and - being handsome, a sharp dresser, and persuasive - will probably end up in sales or marketing, unless he unexpectedly falls in love with finance or something. His experience in low-end retail has opened his eyes to what jobs he can expect without education in a practical field!
He previously worked as a lifeguard, about 40 hours a week. Since he started this job last August, he’s consistently worked 20-30 hours a week.
I certainly can see a company considering someone, with poor social etiquette over a lunch interview, as a person unfit for the work environment. Poor social skills indicate not only a lack of professionalism, but also a lack of respect for other people. It is that lack of respect that leads to workplace strife and all sort of issues that disrupt the work environment.
What kind of lunch etiquette would be considered bad enough to the point where you think it should affect the hiring process? Do you mean like holding a fork in your ahand in a way someone would consider improper or something more disruptive? Where would you say, when it comes to behavior during lunches, that you would draw the line such that crossing it is legit disruptive?
Congratulations to him. I presume the lifeguard work was basically a summer job as opposed to a year round job, correct?
And as for his work in community college, I think that we are now seeing much more people go to community colleges and it is becoming a much smarter decision. Now, working 20-30 hours a week can cover all one’s expenses at a community college. Nowadays, if a student is living away from home, working 20-30 hours a week even in most state schools covers maybe a small fraction of the combined cost of tuition, living expenses and other fees. I might have considered community colleges an option when I was in high school, but my fellow millennials and their baby boomer parents had this mindset that you simply have to have the best college possible and go into any kind of debt necessary to get it. Ideas like starting at a community college or alternating between semesters of work and school or working while taking night classes - these were never considered options for a second (actually, taking night classes to get your degree is often not an option period, the majority of colleges and grad/med/law schools simply do not give you the option of working while taking night classes, for various possible reasons).
I was wondering what you would also say on what I asked for EBH. When it comes to etiquette during lunch meetings or seminars or board and office meetings, what are types of behavior that cross the line from simply being individual quirks to being disruptive to the point that they become too hard to work with?
One of the programmers I work with will send out emails detailing some issue. I often read and reread his documents, and come away wondering what the subject of the document is.
Yes, the lifeguard job was for the summer, although the YMCA and county rec. center have year-round lifeguard positions. A boy I taught in 5th grade Sunday School is a lifeguard at the rec center. Makes me feel old!
Bill had good test scores and could have gone to a university out of high school, but he didn’t want to. We figured this out as time passed during his senior year, and he never said, “Mama, I need you to pay an application fee to UNC-Wherever.” He just wasn’t ready. He has savings, a “527 Plan,” that’s paying his community college costs, and he’s blowing most of his wages on clothes and concerts, but his dad is lenient and I just have to ride it out. I grab a bit to contribute to his auto insurance cost when I can ;-).
Now he has a realistic idea of what he wants in life, at least for now. He’s very good looking and personable, and I think he can be a real success in a sales-related field. He’s also an artist and musician, and he might get into marketing in those industries. There are a lot of options when he gets into the business program in a big state university.
I have been at business lunches where people were so offensive, I would not work with them. As an example, I was at a business lunch one day and one of the people I was eating with reached over and took food off of my plate and ate it. I could not believe it!
At a business meal, I intentionally slow down and eat slowly. Generally speaking, eating fast does not inspire confidence or make the right impression.
Dining etiquette is in the details. Ordering the right kind of food as not to have a manners nightmare, like not slurping spaghetti, or that over-sauced burger and insisting on using your hands, or not using your napkin.
Manners as my earlier post states is about respect.
I still marvel that I married a man who licked gravy off his knife.
different type of social situation LOL.
He doesn’t do that anymore. We celebrated our 25th anniversary last week.
When my husband was in college (after we were married), he was involved in a career-preparation program at the university which included training in proper dining etiquette.
The three things most disruptive are bringing up subjects people should avoid at a workplace: politics, sex, and religion.
That said, a person with an obnoxious personality who is loud and tries to dominate all conversation. On this, I know it well as I worked for such a man, my direct supervisor.
That could certainly cause severe issues, though the fact that you were having business lunches with them shows that their etiquette did not make them undesirable in terms of hiring.
I guess we have to make of that what we will. We these all millenials or were some of them from older generations as well?
I would not work with them.
Doesn’t US steel still hire welders in the Longview area?
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=welder&l=TX
700+ welding jobs in TX right now.
My nephew is in his final two years of a computer science major/psychology minor. Don’t ask me how he came up with that combo. He works as many hours as he can get during the summer and 20-30 hours per week during the school year. My brother (his father) died while he was in junior high, so the kid has really had to hustle.
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