Generation whYne

MSN is reporting that "Generation Y" may be the most demanding employees yet. Gen Yers are employees under the age of 29. While this is a serious article, what made me laugh the most is seeing how out of touch Gen Yers are when it comes to the abilities of older generations.

Taken from the MSN article:

“We are a people that had cell phones in high school,” he says. “Of course we are going to expect to have the most up-to-date gadgets in order to compete in today’s sleepless digital market.”

Bailin agrees. “I think if other generations had such technologies as cell phones and BlackBerrys, they would work toward getting them financed through work as well.”

Wake up kids, we are the generations that invented the technology you grew up with! If it weren't for the Baby Boomers and Generation X, cell phones, the Internet, email, and the blackberry wouldn't exist. You really think we are incapable of using the technology we fostered??

Spoken like true virgins to the "real world," I might add. I loved my blackberry when I first got it from my employer. That is until I started getting emails at 2AM, during dinner, all hours on weekends, while I was on vacation... The idea of your employer paying for and giving you a cell phone, berry, etc. is cool (especially when you're the first of all your friends to have the newest gadget on the market) until you realize that you never, ever are away from the office. You may be sipping daiquiris on the beach three thousand miles away from the office and using your hard-earned vacation time, but having that little gadget means you'll still be expected to get back to the boss before his or her workday is over.

These kids are also whining about the debt they've gotten into. WAAA! Boo Hoo. We all have college debt. Deal with it.

And they say they have more experience than we ever did graduating college. Internships have been around since the dawn of society, so just because you were the gopher/copy girl/file clerk, and shadowed some middle management supervisor for a semester, doesn't give you any more of an advantage over those who graduated college before you. Christ, you were just the intern. Do you know how many interns have worked for me? Too many to count and they're all just remembered as "the intern." When clarification is needed, it's "the intern from the summer of (fill in the blank)." No employer likes an intern, your more work than your worth. We just hire you to help out your mom, dad, uncle, etc., who probably knows someone and as some sort of influence over something that's going to help out our company.

Lastly, because of the above stated reasons, they expect to be paid more. HA! You've got to earn your right to a big paycheck, kids. No college degree or internship will fully prepare you for what you'll learn on the job. I don't care where you went to school, how many interships you've had or what industry you're in, your early working years are what makes you who you'll be professionally. And that can only be earned through hard work, starting with an entry-level position with entry-level pay. So suck it up and stop your whining Generation Y!