GYPSY and Generation Y

[Kyle Weiss]

Let's read about my g...g...g...gennnneration!  :cheers:  

The GYPSY needs a lot more from a career than a nice green lawn of prosperity and security.  The fact is, a green lawn isn't quite exceptional or unique enough for a GYPSY.  Where the Baby Boomers wanted to live The American Dream, GYPSYs want to live Their Own Personal Dream.  

Paul Harvey, a University of New Hampshire professor and GYPSY expert, has researched this (click me), finding that Gen Y has "unrealistic expectations and a strong resistance toward accepting negative feedback," and "an inflated view of oneself."  He says that "a great source of frustration for people with a strong sense of entitlement is unmet expectations. They often feel entitled to a level of respect and rewards that aren’t in line with their actual ability and effort levels, and so they might not get the level of respect and rewards they are expecting."

For those hiring members of Gen Y, Harvey suggests asking the interview question, “Do you feel you are generally superior to your coworkers/classmates/etc., and if so, why?”  He says that “if the candidate answers yes to the first part but struggles with the ‘why,’ there may be an entitlement issue. This is because entitlement perceptions are often based on an unfounded sense of superiority and deservingness. They’ve been led to believe, perhaps through overzealous self-esteem building exercises in their youth, that they are somehow special but often lack any real justification for this belief."

And there it is.  

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[AJ]

In my opinion this is an excellent article in which I'm in total agreement. I used to have to deal with those people everyday. There's no end to what they think they should be given without sufficient performance to justify their demands. I had to make a decision not to hire anyone that didn't have at least 5 years experience in computer network design or construction. It seemed like this would run up my labor cost due to higher wages but in fact it reduced it because the ones that had the experience didn't make unreasonable demands and performed with enough efficiency to allow me to reduce the number of Techs needed thus lowering labor costs.

Thanks for posting this Kyle. I'm not sure if I understood the reason you posted this but it reminds me of how glad I am because I don't have to deal with all those self important whining babies anymore. Retirement is a blessing.  

AJ

BTW I decided not to mention a recent demonstration of this behavior in one of the threads.:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I posted it mostly because I am quite critical of my "Generation Fail" than anything. I've always felt like I was on the outside; growing up with these clowns and listening to the mantras teachers, parents and others not doing their job by enabling this to happen. Life was very different for me.

So now that we're all older (and most not much wiser) I find it bittersweetly amusing to see others like me, both studying and criticizing what I've noticed for a long time.

It's sad, because I know these people my age (and thereabouts) are going to turn into people in power, taxpayers, voters, etc; and the world will be run by 'em. It's a fact. How will it turn out?

That's the scary part.

 

[AJ]

It's sad, because I know these people my age (and thereabouts) are going to turn into people in power, taxpayers, voters, etc; and the world will be run by 'em.   It's a fact.   How will it turn out?  

That's the scary part.  

I was hoping to sleep well tonight. I was hoping to live at least another 25 years now I'm not so sure I want to. Chaos and devastation has never been to my liking. :affraid: 

AJ

 

[jefe1037]

This has been a part of my perspective for a long time. I have understood entitlement and the way my generation feeds themselves with instant gratificaton and quick fixes and the newest electronic device as a way to opiate their senses from truely having to A: actually listen to other people 2) actually do the work that needs to be done and D: take accountability for ones own actions. A good phone call from the selective services would pull some heads out of where they are firmly implanted, because I don't see any other solution for what we have going on right now.


Ps bonus for the movie referenced

 

[monbla256]

Read thru the posts on this and have given it some thought and will jump in anyway!! :twisted: 
Folks are not gonna like what I have to say but here goes" Lets get back to the SOURCE of this idea of "entitlements", MY generation, the BOOMERS. We were going to "change the world, make it better" and as soon as we started making $s we wen't down that road helter-skelter to the point we are at the social/economic point we are today. We DID NOT change ANYTHING except ourselves and our children. WE gave them that attitude of "entitlement" so what should we expect? We called for a REVOLUTION but NONE of us showed up to take to the streets. We got busy making and selling all kinds of "stuff" and encouraging the next generation to do the same. WE need to stand up and take responsibility for what we have done. JMHO :twisted:  :twisted: 

 

[Kyle Weiss]

That was already pointed-to as the source of the issue, Mon, so... yes, you're right, but late for lunch.   :lol:  Blame ain't gonna do much good anyhow, the damage is done. Getting those to wake the eff up and start undoing it, that's the challenge.

Meanwhile, there is no easy solution for it.   Those of us surrounded by our generation of crybabies and little Princes and Princesses will then also be raising children.   I think have a good 50 - 100 years of generational crap and bad habits to sift through before we start seeing the dawn. We're just past sunset.   True "generations" aren't even 25 years any longer, with society chuggin' along as it is.   I doubt kids born in 2003 will have much in common with a kid born today when they reach adulthood, respectively.  

Maybe that quickening will help solve the issues a little faster.   Who knows.

Just gonna do as I always have--duck 'n' weave, hold tight to my lessons, fight that which cannot be avoided and appreciate what I have.   Kept me safe, reasonably satisfied and thinking. Can't ask for much more these days.

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[bosun1]

I'm a child of the 60's.
Had a button that said "Trust no one over 30".
It seems my generation took that to heart...buncha untrustworthy bastiches!

 

[pepesdad1]

All this is true...remember Stanley J's movie Clockwork Orange.  We are here.  It is happening.  It is done.  The Boomers (me included) screwed the pooch...and it is done. Period.  Society does not go backwards for anyone...it progresses into chaos.  We are just now seeing the fruits of our labor.  Chickens have come home to roost.

 

[dshpipes]

Yup. That all sounds right.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Burgess' book "A Clockwork Orange" took me to new levels of thinking years ago, and when I had more access to good films, Kubrick's interpretation was pretty good.

Plenty of people saw this coming, sooner or later, from one direction or another.

The apocalypse is gonna really hurt for certain groups of people, sorry to say. Part of why I keep things like Facebook around is that it keeps me real. Every single day I see lofty ideas talked about, mantras repeated by people, publicly, mind you, that they're powerful and or deserving, and need to get their chakras aligned so they can wake up tomorrow and harvest the fruit they "prayed" for.

Very few make good on their goals. It's a weird cycle I notice that "goals" seem to mean "finish line," like...that they realized what they want they are that thing. Then they talk about it. Constantly.

Really disturbing. Awash in terrible life decisions with no way out except wishes and pride.

Can't say I haven't subjected myself to it. There was a time I figured there'd be a day when I got mine. I knew I wasn't going to get it gifted to me (no matter how hard I wished), so I just gave up and did whatever I could to get by--age/ability had something to do with it. Productive? No. But I didn't lie to myself.

The teachers/parents, etc, that blew their whistle on the Self-Esteem Railway were ubiquitous. If you didn't buy it, and tried to do your own thing, you were a ne'er-do-well...a maverick...someone untrustworthy--someone who demanded proof for their existence, and dared to ask for guidance. Those rebels were met with punishment, from social peers to administration, for not buying their dream (or fears). Usually topped-off with damning, "You'll never be anything."

Puts it all quite into perspective, wouldn't you say? What is "being anything?" About the only thing with which I struggle these days is to wonder if I made the right choice, seeing as I have "limited options" for not attending school, walking their path...then I remember from where I've come, how far I've come and it makes where I'm going a little easier to see...

...ahead. By my own hand, destruction or glory--truly mine.

 

[Anonymous]

My personal life is a postscript to my novels; it consists of the sentence: "And I mean it."

:face:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

My personal life is a postscript to my novels; it consists of the sentence: "And I mean it."

:face:

Nice. Although since merely mentioning Rand is a hotbutton political meme with the Cable News Crowd these days, casting 10,000 opinions from hardly a person who has read anything she wrote (or considered the content even if I did), I suspect that'll swat the hornets' nest with a broom handle a little. :lol:

I'm surprised this thread hasn't relocated as it is.

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[Vito]

I'm glad I found this thread...not because of the linked article (which I had already read thanks to a link from Mrs. Vito yesterday), but because of this:

My personal life is a postscript to my novels; it consists of the sentence: "And I mean it."

:face:

...and this....

Nice.     Although since merely mentioning Rand is a hotbutton political meme with the Cable News Crowd these days, casting 10,000 opinions from hardly a person who has read anything she wrote (or considered the content even if I did), I suspect that'll swat the hornets' nest with a broom handle a little.   :lol:

I'm surprised this thread hasn't relocated as it is.  

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:cheers: I didn't know either of youse guys were into any of Ayn Rand's stuff. Cool. 8) 

 

[Kyle Weiss]

The article kind of made its rounds recently, but it very much so bears keeping in mind. My favorite part was it talking/presenting in the language of those being criticized... which, is what made it remarkable. And hilarious.

Meanwhile, in Randland, yeah, I nary mention "Rand" at the get-go anymore. There's been this movement nailing Rand to the cross as a matter of political discourse, which I think she'd have found downright hilarious. Especially in the capacity and the sheep-like nature it is being done, starting at college-level (watered-down clubs and billion-dollar clubhouses) to those that wish they could hang with the cool kids. Disturbing parroting and mincing of context.

Rand's work came to me when I was living a more acetic life in my teens, when I found a street vendor in San Francisco selling a "Virtue of Selfishness" book for a buck. I offered him half a pack of cigarettes, and he accepted. I spent nights draining my car battery from reading it under the dome light, and it couldn't have come at a better time. T'was real. Still is, now a copy is always at hand, as a reminder of thoughts and times not easily dismissed, and heartily learned-from.

I might have changed a little, but then again... have I?

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[Vito]

...I might have changed a little, but then again... have I?  

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Beats me. In principle, you're in the best position to know that, but maybe not. I mean, apart from the fact that "objectivity" is impossible, honest self-assessment is damned hard even for the most intellectually honest people. Even for Vulcans...who are emotionally self-repressed weirdos anyway. No wonder they go homicidal when they go into heat every seven years. They have a lotta steam to let off. :mrgreen:

Anyhow, although I determinedly avoid academia (not to mention the ideological cesspool known as politics) and had no direct knowledge that it has become fashionable to diss Ayn Rand, I'm not surprised to hear it. It has always been fashionable among imagination-free parrots to revile those who think for themselves. Rationality is the first casualty in any mob action.

[Potential Rubber Room content excised by author in a civic-minded attempt to keep this thread outa the Elastic Chamber.  ]

 

[Anonymous]

One aspect of this disturbs me.

People have to believe in themselves, and in their potential for accomplishing great things. They can't just look around at depressing circumstances and figure "this is all there is to look forward to, so I might as well resign myself to  being a part-time, minimum wage prole in a world of unrelieved grey hopelessness."  If they do, they're sunk before they start.

And the worse things get around them, and the more their options are reduced to the point where sheer survival is a struggle, the more they need that kernal of belief and hope to sustain them.

Sure there are criminals who peddle that stuff to immature people desperate to hear that they're already way cool, but the sins of the hucksters who have taken advantage of them with it their whole lives shouldn't outweigh the need for it.

What else disturbs me about it is the blame-the-victims tone of it. Especially those who were suckered into taking out school loans with -- as it turns out -- no prospect of ever being able to get out from under them and the bankruptcy laws rigged by the predators to make escape impossible after everything that could be offshored has been. It's like pulling the legs off bugs and laughing at them for being crippled, economically and characterologically.

:face:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Veet:  I don't believe objectivity is an all-or-nothing thing.  There's objectivity, and there's subjectivity, and they exist as a weird soup.  I believe objectivity is secondary TO subjectivity, and no, it isn't anything pure, and perhaps it's a foolish notion, but seeing things from different angles and the attempt to separate certain personal aspects in order to gain a different perspective is highly valuable.   Maybe the Germans or Japanese have some lovely term for it that isn't so rigid, but in English, I have nothing to take its place.   At least, that's what I gathered from the idea of "objectivity."  It's a spice or salt, rather than a main course.   Too much is obvious, too little is as well.    Flavor accordingly?  <img class="emojione" alt="?" title=":shrug:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/emojione/assets/png/1f937.png?v=2.2.7"/>

Yak:   Excellent, excellent point.   You have a viewpoint here on the sidelines while I'm in the middle.  So I'm either seeing things in hyperfocus or at an elemental level.  I can't really tell.   I don't want to be a victim, and I'm in the waking throes (35+ years worth :lol: ) of wondering why I'm different from my status quo.   Or am I?   I don't know.  One thing is clear:  something is disturbingly missing from my peers, and being replaced by an arrogance and expectation that is doing them harm.   It's gonna need some more ideas and mechanics to stop it...since I only have my weird view to go by, it's an emotional reaction rather than a rational one.   I'd much rather open a generation's eyes to the issue at hand rather than damn the perpetuation, but...gotta start somewhere.   Perhaps it's the wrong vantage point.   It's a little ugly on the front lines (and lonely).     Meanwhile, thanks for keeping me real.  

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[Anonymous]

There used to be a profound disconnect between white collar kids in college & blue collar kids in college, and along pretty much exactly those attitudinal lines.

You could make a case for a massive snow job to convince everybody growing up that they were all white collar kids.

:face: 

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Nah.

It's convincing everyone as they grow up they're effing royalty. Bigger crime, the product, or the producers.

Verdict's still out for me, problem lands in the same spot. Step in sh*t, you look for the dog, the owner, and/or clean off your shoe. Takes all sorts.

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