Criticizing the work ethic of younger generations is misplaced. Workplace competence has always been a challenge
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Many adults in the workforce criticize the work ethic of younger generations, from Millennials to Gen Xers. But I believe such frustrations go back further. My own experiences are from the 1990s, involving people who are now nearing retirement or have long been out of work.
In came one of my staffers one day to announce there was a good candidate for the job opening on the phone. I instructed my colleague to bring him in for an interview the next morning. Off the staffer went, only to return to ask me what time in the morning. “First thing …” I snapped. Off the staffer went to return again with another question.
“What exact time?” I was asked.
“8:30,” I snapped back.
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The staffer returned after another brief conversation with the candidate of diminishing appeal.
“He’s asking if we can provide him with a wake-up call.”
“Tell him not to bother,” I sighed.
You can’t make this stuff up.
My “help” on one occasion was a nice person with a PhD (ABD – all but dissertated). I used a dictation machine in those days to recite instructions and proposals and dictate letters.
“Letter to Mel Sobritz, Dear Mr. Sobritz: thank you for blah blah blah …” and so on.
I was not getting letters or any finished documents back in my in-basket.
“Where are my letters to sign?” I asked the ABD staffer.
After quizzical looks, harumphing, and gesticulating, the staffer produced a three-ring binder containing all my dictation, which he had dutifully printed out. I showed ABD the text which began “Letter to …”
“What did you think you were to do with a letter other than turn it into an actual letter on a piece of paper with date, inside address, opening salutation, body of letter as dictated, closing salutation and present this for my signature?”
“I thought it … was … just … a … note.”
ABD’s expectation seems to have been that we’d run a business by dictating letters, proposals, memos, and such and hiding them in a binder for mind readers and mentalists from the circus to find.
Another employee with a Master’s degree could not do an average of several numbers, so made up a high number on an official document to make me look good. Another left the company after many months and also left a drawer full of mail not sent out.
Another handed me a letter, and I asked what it was.
“A letter …” said the staffer, irrefutably.
“Yabut what’s it about?” I asked.
“I don’t know. It’s your letter …” was the reply without any irony or sense of inquisitiveness.
In a meeting with an intern from a leading college, I was in mid-sentence, and the young man with a bright future stood up, adjusted his clothing, and began putting on his coat.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m leaving. It’s 5:00 o’clock.”
I looked at my watch. Indeed, he was right.
Allan Bonner was the first North American to be awarded an MSc in Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Management. He trained in England and has worked in the field on five continents for 35 years. His latest book is Emergency! – a monograph with 13 other authors on the many crises that occurred during the pandemic.
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