Lest we begin to hear the awful roars of manager-wielded chainsaws in the white collar workplace. Seriously, for a sober moment, like about five minutes, let’s resist the burning urge to vent about the time, money and resources spent recruiting, training and keeping smart young workers and students whose idea of excellence is showing up by 9:00 AM and breathing on their own for eight hours.
First, know that it’s everyone’s–or no one’s–fault. But it’s still a mind-numbing problem, i.e., employees who can’t work, and don’t even know it. Many employers in the West never expected this to happen–any more than they believed they would be abducted one evening by the Crop Circle People and taken to the planet Zangor.
Second, and seriously, this time, take a look at Stephanie West Allen’s post at her Idealawg entitled. “Are Gen Y kids harder to teach? Are Gen Y employees harder to manage?“. She highlights one part of the puzzle being discussed by John Dunford, a prominent British educator, who has suggested that English children currently in secondary school are “harder to teach” because they are so oriented to the Internet and television that success in school “cannot come fast enough”. In short, they require instant gratification.
Here are some excerpts from a speech Dunford made this past weekend that appeared in yesterday’s Daily Mail (which Stephanie links to along with another article about Dunford):