A friend of mine is a manager who recently went to a management seminar. It was the same old thing until they asked what peoples' biggest problems are. One person said "employees under 30," and everyone in the room agreed. They find this demographic to be needy and entitled (I'm sure this does not apply to everyone, but is a much bigger trend than in past years).
My department recently hired MANY new nurses, and all but one is under 30. They call in when they are hung over, go home early, and they're lazy at work. The only thing I can depend on them to do is get their coffee break. I'm sure these nurses have many fine qualities, and maybe the rest of us are just martyrs (put in the full 46ish hours a week, mop our own ORs, etc), but it's just a whole different attitude. People in other departments note a similar trend. Radiology techs will refuse to go to certain cases because it will interfere with their lunch.
I'm sure I will get a bunch of posts from 20-somethings about how hard they work, and I'm sure there are some out there who really do work their tails off. But managers (and coworkers) are starting to take note of "generation me."
A friend of mine is a manager who recently went to a management seminar. It was the same old thing until they asked what peoples' biggest problems are. One person said "employees under 30," and everyone in the room agreed. They find this demographic to be needy and entitled (I'm sure this does not apply to everyone, but is a much bigger trend than in past years).
My department recently hired MANY new nurses, and all but one is under 30. They call in when they are hung over, go home early, and they're lazy at work. The only thing I can depend on them to do is get their coffee break. I'm sure these nurses have many fine qualities, and maybe the rest of us are just martyrs (put in the full 46ish hours a week, mop our own ORs, etc), but it's just a whole different attitude. People in other departments note a similar trend. Radiology techs will refuse to go to certain cases because it will interfere with their lunch.
I'm sure I will get a bunch of posts from 20-somethings about how hard they work, and I'm sure there are some out there who really do work their tails off. But managers (and coworkers) are starting to take note of "generation me."
Older people have always thought younger people were lazy, disrespectful, and spoiled.
Congratulations! You're officially old!
I'm 33, and in all of my jobs, the clients with the worst sense of entitlement were wealthy, over 60, or both.
Can I just say I don't think this thread is all that fair?
I'm 23, going to school, in pre-nursing. But every job I've ever had I'm always there early, I have not had a holiday off since I was 15, if you need me to work for you, if I am able I'll probably do it.
I've only worked low end jobs, but this kind of gross over generalization isn't effective or helpful.
If attendance and attitude are an issue, than it is up to management to fix this no matter where you are. Have a problem with people not showing up on time? Make punishments for it, and even let some people go.
But if we are talking about people not willing to work off the clock, or taking measures to not allow management to take advantage of them... than I don't see a problem with their attitude. I'll go the extra mile, all of the time, without fail - but I wont do it for free.
For pity's sake we were defined by movies like Slackers, Clerks, and Reality Bites. Don't worry about those millennials...a mortgage/rent, car note, and a couple of mouths to feed will straighten them out.
I feel special 'cause we had movies made about us. And how could we forget the "nobody understands us" movies by John Hughes. (RIP).
i don't see how anyone that is a nurse can be considered lazy. young, old, or inbetween. it is just way too busy to be able to sit on your behind. i do see some instances of nurses not getting up to get a bed alarm; but this is all ages, not just under 30. i consider this negligent and lazy when a patient falls and breaks a hip because people are too "busy" charting, talking, or getting report to get it. the aides may be tied up somewhere and not able to get there. i have seen this time and again.
you do realize that you totally contradicted yourself here. you start off by saying that no nurse could be considered lazy by virtue of being a nurse, but then right after go on to say that nurses that don't get up for bed alarms are negligent and lazy.....
some who graduated in 1998 might be just 20 by now if their birthdays fell right. but even if they managed to have an adn by now, they still would not have any relevant experience based on the op's criteria. hence the 1995 cutoff date.
how do you figure? grad highschool at 18 in 1995 means college in 99. add the 10 years experience we like to get, and here we are, looking primarily at candidates likely born in the late 70s, making them over 30.
man, guess my birthday fell wrong; i graduated hs in 1998 and i'm almost 31.
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[color=#483d8b]i know you went back and tried to explain it, and you didn't seem to understand why anyone was calling you out on your error. you were thinking of a 1995 birthdate, not hs grad year, when you stated that someone might only be 20 if they graduated hs in 1998.
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[color=#483d8b]some of what you describe re: your hiring practices is illegal (i know you said you don't care, and that is the saddest thing of all). discarding an application based just on age is discrimination, no matter how you try to defend it.
I'm 24 years old, and find this thread very offensive. Yes, there are
ARGH, I wish the term "nurses eat their young" was never conceived of or used. It is probably the most overused and false generalization about nurses.
Speaking of generalizations....I realize I'm singling out your post, Carrie, but I've also seen the same idea many times throughout this thread. That would be the bolded statement. Get offended about the "generalization" made in the OP, but then throw out the same thing. You are "sure" there is an "equal or greater" number of older nurses who do the same? What makes you "sure"? Why is your idea that "an equal or greater number of older nurses who do the same" OK, but to make the statement about younger nurses so offensive?
Lots of the pot calling the kettle black in this thread.
I think the phrase "nurses eat their young" is accurate for a lot of new nurses (not just nurses 40, for health reasons or family reasons. I'm just making the point that its just as easy to generalize older generations as it is the younger ones, so why all the focus on nurses
OP - What exactly was this thread intended to do? I realize that it was a vent thread about lazy co-workers however I do find it very interesting that it was directed at a group of people (maybe not ALL of them but MOST of them). Were you looking for an uproar? Were you looking to offend people? I'm just curious, did you gain what you wanted? And while rn/writer made it perfectly clear on the adjacent thread that many people can be offendanistas, I can then point out that some people should be called dramanistas...within the TOS...right?
Well, at the end of the day, this is just a public forum. Would be pretty silly to give anybody enough power over you on a public forum to the point where you feel the need to loose the plot. I get the feeling many people are taking this personally.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I still don't understand why people who clearly don't fit the "generalization" (which isn't really that if one says from the beginning that not all fit the category) get so personally upset that they need to explain their life in great detail.
If I got offended to the degree some people are about a generalization I would have already written hundreds of indignant explanations about how I don't eat my young (age generalization spouted here at least once a day), how I am not catty (gender generalization frequently seen), how I am not flaky (I live in California), hmmm lemme see what else. . . I don't feel any particular need to explain how I am not like those people and I'm not offended by it.
I still don't understand why people who clearly don't fit the "generalization" (which isn't really that if one says from the beginning that not all fit the category) get so personally upset that they need to explain their life in great detail.
If I got offended to the degree some people are about a generalization I would have already written hundreds of indignant explanations about how I don't eat my young (age generalization spouted here at least once a day), how I am not catty (gender generalization frequently seen), how I am not flaky (I live in California), hmmm lemme see what else. . . I don't feel any particular need to explain how I am not like those people and I'm not offended by it.
You had me until you said you were from California!
Well, at the end of the day, this is just a public forum. Would be pretty silly to give anybody enough power over you on a public forum to the point where you feel the need to loose the plot. I get the feeling many people are taking this personally.
Not neccessarily but nothing ever is to be discounted. You never know when something correct might just pop up.
The OP falls in the age bracket of the above 30- perhaps this gives an insight into how nurses in that age bracket truly feel. Perhaps not.
But after all is said and done, it makes one look at things from a different perspective.
We should endeavour to come away from a discussion( an argument etc), the better for it and having learned something.Internet or otherwise.
And ps- who is to say people don't take online forums or discussions seriously.If it weren't so, the number of employees fired over comments made on facebook would not have been so, the ability of lawyers/police to supoena a person online would not have been so.
Oh pls, don't say online words don't affect you, because you know what?They darn right do!
Not_A_Hat_Person, RN
2,900 Posts
Older people have always thought younger people were lazy, disrespectful, and spoiled.
Congratulations! You're officially old!
I'm 33, and in all of my jobs, the clients with the worst sense of entitlement were wealthy, over 60, or both.