It was an informative evening even though I chose perhaps the wrong seat. When I entered there were two open chairs, and, to quote the Knight Templar from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "He chose poorly." In other words, I picked one end and he spent most of the evening turned the other way. But what I got was priceless. Discussing many of the students he'd been getting for the past several years, he recommended a book, "The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement," by Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell.
I'm finally getting around to reading it. It's well worth the read. Especially if you are hiring or supervising people. Do you know any people who feel entitled? Who think everyone and everything exists to serve them? Who don't understand why they can't be CEO of a major company with fewer than two years' experience?
The Dayton (Ohio) Daily News recently had a news item about the difficulty of hiring people for manufacturing jobs. One plant manager said that most applicants didn't want to work eight hour days or work overtime--and that's from the few who could pass the drug test. He said he could use 55 people right now.
In the Automation World Linked In Group, there is a discussion about whether automation costs jobs. But Jim Cahill of Emerson Process Management and the Emerson Process Experts blog pointed out that there were many job openings posted on the Delta V Linked In Group. I've seen job postings in many other Linked In Grroups, as well.
Have we as a generation failed to bring up the next generation with a work ethic? Or does this describe only a small proportion of the generation that's under 45 or so? Are you finding plenty of younger people who are willing to work and pay their dues to learn the systems?
