Self-esteem: Teens feel great about themselves — but are they headed for a fall? – chicagotribune.com.

This interesting article covers two topics I speak on in one tidy post. The fact that constructive, necessary Negative Thinking isn’t being taught to the younger generations.  This excerpt about how the reality of what “truths” we tell our children to make them feel better shows can blow up in their unexpected faces sums it up nicely.

The ultimate problem with inflated self-esteem, Twenge said, is that it can end with a painful reckoning. Alex Ortiz knows what that feels like.

As she grew up in Elmhurst, softball was her life. She had played since age 4, adoring the game and the bonds she formed with her teammates. Her e-mail address started with the handle “Softballgrl.”

She was good too — or so her coaches had always told her. But then she got to York, where claiming a place on the freshman team meant surviving the cuts that followed a three-day tryout.

She didn’t make it. Distraught, she gave up the game.

“I went from being told, ‘You’re good, you’re good,’ to getting told I’m not really good,” said Ortiz, 16, who will be a junior in the fall. “It kind of crushed me. It felt like (earlier coaches) had been lying to me.”

Others, though, say they embraced their reality checks. Rovi, the lackadaisical honor student, said she soon accepted the fairness of her C, realizing it was a better grade than her minimal effort deserved. It spurred her to work harder, she said, and she ended up graduating as an Illinois State Scholar.

Does this mean when our kids aren’t great at something we need to tell them they suck? Of course not. But by letting them know what they are good at and what they need to work on is immensely helpful. It instills pride from overcoming obstacles as well as give a nice dose of humility. Something sorely lacking in most people in general, nevermind our children.

If you hadn’t heard by now, 88 and a half year old Betty White rocked Saturday Night Live last, well, last Saturday. Her appearance was a perfect example of how different generations can work together.

Watch entire show below
 

Her appearance stemmed from a viral online campaign on Facebook to get her on the show. Generation Y folks on a whim, campaigned for a pre-boomer, who many only know from an 80’s sitcom “Golden Girls”. It was a true flexing of their generation’s muscle when it comes to bringing a community together for a common cause. Younger workers thrive in an environment that is team oriented, cause based and online. They love being part of a community. The love knowing what they’re doing is going to affect a greater outcome. And they love being able to do that from their cell phones, laptops or other piece of technology.

While Betty White showed all the traits of older workers. Her overwhelming years of experience (70 in showbiz!) allowed her to execute her lines (all memorized because her sight wasn’t good enough to read the prompters!) with unparallel accuracy and timing. When the red light came on, she did her job and did damn fine work, far surpassing many hosts who read stiffly from cue cards. Older workers are often like Betty White: professional, dependable and results oriented.

We can all learn from both generations. They both bring huge amount of assets to the table. Getting them all to work together is just a matter of find the proper assignments for them. As the ratings showed, together all generations can pace a pretty good punch!

Seems there are a lot of people out there willing to talk without “the filter”. And by “the filter” I’m referring to that mechanism in our heads that stops us from saying whatever the hell we want (oops, my filter is a bit buggy too!). Let’s look at the past week, shall we?

Loudmouth #1: Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC)

Infraction: Heckling the President during a joint session of congress 9/9/09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aE_nEoE5kE

Residence: Charleston, South Carolina

Born: July 31, 1947 (1947-07-31) (age 62)

Political party: Republican

Alma mater: Washington and Lee University, University of South Carolina

Occupation: Attorney

Now, being an attorney, his filter is a bit out of whack. He’s used to yelling “I object!” or “Objection!” or “Here’s my fee”. So maybe it was reflex that made him yell out. This is not normal for a joint session of congress, nor was it condoned by either party. Apparently all the town hall meetings have proven 2 things. 1. People don’t know all the facts (of either sides positions) 2. People will yell random stupid crap. Joe Wilson may just be reflecting his constituents, regardless of how rude they may be. Both sides have been guilty of this, but only Joe has brought the unrest to a presidential level.

Loudmouth #2: Serena Williams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_jlXjgxN8

Infraction: Threatening a line judge with physical harm 9/12/09

Residence: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Born: September 26, 1981 (1981-09-26) (age 27)

Turned pro: 1995

Sports often brings out emotions. Heck, I was yelling at Aaron Rodgers last night to stop running into the end zone or you’ll get a SAFETY YOU FREAKING IDIOT!! *Ahem* Sorry. With something as important (for a tennis career) as the US Open, things can get a bit out of hand. But you can’t threaten a line judge. My favorite part that is not in the video is when the officials meet to discuss what was said, Serena over hears the conversation and says “I didn’t say I would kill you!” No, you didn’t directly say that, instead you said “I swear to God I’m f-ing going to take this f-ing ball and shove it down your f-ing throat, you hear that? I swear to God.” So, technically, she wasn’t going to kill her. I’m sure you can breathe through your nose when your throat is full of tennis ball.

As this millennial blogger wrote: A member of another generation may have taken her situation lying down, but not a Millennial. Millennials say what they feel when they feel is, is there anything wrong with that?

Um…yes. There is. Which brings us to last night.

Douchebag Loudmouth #3: Kanye West

Infraction: Interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech to voice his opinion on who should have won 9/13/09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yOOPHe3QHU

Born: June 8, 1977 (1977-06-08) (age 32)

Residence: Atlanta, Georgia

Occupation(s): Producer, rapper, musician, singer

So the person you wanted didn’t win. Did you have to ruin it for someone else? And your apology didn’t help. At the end of it he says. “I’m not crazy y’all, I’m just real.”

The reality is no one cares about your opinion, certainly not in the middle of someone else’s acceptance speech. But you have a habit of opening your mouth to express things at the wrong moment.

Apparently Kanye West Doesn’t Care About Young White Women!

Oddly enough, I think it was George Clooney who said it best in an op-ed piece he wrote on manners. From the Daily Mail:

I sometimes ask someone why they felt they had to say something hurtful, and they’ll say, ‘Well, you know, I’m just telling you how it is.’ I want to say, ‘Well, but actually, that’s not the way it is, it’s just the way you want to think it is. And sometimes, it’s just an excuse for you to take a potshot!’

So here’s my plea – next time you’re tempted to ‘tell it like it is’, please don’t. Please stop, think for a moment, and find something nice to say, instead. After all, it’s only good manners.

Damn you Clooney! Handsome, talented and somewhat sane…where does it stop?

Like car maintenance you need to check your filter often and see if it’s working properly. Expressing yourself is a good thing – when done at the appropriate time and place. Yelling crap out only makes you look weak, stupid and immature.

Things most of us try to avoid.

Just keeping it real…you know?

Twitter much? Are you on the Facebook? LinkedIn and loving it? Make sure you think about what you post BEFORE you post it. So many people use social networking to tell way more about themselves than necessary, they forget that more than just their friends may be watching. From CNN:

As social media becomes the latest branding strategy, networking technique, job seeking tool and recruitment vehicle, it’s also becoming the latest way for people to get job offers rescinded, reprimanded at work and even fired.

It’s happened so many times — publicized and not — that one would think we could learn from others’ mistakes. (But, if that were the case, I wouldn’t have anything to write about, now would I?)

A recent Tweet by a potential Cisco employee, for example, turned ugly when he decided to tout a recent job offer:

“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

Unfortunately for “theconnor” (the handle for the would-be employee), Tim Levad, a “channel partner advocate” for Cisco, saw the tweet and responded with this:

“Who is the hiring manger, I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the Web.”

Terrible tweets

Everyone has their “My-job-sucks,” “I-hate-my-co-workers,” or “Give-me-more-money” moments. But, they seem to forget that as employers increase their online presence using social networking sites as recruitment and branding strategies, it might be best for their career not to have these moments on the Internet.

Paul Wilson, a freelance/corporate Web marketer and blogger, found several of such moments on Twitter, a social networking and micro-blogging site, and posted these “Top 10 Tweets to Get You Fired” [sic'd]:

1. “hate my job!! i want to tell my bosses how dumb they are and how meaningless this job is, then quit, and be happy!”

2. “So my job was to test all the food at the new resturant, can I just say, ughew. I’m going to taco bell then twistee treat.”

3. “Workin… This job sucks worse then the economy!”

4. “I’m going to work! Walmart! Must find better job! I hate it when chicks there have a deeper voice than me and refer to me as foo!”

5. “Also I’m really bummed that I’m working today, i asked off so i could study but my boss is a ******* **** ***** ***** who can’t read.”

6. “Coworker smuggled out a chair for me. Currently being paid to SIT around and listen to John Barrowman on my iPod. I don’t hate my job today!”

7. “having sex dreams of people you work with makes for an awkward day.”

8. “smoking weed at work is so [EDITED] great ”

9. “It’s bad when you overhear the n00b programmer say “I used to work at McDonalds with him” and you wonder if he is talking about the CEO…”

10. “Huh, with my boss on twitter, maaaybe I should take down that sexy picture of her… but her reaction will be priceless!”

Facebook fired

Twitter is not the only culprit in career self-destruction. Facebook, a popular social networking site, has housed its fair share of user firings:

Kimberly Swann, a former employee for Ivell Marketing and Logistics of Clacton, U.K., thought her job was boring — and she said so on her Facebook page, according to an article in The Daily Telegraph. Swann was called into her manager’s office and handed a letter that cited her Facebook comments as the reason for dismissal:

“Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work we end your employment with Ivell Marketing & Logistics with immediate effect.”

An MSNBC article remembers Kevin Colvin, the legendary young intern who e-mailed his boss, claiming a “family emergency” would keep him out of the office around Halloween. His co-workers (and Facebook friends), however, saw a photo of Colvin dressed as a fairy at a Halloween party time-stamped on the same day of the “emergency.” Colvin’s boss responded to him with an e-mail CC’d to the entire company, firing him and including the incriminating fairy picture.

In March 2009, the same MSNBC article cites Dan Leone, a Philadelphia Eagles stadium employee, who was fired after slamming the football organization for trading a player in this status update:

“Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver. . .Dam Eagles R Retarted!![Sic]“

Two days later, the head of event operations said they needed to talk about his Facebook status; instead, he got the boot.

Social networking don’ts

If you want to use your profile to get hired or — or at least not get fired — here are three basic rules to keep in mind:

1. Don’t announce interviews, raises or new jobs

As exemplified by “theconnor,” how you talk about any of these sensitive topics on your social networking site is key. If you’re unemployed, writing “Interview today — wish me luck!” would be OK, or if you got a job, something along the lines of “So excited about my new job!” is totally acceptable. If you’re currently employed, however, I don’t think your boss would be too happy to see something like, “Trying to con my boss into giving me a $5K raise. SUCKA!”

2. Don’t badmouth your current or previous employer

Just like in an interview, keep your rants about your boss or company to yourself. If hiring managers see that you’re willing to trash a colleague online they assume you’ll do it to them, too. Plus, there’s always the possibility of getting fired if someone sees your negative comments.

3. Don’t mention your job search if you’re still employed

If your boss knows you’re on the lookout for a new job, feel free to advertise it in your status. If you’re keeping your search below the radar, however, don’t publish anything, anywhere. Even if you aren’t connected to your boss online, somebody can get the information back to him or her.

So the next time you want to LOL with your BFF about your boss’ stupidity. Remember: You have a J-O-B so STFU! (I’ve already gotten in trouble for using this acronym but I think it’s hilarious and we’re all adults so get over it!)

For information about Generation Y: Business etiquette and Y you need it! call 877-572-7890 or email me directly!

Here’s an article that shows how cultural shifts do not trickle down from old to young but from the youth to the older generations. If those pesky kids with their new fangled twitter machines and iphones annoy you, beware…you just might want one too. From CNN:

Teenagers exchange text messages while driving because, well, they’re teenagers and teenagers sometimes do dumb things. But suit-wearing adults who should know better are texting behind the wheel too, driven by grown-up motivations.

“My job has me out on the road for four to five days out of the week,” Anthony Perry, a director of business development for a Washington-based health care research firm, told CNN in an e-mail sent from his BlackBerry. “I don’t particularly think I am that good at texting while driving but I do it anyway, recognizing the risks.”

Those risks are significant. A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study released this week showed truck drivers are 23 times more likely to be in a crash if they’re texting, and several fatal accidents have been blamed on drivers or train operators who were distracted by texting.

Nevertheless, for many in business, it seems to be a matter of competitive survival.

“Now with e-mail and with the advent of the BlackBerries and hyper-accessibility, there’s this sense that if you don’t show that you’re always prepared and ready to respond and address an issue, then somehow you’re going to be perceived as not being conscientious or not keeping up on things,” said Tom Britt, a professor of social psychology at Clemson University in South Carolina. Watch someone attempt to text and drive »

“I could not imagine doing my job, or living my life, without the aid of a bberry,” Perry wrote. “I don’t know many who could who are in my line of work.”

Entrepreneurs and people in service industries, such as lawyers, may feel the heat more than others, said Dr. Debra Condren, a business psychologist and executive coach with offices in New York and San Francisco, California.

“The constant pressure to be on the grid, especially in this economy — ‘Oh my gosh, has a client called? Has a potential client called? Am I going to lose the job? Am I going to miss an opportunity? — makes us kind of revert to almost an adolescent mentality in terms of thinking that we’re invulnerable [vis a vis] texting and driving,” she said.

But those fears are overblown for most people, she said.

“There’s this sense that we’re so important that every single moment has to be filled; we can’t even pull over or we’re going to miss five minutes’ driving time or 10 minutes’ driving time. The pace is at this breakneck speed,” said Condren, author of “Ambition Is Not a Dirty Word,” a career guide for women.

“The truth is nobody is that important or that in demand that they can’t practice safety and good common-sense behaviors.”

This works hand in hand with an article I wrote a few years back on driving with a cell phone call “Get the Cell of the Phone!”

Get over yourselves and text later!

Bret Favre and I both had the same kind of decision to make yesterday: To stay retired or take the field at less than 100%.

No, the Minnesota Vikings didn’t call me yesterday. But a speaker’s bureau did.

This bureau was looking for a local comedian in Texas to do an IT client’s event and do only IT jokes. Now, while I was a comedian years ago, I am not currently. I “retired” from stand-up about 8 years ago. And when I did do stand-up, I had no IT jokes that I can remember. Well, I can hardly remember my act but that is a different story all together. I politely told them the programs I deliver and made sure they understood I wasn’t a fit for them. I did refer them to some people I knew of and they found someone who fit their event. But I turned them down for the same reason Bret decided against joining the Vikings.

From ESPN:

“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made,” Favre said. “I didn’t feel like physically I could play at a level that was acceptable. I would like to thank everyone, including the Packers, Jets and Vikings — but, most importantly, the fans.”

“I had to be careful not to commit for the wrong reasons,” Favre said.

I turned down the event because I don’t think my stand-up is up to a level that is acceptable. Sure, I could have taken the job for the money and in short order gotten something together and done the event. But it wouldn’t have been nearly as good as if I wrote the jokes, tried them out in several clubs, honed them down to the funny ones and then gone to perform for this group. The time and effort needed, I just don’t have. And I didn’t want to risk doing a poor job outside my abilities.

Same with Bret. Bret realized that he could have joined the team and done an adequate job, but he finds adequate unacceptable. So do I. If someone is paying me (even if they’re not), I need to be at my best. Not trying entirely new things at the expense of my audience. I put new material in every presentation I give, customizing to the audience, the environment or even news of the day. I do NOT give entirely new presentations each time. It’s a disservice to the meeting planner or client that is paying for the “good” stuff, not the new stuff.

I noticed this was one of the things that drove comedy club owners crazy. They are paying for ”the hits” not the untested. I always put it this way: They are paying for a Coca-Cola. They don’t want a root-beer float. They may like root-beer floats but they really like Coca-cola. If you give them something other than Coca-cola, they complain. And you don’t look good.

Negative thinking allows me to know who I am at the time. I know I do a great job presenting my keynote topic “Getting a Grip on Negativity” or my Generation Y training programs. But I also know that stand-up is not something you can just jump on stage with a few notes and do well. So instead of gambling with my clients event, I’d rather they have a “sure thing”. Had it been a keynote, I would have gladly grabbed the reins and kicked butt. But for the sake of the client I deferred to someone more suited for the task.

Just like Bret Favre did yesterday.

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Looks like the media has attached more “anecdotal” evidence to a phenomenon they don’t understand. Take texting. Let me say first that I’m not a texter. Mainly, because I’m not a 12 year old girl that needs to talk to my peeps 24/7. But also because I prefer to call or email instead. So I know very little about texting. Apparently the New York Times is in the same boat (my comments included):

They do it late at night when their parents are asleep. They do it in restaurants and while crossing busy streets. They do it in the classroom with their hands behind their back. They do it so much their thumbs hurt.

Spurred by the unlimited texting plans offered by carriers like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company — almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.

The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.

Dr. Martin Joffe, a pediatrician in Greenbrae, Calif., recently surveyed students at two local high schools and said he found that many were routinely sending hundreds of texts every day.

“That’s one every few minutes,” he said. “Then you hear that these kids are responding to texts late at night. That’s going to cause sleep issues in an age group that’s already plagued with sleep issues.”

Texting isn’t something that constantly forces these kids awake. If they are up, they reply. Seems to me that these kids are staying up for other reasons as well. Sleep may be an issue, but texting is a by-product of being awake not the other way around.

The rise in texting is too recent to have produced any conclusive data on health effects. Yet we’ll make speculations anyway!

But Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who is director of the Initiative on Technology and Self at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and who has studied texting among teenagers in the Boston area for three years, said it might be causing a shift in the way adolescents develop.

“Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to become the person you decide you want to be,” she said. “Texting hits directly at both those jobs.”

Psychologists expect to see teenagers break free from their parents as they grow into autonomous adults, Professor Turkle went on, “but if technology makes something like staying in touch very, very easy, that’s harder to do; now you have adolescents who are texting their mothers 15 times a day, asking things like, ‘Should I get the red shoes or the blue shoes?’ ”

Aren’t parents doing this as well? I call cell phones “electronic leashes” and parents give kids the technology to stay in touch. It’s not like your 13 year-old daughter went out and got a job so she could afford a cell phone. Parents feel the need to be closer to their kids, so in return kids become more reliant on their parents.

As for peace and quiet, she said, “if something next to you is vibrating every couple of minutes, it makes it very difficult to be in that state of mind.

“If you’re being deluged by constant communication, the pressure to answer immediately is quite high,” she added. “So if you’re in the middle of a thought, forget it.”

What were you saying? My peeps we’re hittin me up. I’ve seen this with 45 year old sales managers, this is not an age specific issue!

Michael Hausauer, a psychotherapist in Oakland, Calif., said teenagers had a “terrific interest in knowing what’s going on in the lives of their peers, coupled with a terrific anxiety about being out of the loop.” For that reason, he said, the rapid rise in texting has potential for great benefit and great harm.

“Texting can be an enormous tool,” he said. “It offers companionship and the promise of connectedness. At the same time, texting can make a youngster feel frightened and overly exposed.”

Texting may also be taking a toll on teenagers’ thumbs. Annie Wagner, 15, a ninth-grade honor student in Bethesda, Md., used to text on her tiny LG phone as fast as she typed on a regular keyboard. A few months ago, she noticed a painful cramping in her thumbs. (Lately, she has been using the iPhone she got for her 15th birthday, and she says texting is slower and less painful.)

Peter W. Johnson, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington, said it was too early to tell whether this kind of stress is damaging. But he added,

“Based on our experiences with computer users, we know intensive repetitive use of the upper extremities can lead to musculoskeletal disorders, so we have some reason to be concerned that too much texting could lead to temporary or permanent damage to the thumbs.” And yet they haven’t taken our computers away!

Annie said that although her school, like most, forbids cellphone use in class, with the LG phone she could text by putting it under her coat or desk.

Her classmate Ari Kapner said, “You pretend you’re getting something out of your backpack.”

Teachers are often oblivious. “It’s a huge issue, and it’s rampant,” said Deborah Yager, a high school chemistry teacher in Castro Valley, Calif. Ms. Yager recently gave an anonymous survey to 50 of her students; most said they texted during class.

“I can’t tell when it’s happening, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” she said. “And I’m not going to take the time every day to try to police it.”

Dr. Joffe says parents tend to be far less aware of texting than of, say, video game playing or general computer use, and the unlimited plans often mean that parents stop paying attention to billing details. “I talk to parents in the office now,” he said. “I’m quizzing them, and no one is thinking about this.”

Still, some parents are starting to take measures. Greg Hardesty, a reporter in Lake Forest, Calif., said that late last year his 13-year-old daughter, Reina, racked up 14,528 texts in one month. She would keep the phone on after going to bed, switching it to vibrate and waiting for it to light up and signal an incoming message.

Mr. Hardesty wrote a column about Reina’s texting in his newspaper, The Orange County Register, and in the flurry of attention that followed, her volume soared to about 24,000 messages. Finally, when her grades fell precipitously, her parents confiscated the phone.

Reina’s grades have since improved, and the phone is back in her hands, but her text messages are limited to 5,000 per month — and none between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. on weekdays.

Yet she said there was an element of hypocrisy in all this: her mother, too, is hooked on the cellphone she carries in her purse. Leave it to the teenager to point out the adults hypocrisy.

“She should understand a little better, because she’s always on her iPhone,” Reina said. “But she’s all like, ‘Oh well, I don’t want you texting.’ ” (Her mother, Manako Ihaya, said she saw Reina’s point.) Professor Turkle can sympathize. “Teens feel they are being punished for behavior in which their parents indulge,” she said. And in what she calls a poignant twist, teenagers still need their parents’ undivided attention.

“Even though they text 3,500 messages a week, when they walk out of their ballet lesson, they’re upset to see their dad in the car on the BlackBerry,” she said. “The fantasy of every adolescent is that the parent is there, waiting, expectant, completely there for them.”

We adapt to the technology and children adapt easier than adults. I think this learning curve is what bothers adults the most. Because when texting becomes even more popular amongst adults, less articles like this will appear. This kind of article can almost be a reprint from the nineties, just swap texting with cell phones. Fear of technology is rampant amongst those who don’t understand it.

I’m all for explaining the “dangers” of new technology or new methods. Just don’t try to hide your fears by projecting them onto your children to justify them.

Since I’ve been giving Generational Training programs I have learned one valuable lesson that many of my clients haven’t accepted yet. The older generations need to adapt more than the younger generations do. I offer both types of training. One is Generation X and Y: The Xs and Os of Recruiting, Managing and Retaining the New Workforce is geared towards showing managers how the younger workers tick and how to use that information to augment their management styles. The other is Generation Y: Business etiquette and Y you need it! which is a real world, straight talking course to show younger workers what is expected of them in the workplace. Which do you think managers are asking for more often?

Managers want their new hires and employees to adapt to the old style of communications and standards they use. They are not interested in changing the way they manage. This is a dangerous way of thinking because as the workplace gets younger and their culture takes hold things that once were thought of as inappropriate in the workplace become more acceptable. Evolution always happens towards the young. If you think texting is a fad, guess what? You’ll soon be the dinosaur in your office, with your archaic ideas and methods. If you don’t change, your world will. As older employees, you must change with the times or like the typewriter, you will be obsolete and discarded before you realize your done. This isn’t about adopting the hot new thing. It’s about creating and maintaining your value. It’s about being part of the future, not a part of the past.

Does that mean all your ideas are worthless? Just the opposite! But studies show that information sharing is not as abundant across generations as you may think.

From Computer World:

In an online survey by employment services provider Randstad USA, 51% of baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964, according to this survey) and 66% of the generation that preceded the boomers reported having little to no interaction with colleagues from Generation Y (born between 1980 and 1988). No contact, no knowledge transfer. And with the baby-boom generation regarded as the storehouse of most institutional knowledge, Randstad concludes that U.S. businesses risk a shortage of skilled labor, not because of a dearth of manpower in the wake of baby boomers’ retirements, but because of a limited transfer of that knowledge.

After all, as Randstad points out, members of Gen Y in the workforce currently outnumber still-working baby boomers, 79.8 million to 78.5 million. Randstad urges businesses to foster more collaboration among their workers, something that may require tearing down perceptions of basic differences among the various generations.

Is this because Gen Y doesn’t ask enough questions? Or is it that Boomers don’t want to give the keys to the castle to their potential replacements? Either way, the company suffers. Organizations must set up mentoring programs if they want any kind of long term continuity. Pairing up younger workers with established employees allows both the opportunity to learn and update their skills. The older generation can learn new tools and methods while the younger gains experience and insight to the industry and company process.

Companies need to make concerted efforts to join these generational forces or they too will become obsolete.

Information isn’t something to be held onto for leverage, it is to be shared to improve all.

I ran into this transcript of a radio editorial by Dan Drezner about boomers and retirement on PublicRadio.org. He whines about Baby Boomers, then in the comment section, Boomers whine about Xers, who then whine about Baby Boomers. Ah… the internet.

The reason I even bother to bring it to your attention is that his assumption that all the Boomers would retire at 65, like it was mandatory and the law, is a common assumption for many of the younger generation. I’ll let Dan tell you in his own words (you can hear the podcast if you prefer). Another sidenote on public radio: Can they get anyone one with a dynamic voice to do these things?? It’s always the same bland, boring voices. I’m not looking for the zany drive time bunch, but some inflection now and again would be nice!…Back to your regularly scheduled blog post:

The financial downturn has left all sorts of casualties in its wake: more unemployment, depressed wages, and greater economic uncertainty. But I’d like to direct my angst at a different target — the baby boomers.

A hidden effect of this crisis is that, in the workplace, as in popular discourse, they simply refuse to get out of the way.

To understand my lament, you have to realize that the oldest of the baby boomers are on the cusp of retirement. For younger generations, this should be a cause for relief. For decades, Gen X-ers like myself have had to hear the standard declarations about the uniqueness of the baby boomers. Maybe they were not the Greatest Generation, but they were the ones who glorified the whole idea of generational identity. For decades, Gen X-ers have had to hear complaints about our political apathy, our popular culture, and our musical tastes.

We have suffered many of these critiques without complaint.

(Sorry…it’s me again. As a gen-xer myself, I know this is BS. Xers are known complainers and are never satisfied. It’s one of the reasons we’re so effective. We see something, find what’s wrong with it and try and make it better. But we complain. He’s flat out lying if he thinks otherwise. Ok…back to it!)

Why? Because so many of us worked for so many of them. They were the bosses of the business world. And they were supposed to be retiring very soon, but the recession has changed all that.

In 2008, U.S. workers aged 55 to 64 who had 401(k)’s for at least 20 years saw their retirement balances drop an average of 20 percent. A recent YouGov poll showed two-thirds of this generation have not made the necessary adjustments in their financial planning. This is not a recipe for leaving the workforce anytime soon.

What does this mean for the rest of us? Younger workers who expected promotions when the boomers cleared out are going to have to stew in their own juices. With this job market, looking for a better opportunity elsewhere is not in the cards. Which means that Gen X-ers are going to have to listen to baby boomers doing what they do best — talk about themselves.

Office politics across the country are going to get a lot nastier. Of course, it could be worse. Generation Y not only has to deal with the boomers, they have to cope with people like me complaining about them.

Ego and irritating voice aside, this is the perception of many Xers. They know the Boomers are hitting their 60′s and should be retiring. But even before the financial crisis, the trend for Boomers not retiring was starting to get into full swing. 65 is not the same as it was a generation or two ago. They’re not decrepit old people, wetting themselves in their adult diapers needing a nurse. The fact that Americans have been living longer and with a better quality of life have led people to think “Why should I retire? I’m still productive and can whip anyone who takes me on thanks to my experience. What am I going to do if I retire? I’m too active to just golf and watch “The Price is Right” all day.”

And they’re right.

The bottle-neck is coming. Actually it’s here. It’s going to take another 10-15 years to unclog all the boomers who stay at their jobs. A job they have every right to have. The younger generations are going to have to find new ways of climbing the ladder, evolving into leadership.

Probably by actually showing leadership skills, not just because you’re the next in line and you can’t wait your turn.

Several articles lately are backing my claim that kids are becoming spoiled, evil, narcissistic brats. Even CNN’s Jack Cafferty has included a section in his new book, Now or Never:

Some parents still have this attitude that their kids are too special to be burdened by discipline. And the rest of us are supposed to put up with their little mutants. That attitude really pisses me off.

I hate to break it to them, but the kids aren’t special, and I don’t have to put up with their behavior. If you can’t control your obnoxious little brats, leave them home.

They don’t belong out in public annoying other people, period. I don’t remember a generation of kids ever so indulged and enabled to behave so badly. What’s going on?

I remember as a kid I was expected to behave myself out in public or suffer the wrath of one very angry father. And of all the things that used to piss him off, those expectations didn’t seem unreasonable. Something’s gone terribly wrong here. My guess is it has to do with the breakdown of authority, the collapse of strong family structure, and the abdication of parental responsibility, dictated in part by the necessity that both parents work.

Plus, we have a whole generation of Baby Boomers who are too busy feeling entitled to prolong their own self-indulgent, self-absorbed adolescences to rein in their own kids.

I love it when people call other people’s children mutants!

Then there was this from the Daily Mail (and if you’re just skimming and miss it, I am not Dr. Craig):

Praising children at every opportunity is creating a generation of narcissists who cannot take criticism, according to a leading psychologist.

Dr Carol Craig warned teachers and parents that the constant drive to build self-esteem in schoolchildren had gone too far.

Addressing a head teachers’ conference, Dr Craig said that adults had become too afraid to correct children’s mistakes in case it upset them.

Dr Craig, chief executive of the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing, said: ‘We are wrong in thinking we have to get the “I” bigger.

‘If we say to people the most important thing is how you feel about yourself, then if a child fails maths and feels bad, it is very tempting for them to blame it on others like teachers and parents. Parents no longer want to hear if their children have done anything wrong. This is the downside of the self-esteem agenda.’

Parents are increasingly challenging teachers over their child’s minor failures at school, such as doing badly in a spelling test or missing out on the lead role in the school play, because they claim such knockbacks are damaging to the child’s confidence.

Since September 2007, all UK schools have had a statutory responsibility to promote the wellbeing of their pupils.

But Dr Craig says the wellbeing agenda has been taken too far by both teachers and parents who are wrapping children in cotton wool and turning them into narcissists.

Speaking at the Association of School and College Leaders conference in Birmingham, Dr Craig said: ‘Narcissists make terrible relationship partners, parents and employees. And we are kidding ourselves if we think that we aren’t going to undermine learning if we restrict criticism.’

Carole Ford, head of Kilmarnock Academy in East Ayrshire, told the conference that a math teacher in her school had corrected a pupil who placed a zero in the wrong place, only to be told:

‘Thank you, but I prefer it my way.’

Dr Craig said: ‘Schools have to hold out that they are educational establishments. They are not surrogate psychologists or mental health professionals.’

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said the Government’s focus on wellbeing helped pupils learn effectively while helping them to be confident and responsible citizens.

The conference also heard a claim that schools are being treated like identikit Tesco stores where staff are discouraged from showing initiative.

More of the school day is spent implementing Whitehall directives instead of teaching, said ASCL general secretary Dr John Dunford.

Dr Dunford said: ‘In this Tesco management model of England Schools plc, heads are the branch managers, teachers the shelf fillers and bursars the account technicians – part of a “delivery chain” that is about as far from my vision of school leadership as it is possible to get – all summed up in that dreadful word “compliance”.

‘Compliance . . . is the lowest form of commitment, to be encouraged in those who have no job flexibility, no initiative and limited intelligence. Is this what ministers really want of their school leaders?’

What do you think? Those with children, speak up! Only, I don’t want to hear about your children. If you’re one of the parents described in these articles I have a hard time believing that you know how truly awful your parenting is. Self reflection is so very hard, especially for those who need it. Instead, take a look at the other children you encounter, your kids friends, they’re schoolmates, or just children you meet when you take your child somewhere where children congregate.

Are kids getting more self-centered?