h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What is the problem with young people in work today?
When I started work after leaving school I was relieved to have got the job that I had applied for and wanted to learn everything I could to advance my career.
Everyone starts at the bottom and I knew this. I was grateful to be working. I wanted to prove myself to my bosses and demonstrate that I was worth the money that they were paying me, which wasn’t a huge wage but it was a start, approx £8,000 p.a. before tax in today’s terms.
Today first timers get £15,000-£20,000 p.a. depending on where they are and what they are doing. So relatively this is nearly double what I got when I started.
So why do they need spoon feeding. Why is there no initiative? Why is thee no spark?
They sit around complaining about everyone. They are paranoid. They moan about having to do menial tasks. They are rude. They have no respect for more experienced staff. They take things from people’s desks and tell you to chill out when you suggest that the things on your desk are your things.
They allow just enough time to get to work as it takes to get to work when everything is running smoothly and then want your sympathy when they arrive half an hour late because the wrong leaves were on the line at Tooting Broadway. Then they leave on the dot of five thirty regardless of when they got in.
In my day if you came in late to work one day you worked late and then you left home early the next day to make it in on time. If you are early well that’s great! You can do a bit networking with the other people who are in early. Or even get on with your work and prove how good at your job you are.
After two weeks they expect to be promoted with no evidence of any actual advance in knowledge.
When you discuss these things with them they don’t listen to what you have to say, make stupid excuses that presumably their parents fell for and then spend the rest of the day texting or emailing their mates to complain about their whinging stingy boss.
They will never leave because of course; the fact is they know they are on to a good thing. They are just waiting for their Big Brother application to get accepted and then they’ll be off to become famous.
What I am wondering is – Did forty something year old bosses think like this twenty five years ago or has it got worse?
I can only answer this from my own perspective which is to say that I certainly did not take my employer for granted. I worked very hard in my first job and subsequent ones, because I enjoyed virtually every minute of it, and even if I didn’t enjoy it I knew that there were a whole load of people after my job if I didn’t pull my weight.
What the Thatcher era created was a bunch of rich middle class parents who just spent all their money on giving their kids everything their little hearts desired and now those kids expect their bosses at work to be like their parents.
We used to have to live in a card board box in the middle of t’road.
And you tell that to the kids of today…