Generation gap?

First of all,, I wanted to take the opportunity to apologize to the apparent few of you that frequent my blog for not posting over the course of the last couple weeks.. The base on which I work recently hosted the Inspector General (IG) for an "Operational Readiness Inspection" (ORI) which pretty much consumed all my time for the last few weeks. We were inspected on just about everything we do,, to include a deployment exercise that entailed 14-hour days for those lucky few of us who were afforded the opportunity to participate. On the bright side,, we had the opportunity to don our chem. gear, shoot blanks out of our issued weapons,, and defended a mock forward base against hostile insurgents--something that us Air Force guys rarely get the opportunity to experience. After all the booms, bangs, and interrogations from a tough IG team, Hanscom AFB earned an "excellent" rating which means no more IG inspections for another 2 years. Yea!!


But beyond that, I have had the opportunity to reflect on a particularly bothersome social issue. I recently read an article that described a particular corporation who routinely hires teams of consultants for no other purpose than to boost the morale of its workforce. On the surface, this seems like a noble pursuit. As we all know, good morale among the troops usually results in increased loyalty to the job, a heightened sense of belonging, and overall increased productivity. Upon further review, the article described such activities as rotating daily celebrations for each individual employee, complete with confetti, cake, and even free lunch. Unfortunately, these celebrations were not the result of an office competition, nor were the celebrations earned by merit of any kind. These "celebrations" honored individuals for simply being alive.. Apparently, we live in a society today that dictates a need for the daily affirmation of self-worth regardless of whether it is deserved or not. The "new batch" of American employees come out of college expecting kudos for such minor accomplishments as coming to work on time, taking only 60 minutes for their lunch hour, and not parking in the handicapped spaces. I'm not kidding!

Personally, I would feel uncomfortable and ashamed if the only reason teams of people throw confetti in my cubicle in my honor was to celebrate the fact that I was able to make it to work on time 3 out of the last 5 days. That same sentiment is not [apparently] shared by new members of today's American workforce. According to the article, it's becoming an increasingly serious problem that young employees become "distant", "downtrodden", and even "depressed" if their bosses/co-workers don't afford them daily affirmations of their worth. Am I to believe that my troops will become depressed if I don't congratulate them everyday for coming to work on time? Or if I don't throw a party in their honor for no other reason than the fact that they managed to avoid getting arrested the weekend prior? I'm not overstating the ridiculousness of this phenomenon.

You may ask why has there been such a shift in the needs of employees.. Do you think that factory workers during WWII required their employers to celebrate them in order to keep their morale high? No,, obviously not. Workers during that time in history derived their motivation from other sources. They were taught from an early age that hard work, self-motivation, and personal accomplishment were the only paths to gratification in the workplace. Perhaps they appreciated the fact that their efforts contributed to the war effort. Or more likely, they were taught by their parents that a strong work ethic isn't the responsibility of the employer, but rather the responsibility of the employee. Nowadays,, I'm sure that very few American workers understand,, let alone appreciate and acknowledge that their productivity directly contributes to the success of our nation as a whole--both economically and militarily. They are working for their own paycheck, and their own selfish interests alone.

Furthermore, it seems as though this new generation of workers feel as though they are "entitled" to employment, wealth, promotion, and individual accolades--regardless of whether they actually perform at a level deserved of such rewards. How did this happen? Why the shift in approach when it comes to working? Again, I attribute this shift to a general change in the approach to parenting. It isn't an accident that this new generation is so very self-centric, self-absorbed, and generally inclined to believe they are entitled to success regardless of their level of effort.

For some unidentified reason, it is customary for today's parents to coddle their children more so than in years past. Parents are so driven to ensure a healthy self-esteem in their children, that they don't teach them the life's lessons necessary to prepare them for the "real world". For instance, I heard that some school districts no longer allow local newspapers to publish the honor roll when it comes out every year. Why, you might ask? The parents don't feel it is in the best interests of the kids that don't make the honor roll. They argue that those kids might be damaged emotionally for not making the grade,, and not seeing their names in the newspaper. So, instead of recognizing the achievements of the high-achievers, nobody gets honored. I also read about school districts that don't allow an "A" team, "B" team, and "C" team when it comes to basketball, volleyball, and other popular sports. The parents within those districts argue that if their child isn't good enough to make the "A" team, that their poor defenseless children's' egos might be irreparably damaged from the emotional scars of not making the "A" team. Some high schools don't even have a "varsity" team anymore. Everybody makes the team, regardless of their skill level. If there isn't enough money in the budget to fund as many teams as it takes to accomodate ALL the kids that come out for the team, the sport is cancelled altogether. The kids that excel in sports are grouped with the kids that don't in an attempt to completely socialize high school sports. Effectually, those skilled athletes (of course) suffer because the level of play is drastically lower than it would have been if stratification in sports had been allowed. But that (according to parents and school officials) is a small price to pay for saving the self-esteems of the lesser athletes.

Furthermore, some school districts want to do away with standardized testing, or even the concept of "grading" students' work altogether. Does anybody see a problem with this?

The result is a workforce of adults that have never been exposed to competition, never learned what it means to be a humble loser,, and never felt the exhilaration of achieving success from actual merit. As much as some would like to socialize this country, the fact of the matter is that we live in a merit-based capitalistic country where the high-achievers are rewarded with good jobs, authority, and promotions. This is a cold reality for those kids that have been sheltered against all forms of competition since birth.

When we award everybody for doing nothing, we do a disservice to those that achieve greatness, and actually deserve the accolade. In the workplace, it is becoming increasingly hard to criticize an employee for anything. I once told a particular subordinate in a feedback session that he needs to do a better job of spell checking his official office correspondence--e-mails, office memoranda, etc. He started crying. No joke. A 25 year old grown adult man, tears streaming down his face, crushed that I pointed out he needs to do a better job of proof-reading his documents. The next day, I found myself talking to my supervisor about the proper (more sensitive) ways to offer feedback to subordinates. I was actually instructed not to grade my subordinates lower than a 4 on a 5 point scale for fear that their feelings would be hurt. Also, I was instructed to begin rotating the quarterly awards that are awarded to employees supposedly on merit. Everybody in the office now has a nice plaque to hang on their wall inscribed with the dates of the quarter when it was their "turn". What started out being a special recognition, turned into a worthless trinket because everybody had one. The "slackers" were awarded the plaque,, and the high-speed over-achievers were awarded the very same plaque. What a disservice to those high achievers! In effect, the awards program became a joke, and it no longer motivated employees to be more productive, because everybody knew that it really didn't matter what they actually accomplished at work, they wouldn't win the award unless it was their turn. The entire intent of the awards program was defeated. My office isn't unique. This same story probably exists across the country. Unless parents go back to previous generation's methods of upbringing, I fear that America's workforce will continue to feel as though they are entitled to success,, instead of knowing that they have to earn their own success...