Does our generation have a crappy work ethic?

Don't worry too much if they think you have a crappy work ethic. It "ain't what it used to be", the work ethic, but so much has changed. But yours is not the first 'bashed' generation. Every generation who are NOT boomers tends to get bashed by media. I'm part of "Generation X" who are a pretty savvy group of folks, but who were just over a decade ago on the whole regarded by the media as "Slackers" with brains fried by too much 70s TV, childhoods split by divorce (supposedly causing us to be cynical about marriage and coupledom) and consciences marred by feelings of global village ennui that had us supposedly strapping on backpacks and out Lonely-Planeting each other as much as really trying to do "as much as the baby boomers" to improve the world. Every generation gets maligned--except my parents' uber-gen, the Boomers. True, they were some incredibly innovative people and all of us owe so much of our freedom to them.Yet I at times suffer from their ubiquitousness. Here in the Bay Area our main public TV channel has become nothing but Boomer central: seminars from Wayne Dyer and Suze Orman (both great speakers, but AGAIN?), Andrew Weil this and that, and seminars about the goddess and female sexuality. More power to them. But where are the twenty and thirty-somethings? Where are the FORTY-somethings? (Here comes another Eric Burdon concert--God save his Che Guevara T-shirted girth.) And yet, many of these great Boomers are behind the subtle bashing of this 1980-1995 generation and my 'Generation X' one. Yet talk about bashing, the Boomers took real heat for the changes they wrought in society, so they command my utmost respect, in spite of spurring some of my irritation. The torch has been passed.... Now, though, there is a big change, a kind of "I'm special" [For what???] 'tude indulgence with the younger gen that is freaking the older ones out. Whatever the view, I wish we could stop pigeonholing generations for good. It's only convenient for marketing. And it's arbitrary: a lot of Gen X traits are profiled here as Millennial. There are strengths in every generation--and probably entitlement queens in all of them, too. I do think, though, that it seems the toughest and most politically active generations seem sadly behind us now. May this change! Take to the streets, folks, in addition to the Internet. For more on that, see Thomas Friedman.

Here's Thomas Friedman on "Generation Q".

See the posting after the next one.

No. You guys are just smarter. You're less willing to take crappy treatment doled out by corporate America. Keep up the good work!

K, well, the demographics expressed are true, but I really don't want to be categorized into the "millenials". I think it's quite ominous that we're all going to live with our parents after college. Whatever happened to working hard, being disciplined and being about more than ourselves? Ethics are getting thrown away and the expense is coming onto our parents, instead of ourselves. This story doesn't talk about the people who are out there busting their asses to pay the rent. It's a slap in the face to the independent worker who's aged 27 or younger.

Too true aj! Your generation and mine (I'm GenX) do seem to have a hard time making it on our own. Pay has been stagnant, thanks to outsourcing, jobs *aren't* plentiful and our rents are too high. I doubt our parents' generation had to deal with all 3 when they were coming up.

I, for one, quite like the Gen Y corporate philosophy - as in, I have enough dignity and self-respect to understand that I don't need to take abuse from a-holes who think they know everything about everything when they really don't. Because that's what this is really all about. Baby Boomers are just pissed because they can't boss around their inferiors, overwork them, underpay them and undervalue them, which is probably the way they were treated when they were starting out. Things have changed. They can either get with it, or not.

I myself have been victim to bully Boomer bosses (and their unfortunate underlings) who underpaid me and overworked me, and it's refreshing to see younger folk entering the workforce who actually have the confidence and self-respect to stand up to that baloney. It's not about laziness, it's about recognition and respect, at least, it is to me.

And by the way, Baby Boomers? You guys need to stop judging the younger generation and get with the program, because before you know it, they'll be spoon feeding your ass in the nursing homes of America, which, by the way, will be overflowing and suffering major shortages of resources thanks to your greedy ways.

So my suggestion would be to get off your yuppified high horses and stop belittling that which you find most threatening. It's boring. Especially for a generation of people who can multi-task you right out of your job.

greedy ways and multi tasking

hell yeah