Re: Perhaps that's the point completely...rimrunnerJune 20 2006, 16:39:52 UTC
I've noticed differences in the work ethics and styles of many of my younger interns and employees when compared to people just a few years older.
Could that just be a function of age, though? The reason I ask is that I work with a number of undergraduate students who are all about the same age, but who vary widely in terms of how conscientious they are at work. Some of them are great, very detail-oriented, and I can hand them projects and not worry about their quality of work. Others...not so much. It's pretty clear to me that some of them have never worked service jobs before: they're not being deliberately rude, but nobody has ever taught them the basics of good customer service. (This is probably going to become my responsibility because I do have a background in that area.)
The one universal, though, does seem to be dress. And I have to admit that although I dress according to the general standards of my workplace (which I consider to be pretty casual, actually), I don't notice what the student workers wear as much as some of my older colleagues, one of whom has asked us to put a dress code in the student worker handbook.
Re: Perhaps that's the point completely...malkin767June 20 2006, 17:15:49 UTC
Could that just be a function of age, though?
I've thought about that. To some extent that is a factor. With age and experience there is more opportunity and pressure to conform to social standards. Still, I get the sense that something more is changing with the up and coming generation. I don't have any scientific evidence to back it up. That's just what my intuition tells me. It would be an interesting subject to study further.
Re: Perhaps that's the point completely...rimrunnerJune 20 2006, 17:34:01 UTC
Times like these, I wish I was an anthropologist instead of a professional dilettante. You're right, it's an interesting question.
There's a lot in the library professional literature about millennials, as they're called, but it mostly has to do with the stuff in this article relating to technology: the reliance on gadgets, the ability to multi-task, making connections using social software, and so on. (Surprisingly, most of the people I have to remind to shut off their cell phones while in the library are adults well over the age of 30, i.e. more than old enough to know better.)
Could that just be a function of age, though? The reason I ask is that I work with a number of undergraduate students who are all about the same age, but who vary widely in terms of how conscientious they are at work. Some of them are great, very detail-oriented, and I can hand them projects and not worry about their quality of work. Others...not so much. It's pretty clear to me that some of them have never worked service jobs before: they're not being deliberately rude, but nobody has ever taught them the basics of good customer service. (This is probably going to become my responsibility because I do have a background in that area.)
The one universal, though, does seem to be dress. And I have to admit that although I dress according to the general standards of my workplace (which I consider to be pretty casual, actually), I don't notice what the student workers wear as much as some of my older colleagues, one of whom has asked us to put a dress code in the student worker handbook.
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I've thought about that. To some extent that is a factor. With age and experience there is more opportunity and pressure to conform to social standards. Still, I get the sense that something more is changing with the up and coming generation. I don't have any scientific evidence to back it up. That's just what my intuition tells me. It would be an interesting subject to study further.
Reply
There's a lot in the library professional literature about millennials, as they're called, but it mostly has to do with the stuff in this article relating to technology: the reliance on gadgets, the ability to multi-task, making connections using social software, and so on. (Surprisingly, most of the people I have to remind to shut off their cell phones while in the library are adults well over the age of 30, i.e. more than old enough to know better.)
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