Work Pet Peeve - Update

After talking with Doug, I see that I inadvertently lumped a whole group of people into one big slacker group.

I have several friends who are 9 or more years younger than me (I forget about that because they are so mature beyond their peers). I mentioned "younger generations" without realizing on my own that they are part of that, too. For that I apologize. I was not intending to overgeneralize.

Let me explain what brought this on. Since October, we have had at least two of the most worthless girls replace our res.pira.tory ther.a.pist. One was older but she was always sick due to a headache or a cold or the final straw, her wrist need to have surgery and twisting on lids for humidifier bottles was aggravating it.

The girl who overlapped her was in her early 20s and had a hard time getting into work not only on time but at all. She worked 2 days a week and always managed to get doctor appointments scheduled on those days. She also had a cold every other week. Unfortunately. she was in a motorcycle accident and broke her collar bone. Three weeks later she called and said she could come back but she couldn't lift anything. (Half of her job entails some sort of lifting.) We told her, no, you need to be 100% first.

On to the new girl. She is good at the job, great with the residents and nursing homes' staff and very personable, but she is whiny. She called off in her first week, then two weeks later and then New Year's Eve day. My boss is beside herself and if she doesn't pull it together, she may lose her job at her 90 day review.

In our same building is an insurance company and we all get along really well. They have one employee and she calls off once a month due to, "Cramps from Hell." Trust me, it gets old. She is another whiner.

On the flip side, we have a 15 1/2 year old kid who works for us in the mornings and goes to school in the afternoons. He has been with us for a year and a half and he called off once because of oral surgery (it was more like my boss told him to stay home); about a moth ago my boss sent him home because he came in running a fever. Like I said the kid is a work horse. He doesn't complain, he does any task he is asked, even going out to the nursing homes to help out during end of month cleanings. I think I tend to compare others' work ethic to his. He could be a typical kid and just do his job and that is it, but he doesn't and it is noticed and appreciated.

I guess I hold employees to my standards, in my mind. I really wanted to take a sick day on the day after Christmas, I was miserable and fighting off a horrible head cold thing but I still came in. I have the luxury (if you want to call it that) of working on the computer all day and I rarely deal with people in person, just over the phone. I can be sick and work and no would really know.

Working in a nursing home for so long doing payroll and such, jaded me towards young people. Look at any retail store and you will find at least 1 or 2 'kids' who just don't want to be there and it shows. Those are the people I am talking about. I explained myself a bit more because I didn't want it to seem like I was picking on a whole group of young people, I was just frustrated at people at my place of employment. There are plenty of hard working people in the "younger generations" just as much as there are problem employees in the "older generations".

So, if I insulted or hurt feelings of anyone, I am sorry, it was not intentional.