I apologize up front, as a never respond to drivel like this, but as the father of a millennial, feel the need to respond.
I can't comment on the kids you see as potential new hires. You see who you see, but what you post is not reflective of a whole generation of kids.
I am very proud of my daughter. Despite having some personal difficulties, see graduated last spring from an honors college, and begins a new job as a civilian employee working for the Coast Guard next week.
I have come to meet many of my daughter's friends at college and they are upstanding kids, who I have no doubt will make this country a better place. Does this mean that all millennials are hard-working, no, but that isn't any different than our generation either.
Regarding making health insurance available to children under 26, I think this is a great idea. My daughter was 23 when she graduated college. If I am paying extra to have her insured on my health insurance plan, why should you even care???
Oh, the horror of kids moving back home.
Thirty-six years ago, after I graduated college, I didn't have a job and moved back into my parents house. Even after I got a job I lived at home for another two years. Gotta tell ya, my Mom was sad when I moved out! Guess that makes me a freeloader
(By the way, I have had a pretty successful career, went to grad school in the evenings, and have a great family myself).
My daughter will be following in her old man's footsteps. She will live with us for a couple of years while getting her career established and building her savings. Do you approve? Really, I don't care.
I don't think millennials (as a whole) have to figure anything out. Like any generation before them, they are a wide variety of individuals.
Jim
Wifey B: Amen...hallelujah brother. Sock it to em.
The vast majority of our employees are between the ages of 18 and 30 and they're simply incredible. Wish we had more jobs so we could hire more but only have about 3600 jobs right now. We're so proud of them all. I also see the kids from the orphanage in NC and they're so wonderful. I'll tell you if they ran this country, this world, instead of the generation that has screwed things up so, we'd be far better off. Not only do they have their heads on straight and work hard, but they have their hearts in the right place too.
My hubby's protege is 19 years old and an absolute genius and wonderful girl. Her company she's now CEO of is projecting sales in 2018 of $66 million and her personal income will be over $1 million for the second year in a row. Oh, she's also going to college while doing this.
Then there's our "adopted" daughter. Came into our life at 18, in 2013. Finishing her masters with degrees in psychology and sociology and a strong accounting base as her dream is helping others by running our foundation. We hope she never leaves home. We know she will. She intends to stay here for at least her first two years doing field work for those nights she comes home having lost, having been unable to help or save or get someone to listen. She's choosing a career that is filled with pain but is so driven to help. I know hubby will smile and laugh the day she leaves and then as soon as she's gone he'll bawl his eyes out in my arms.
You talk about today's kids and we take it very personally. They're "our kids", kids we're proud to know, proud to employ, proud to call our own. No, their generation isn't perfect. None is. But they're sure an improvement on the ones they're following. They still dream of a better world and haven't become jaded and bitter. They're not filled with hate, but with love.
If you haven't met kids like I describe, then you need to get to it, search them out, talk to them, get to know them and understand them. They're all around you. Go to a college campus, even a high school. I see kids in high school student councils and their long list of their projects in the course of a year and I'm amazed. How do they have time to do so much for others? They care about others and they do for them.
If you aren't getting them when you hire, then you need to fix your hiring practices, because they're there. We're getting them. Maybe we're getting the best and you're getting the worst, but we sure do feel good about ours.
As to moving back in, we'll always welcome them all with open arms. Not just the "daughter" I mentioned above, but the other two members of the "Brat Pack", made up of the three. One from a good family, one who grew up in horrible conditions. And the older girls we're close to, it's the same. The girl and her daughter we went to pick up after Irma and helped recover. The girl our "daughter" helped turn her life around and moved from NC here.
We have come to believe in some very old fashioned concepts. Before we were so mobile, kids were raised in a community, large families and larger extended families. Well, our true family is just hubby and me. But we first adopted ourselves some parents and a sister because we didn't like our parents and by then they were dead anyway. That led to a brother in law and a niece I love so much. Then somehow in FL we collected a group. People in and out of our home whether we're there or not. I recall while the girl rescued from abuse in NC was in a recovery center. We were generally out of town but every Sunday afternoon when they had a family time for visitors, two or more of our extended family went. She had family now and always will. So, kids, you want to come back, come on anytime. You need us, we're here and we love you.
Don't stereotype a generation or I'll stereotype yours. If I judged yours by my parents or by my hubby's or by his aunts and uncles and cousins even, I wouldn't judge it nicely. However, your generation is like all, it's got good and bad. Humans are that way. If you don't like those you're meeting from any generation then go meet some different ones. Find those who share your values. Exchange thoughts and ideas. Teach them and you'll learn.
But you start condemning this generation and you'll bring out my claws and fangs and Wifey B will go full on angry tiger. They're my kids and I love them and I'm proud of them.