What the science of human nature can teach us. After the boom and bust, the mania and the meltdown, the Composure Class rose once again.
Its members didn’t make their money through hedge-fund wizardry or by some big financial score. Theirs was a statelier ascent. They got good grades in school, established solid social connections, joined fine companies, medical practices, and law firms. Wealth settled down upon them gradually, like a gentle snow. You can see a paragon of the Composure Class having an al-fresco lunch at some bistro in Aspen or Jackson Hole.
A few times a year, members of this class head to a mountain resort, carrying only a Council on Foreign Relations tote bag (when you have your own plane, you don’t need luggage that actually closes). Occasionally, you meet a young, rising member of this class at the gelato store, as he hovers indecisively over the cloudberry and ginger-pomegranate selections, and you notice that his superhuman equilibrium is marred by an anxiety. Help comes from the strangest places. Ms. NSFW: Generation Whine – Why I’m Relieved not to be a Millennial. “I want a party with roomfuls of laughter / Ten thousand tons of ice cream / And if I don’t get the things I am after / I’m going to scream” - Veruca Salt On Friday, the New York times published an astonishing story, which was itself based on an astonishing survey: apparently “Millennials” would rather give up coffee for a week than surrender seven days of wifi.
My astonishment (squared) came not from the results of the survey, you understand, but rather from two other realisations. Firstly, that someone at the New York Times thinks that Millennials preferring wifi to coffee is an interesting story. I mean, who of reproductive age would answer the question “wifi or coffee?” My second astonished realisation was that, according to the Wakefield Research study, a Millennial is anyone born between 1980 and 1993.
I’m not kidding. And it gets worse (also from 60 Minutes)… “Career services departments are complaining about the parents who are coming to update their child’s resume. Gen Y still think the world owes them a living. Even in the deepest of recessions anyone at any age can feel resentful that their talents have been overlooked and believe they deserve a promotion or pay rise.
And that's particularly true if you are a Generation Y graduate. Research by academics at the University of New Hampshire has yet again pointed the finger at the "entitlement generation" - Generation Y up-and-coming graduate recruits - arguing that they are more likely to feel entitled to preferential treatment in the workplace, even when their sentiments are undeserved.
But for the rest of us watching in fascinated horror at the cavalier attitudes of many new graduates in the workplace, there is at least some consolation. Not only will such entitlement junkies run into greater conflicts and arguments at work, therefore probably hindering the very progression they feel they so deserve, they may well end up miserable to boot.
According to Harvey, younger workers and Generation Y employees were more apt to feel entitled in this way. Narcissistic and Entitled - Gen Y Has Too Much Self-Esteem. No one looks the way I do.
I have noticed that it’s true. No one walks the way I walk. No one talks the way I talk. No one plays the way I play. No one says the things I say. Gen Y – people born between 1978 and 1997 – grew up singing that nursery song. In the 1980s world of child rearing, the catchword was “self-esteem.” The result of these child-rearing practices has been a measurable increase in narcissism and a generation that has a deeply embedded sense of entitlement, according to authorities like Dr.
The new trend toward self-centeredness and self-love might be bad for society. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, corporations like Lands End and Bank of America are hiring “praise teams” to keep up with Gen Y’s demand for constant positive reinforcement. The constant stream of praise has resulted in what psychologist Dr. Gen Y’s need for affirmations often accompanies an intense sense of entitlement. Put limits on spending by giving your teen an allowance.