On "Lazy Generation Xers"...

Earlier today I have the misfortune of sitting a few feet away from a coworker as he went on a 15 minute diatribe about his 30 year old son. He says his son (along with his live-in 20 year old girlfriend) is a spoiled, lazy, ridiculous waste of space who is coddled by his mother. He says his son doesn't want to work, and is complacent with his part-time job at a local video game store. He says he only wants to play video games, and lie around the house dividing his free time between sleep and "play time". He says he completed a degree at the local community college, but it's all for naught since he only applied to a few local jobs before giving up. His father obviously hates his guts because he even mentioned his son during my interview for this job. He went on a mini-rant about how people in my age group (those under 35) are lazy and don't want to work or find jobs. I told him then (and I still believe this), that the reason we can't find jobs is because people like him, get in their jobs, do nothing, and stay there for 30+ years!! (Ok, I didn't say the "do nothing" part, but I thought it!). LOL.

How exactly is a young, college educated individual supposed to matriculate in the work force when the 60+ year olds, with 30+ years on the job (who could retire if they wanted), REFUSE TO LEAVE?! If I had the power, I'd clean out this whole damn office! GET THE LEAD OUT and DROP THE DEAD WEIGHT!! Everybody there for more than 15-20 years would have to RE-APPLY for their jobs and prove that they're still qualified AND worthy of their ridiculously bloated salaries. I bet that would encourage people to learn how to use computers more efficiently and not waste organizational resources.

Now, I'm not saying everyone that works here over the age of 50 is useless, because that just isn't true. There are a few very dedicated individuals here, but there are also some lazy, unmotivated employees who would NEVER EVEN CONSIDER doing something they think is beneath them or "outside of their salary grade".

The irony of the conversation I was forced to overhear is that the person doing all the complaining is THE LEAST EFFECTIVE SUPERVISOR AROUND and EVERYONE KNOWS IT! People constantly talk about how useless he is and how he's not the one to go to for information, because despite having three decades of experience in the field, he can NEVER help anyone and always refers you to someone else for answers! It's amazing that it hasn't occurred to him that his son's ineptitude is GENETIC!

Also, it pisses me off that he blames all of the son's faults on his mother, as if she SHE is the only enabler. Who lets his 20 year old girlfriend live with him? Hmm? If you're the "king of your castle" and the sole breadwinner of the household, then surely you can say who does and doesn't live with you, draining your financial resources, right?

It really pisses me off that there are tons of people at my job doing "the bare minimum" and are getting paid more than $100,000 a year, simply because they've done "the bare minimum" for more than two decades. I doubt any of the supervisors here were EVER stellar employees, they're just the ones who were able to wade through the bureaucratic bullsh!t and were still standing. There really needs to be some kind of merit based system where I work! The laziness and ineptitude that this place fosters is pathetic! THIS is what's really wrong with this country!