This summer, I took a manager-type position with other folks my age. We were all desk workers, more or less, but me and my co-worker had to maintain desk appearence, enforce desk scheduling (some of you may recall my summer plea about that), as well as some other things. We asked them basically two things: take hours and keep the desks professional. Other than that, all they had to do was be on time and sit there for their 4+ hour shifts. We were pretty lenient beyond that. For example, they could have played games or done homework or whatever for their shift. But, for some unfathomable reason (to me), a select handful couldn't do that. I mean, it's one of the easiest jobs I've ever had (easier then even busing tables at a small restaurant), yet, they still had all these gripes that, really, were incredibly juvenile. Furthermore, they were completely and utterly uncooperative with us higher ups.

Now, whether or not this was because they were arrogant (they were, but that doesn't necessarily spill over to their job performance), I don't know. Maybe. My general impression is that those people just really didn't have a good idea as to the sacrifices a real job would require them to make.

But, Kelli makes a good point; one that most of my peers are well aware of. More and more is required of us, with those requirements becoming harder and harder to get. Like she said, a decade or so ago, a Bachelor's would have been plenty! And in some cases, more than enough. A high school diploma is all you really needed. Now, a high school diploma is practically a waste of paper. Furthermore, year after year, a single Bachelor's degree is becoming less and less valuable. I know a ton of people who've taken on double-majors, and a few have even taken on a triple-major. The sad thing is, though, that to me and my peers, we know that if we're to have any comfortable future at all, we really should be going for our Master's or Ph.D's. And that would be fine only the cost of education is continuously rising. I mean, we have a small enough amount of the population (at least, I think) getting higher education as it is, and that amount is only going to go down. And with that, so does the amount of bi/tri/quad-lingual individuals, and all the other things employers look at for qualification.

Ultimately, however, I really find it erroneous to apply such a broad generalization to any generation. I mean, Gen Xers or Yers or whatever you wish to call them/us are filled with diverse people. It's no more accurate of me to call all those from the 1950s stuffy, conservative automata then it is for baby boomers to call us from the 1990s+ lazy, arrogant and worthless. Some certainly are, but not all.

Edited to add: Being born in 1983 and being 24, I've never been entirely sure what generation category I fall into. Some say Gen X, others say Gen Y, others say something else all together. So, deem me wherever you wish. :p