Akkam’s Razor

One of the cranky old men (Morley Safer) on tonight's 60-Minutes covered Millennials in the workforce.

The usual ground was covered - they're narcissistic, dependent on praise, and they don't know how to be 'professional'.

They also brought out a trio of experts, namely a Stepford-Wife that teaches twentysomethings to use utensils, two twentysomethings who appear to confirm the espoused stereotypes, and the cranky near-boomer WSJ columnist.

Although I am technically a Gen-Xer, I certainly feel closer to Gen-Yers /Millennials. These formulatic "damn kids today" rants bore me to tears.

I can't deny that the workplace and worker are different, especially for those who have options. But why draw the line at parents and Mr. Rogers?

Didn't 50 years of marketing make us all self-centered? Didn't the boomers-turned-yuppies decade of excess teach us that all that mattered was self gratification? Hasn't the 1990s trends of outsouring, down-sizing, and right-sizing obliterate workplace loyalty?

Should we surprised by self-interested outcomes  when the ideal is an "Ownership Society" where the shared safety nets are gone, and the individual is solely responsible for their own successes (and failures)?  Retirement and pensions? Self-funded. Healthcare? Pay for it. Isn't that the very definition of self-interest?

With the exodus of boomers from the workforce, the labor pool will be a sellers market. That's a fact that employers are going to need to accept.