An ultra-conservative's views on this and that

29 November 2013

The Chatty Cathys, Part I

Some of my coworkers need more work.

My cube isn't really a cube.  It's a two sided desk that's part of a pod of desks. People in the pod work on the same tasks.  Yes, we are peas in a pod.

My desk's pod neighbors with a pod populated with Chatty Cathys who seem to have an opinion on everything.  That's not what bothers me.  What bothers me is their propensity to share it out loud.  Being their neighbor, I get to hear these opinions all the time.  I consider it very distracting, but I also marvel at how, in times where unemployment is high, these people think it's wise to just run their mouths. Business owners and bosses notice how idle, non-work-related chatter impacts the bottom line by reducing productivity.  A reasonable boss tolerates the deviation from work because the idle chatter helps the employees temporarily forget they're at work, unwind a little bit, vent their frustrations, get something off their chest, etc., before resuming the work they're being paid to do.  It translates to happy employees, whom, studies have shown, are more productive employees.  But there is a line where allowing the employee some latitude starts to impact the bottom line more than the extra productivity that may or may not be garnered.

A very wise and worldly instructor I had for supervisor training once upon a time theorized how the different employed generations viewed work:

The generation that came of age during the Great Depression and World War II tend to treat their job as very valuable.  Their work ethic gets them to regard their occupation as sacrosanct.  They're less likely to expect pay raises on a regular schedule and prefer more to take what they get when applying for a job.  "Humble" is a word I would associate with these folks.

The baby boomers came of age during a time of economic prosperity in post-war America.  Couple this with the counter-culture movement, and this generation by and large feels like they can do anything and subscribes to the "work smarter, not harder" mindset.  Overtime is less common amongst baby boomers, and negotiating for more perks when they join a job is more common.  Additionally, baby boomers tend to display less loyalty towards a business, changing jobs every couple of years.  The job market they grew up in was different than now, favoring the employee over the employer.

Generation-X, my generation, has more in common with the Greatest Generation than the Baby Boomers.  The job market favored the employers somewhat when we came of age.  We were on the cusp of the technological revolution we see today, giving us the experiences of at times doing menial tasks involving paperwork, for instance.  Within our first few years of employment, however, things started to change:  We saw new ways to perform those menial tasks with the aid of technology.  Given reliability issues, however, sometimes the old ways still prevailed.  Gen X-ers are likely to more slowly adopt technology than the next generation, partly because we're a bit cynical about it.  Gen X-ers also were the first generation to grow up by and large with two working parents, giving birth to the term "latch-key kids".  We tasted self-sufficiency and independence at an early age.  This translates into us being self-starters in our jobs, something that bosses love.  Our sometimes-cynicism about technology also makes us an asset because we're more sensitive to cost and less sensitive to the "cool" factor of new technology.

Millenials, the generation entering the workforce now, grew up in an age of instant-gratification.  They cannot recall a time prior to getting information from the Internet.  They grew up with at least one computer in their house, possibly more than one, and possibly at least one laptop.  Cable and satelite television has been more ubiquitous in their time.  Cell phones are more popular than landlines. This generation is always connected.  Asking them to focus on work presents a challenge:  Unplugging themselves from their online presences is difficult.  Millenials and Baby Boomers tend to have more in common.

This morning's mindless conversation topic:  Parking between the lines.  One person, a Millenial, could understand someone parking a nice car across two parking spaces to protect their doors from being dinged by the drivers and/or passengers of cars in adjacent spots.  To him, the fact that parking such a way is inconsiderate to others, especially when parking spaces are scarce.  Factor in inclement weather, and the lack of consideration is more acute because now people are forced to endure more of such weather in their effort to get inside a building, all so some vain person can protect the sides of their car from what might happen.  Don't get me wrong, it sucks to have someone else's car's paint job on yours, but that's life.  Get insurance and trust in the consideration of your fellow man.

Another person in the conversation, a Baby Boomer, chimed in her two cents about how the requirements are parking between the lines can be an undue burden, and a person who expects such discipline has never had to "drop a kid and get to work when they're late".  This woman is a vacuous moron:  By her logic, it's OK to break the traffic laws if you're in a hurry.  Why stop at parking?  In a hurry, go ahead and run that red light.  In a hurry?  Go ahead and drive around the lowered railroad crossing arms.  In a hurry?  Drive over the speed limit.

I'm sure some might point out how violation of moving traffic laws poses a greater danger to people than the parking violation.  Maybe they're just more obvious dangers?  You ever walk across an icy parking lot in January?  Take a spill and you break a bone, mess up your back, etc.  The point is that if every person is inconsiderate, you are greatly inconvenienced at best, potentially injured at worst.

25 November 2013

Infandous

Some of my coworkers really need more work.
I've never heard so many people engage in such mindless conversations.