Wall Street Journal contributor Ron Alsop, in his article “The Trophy Kids Go To Work,” describes a generation of young people raised by mollycoddling Baby Boomer helicopter parents and the challenge today’s employers face trying to manage workers with a new sense of entitlement.
Millennials, as today’s generation is called, are accustomed to praise, even for underperformance, and don’t seem to grasp even the simplest concept of responsibility for, as an example, being on-time for that 3:15pm departure to Boston. “What do you mean you didn’t hold the flight for me?” An excerpt from Mr. Alsop’s article illustrates:
When Gretchen Neels, a Boston-based consultant, was coaching a group of college students for job interviews, she asked them how they believe employers view them. She gave them a clue, telling them that the word she was looking for begins with the letter “e.” One young man shouted out, “excellent.” Other students chimed in with “enthusiastic” and “energetic.” Not even close. The correct answer, she said, is “entitled.” “Huh?” the students responded, surprised and even hurt to think that managers are offended by their highfalutin opinions of themselves.
On a personal note, all of the children on my son’s baseball team got a trophy at the end of this season, even the kid who couldn’t hit a bull in the behind with a bass fiddle and who couldn’t catch a cold, let alone a pop fly. How will that translate to his expectations for the rest of his life? Will he grow up anticipating praise, whether or not he deserves it? Thankfully, my son asked me, “Dad, why are we getting a trophy? We didn’t win.” Score one for healthy parenting.
Airline management is suffering from Baby Boomer parenting syndrome as well, creating an entire passenger base of Airline Millennials. So eager to accommodate the whim of the frequent traveler, management has conditioned customers to expect such things as automatic upgrades, primo seat locations, space on already full flights, free airport lounge access, dedicated knowledgeable telephone agents and so forth.
When any of these perks is taken away or altered, customers start to bang on their high chairs, wanting their entitlements returned immediately.
At the airport, the prospect of a middle seat causes the Airline Millennial great indignation. When the 10:00 A.M. flight to San Francisco cancels, and the next available one isn’t until 3:00 P.M., the airline’s unwillingness to bump another customer from the full 11:00 A.M. flight results in overt biliousness that oozes off of the Airline Millennial for hours or days.
It can be like dealing with Veruca Salt and her immediate request for a golden egg-laying goose.
I’ll grant you that frequent fliers earn their status. They don’t get into the elite ranks without logging beaucoup miles. But when does enough become enough and where does the line get drawn? And how does the airline respond to the envious proletariat who see entitlements being doled out and suddenly begin shouting “me too?”
I suspect, in the end, the airlines that aren’t making customers feel stripped of all their rights and privileges will come out on top — especially if they’ve worked over time to limit passenger entitlement expectations, like Southwest has.
In the meantime, it’s interesting to watch this generation of airline-spawned Millennials adapt to today’s no-frills, à la carte reality — kicking and screaming all the way.
