The "no fun" generation

The generation of young people just coming out of college, or still in college, is all about "me" and having "fun". To me, it is annoying. Fun is what you do on your free time, but when you come to work, not everything is going to be fun. It is called work, and it is called work for a reason. It is not always fun and glamorous.

I love my job, love what I do for a living, and I think I am one of the lucky people that can say that. But our new round of interns look at it very differently. They want things to be fun, all the time, and they actually have the nerve to say when things they are assigned to do are not "fun". They want to try to be selective about what they do, or try to hint that they did not enjoy a particular assignment. Where do they get off saying that, they should be glad to have a job, especially now, with the construction industry in a tail spin. They complain about little tasks. The nerve. They have to put their time in, work themselves up, and earn the right to do the fun stuff. I have, and I have worked very hard to get to where I am today. I have had to do a lot of "un-fun" things to be able to do the fun stuff I get to do now.

When I had my first job in a firm, I had to vacuum floors and clean toilets once a week, I had to clean the partners toilet, the toilet I was not even allowed to use. I would have loved to do small tasks at my desk as opposed to being the maid since my boss was too cheap to pay an actual cleaning service. The most "un-fun" jobs in my old office were assigned to me, I was on the bottom of the totem pole, and I did all of them, no complaints.

I remember being younger, and adults saying that they were afraid of our generation taking care of them. My generation seems to have turned out pretty good, everyone I know has good solid, stable jobs, and are doing their part, fun or not. I can't say the same for the new crop. I hope they prove me wrong.