Are We Raising a Workforce With an Entitlement Attitude?

I walk up to the deli counter, there are 5 women behind the counter doing various tasks. I stand and wait for them to acknowledge me. One, slicing turkey, turns around and looks at me but doesn't smile or acknowledge my presence, she continues to talk with her co-worker. "How late did y'all stay out last night?" I patiently wait. She turns and looks at me again. The others behind the counter continue to do various tasks, not once acknowledging my presence. Finally, after the fourth look over her shoulder, I ask the turkey slicer in the nicest voice I can muster up. "Are you going to ask me if I need anything?" She literally snarls at me and says "I have to finish this order first!" REALLY? All you had to do was turn around, look at me and say "I'll be right with you ma'am." How hard would that have been?

I'm worried about our future. We have so many young adults entering the workforce that have such an "entitlement" attitude. "I showed up! Give me a ribbon." No one wants to put in a hard day of work anymore. Do they really believe that the owner of the business just showed up for work and sat on his pockets all day and built this successful business?

We are not doing our children any favors by helicoptering around them during their school years and ensuring that they don't have their feelings hurt because they didn't win a ribbon for something they did.

I'm exhausted from watching those around me EXPECTING success. It doesn't matter if you paint the Mona Lisa or you make a macaroni necklace, everyone is treated the same. When will it stop?

My parents raised me to work hard for what I wanted. If I couldn't pay cash for it then I needed to work harder and save my money so I could someday afford what I hoped for. I don't remember ever needing anything as I was growing up. Oh sure, I WANTED an EZ Bake Oven but I didn't NEED one. I had clean clothes, a nice home, a color television set (hey! Not many of our neighbors had one of those.).

People are quitting their jobs because they have to work more than 8 hours a day once in awhile or they have to work a weekend now and then. They don't want to HAVE to work they want to show up for work and you pay them.