RickWhite
Well-Known Member
It seems these days that more and more people are developing an entitlement mentality never before seen in the US. I was wondering why when so many before them have worked so hard and have scrimped and saved their entire lives to give their children a better life, so many these days feel so entitled.
The best answer I can think of comes from the notion that when people are used to having something and then that something is cut off, people tend to go ape shit, for lack of a better term. For example, if you give a child a toy and take it away the child will through a tantrum. But, if the child never had the toy to begin with it is a different story.
Now consider that our parents generation was the most prosperous in history and we are the first generation that can plan to earn less than their parents. Combine the two and you have a perfect recipe for this type of thinking. Now, as never before we have children raised with a relatively high standard of living growing up and having to make a downward move when they leave home.
The problem with an entitlement mentality is that it makes a person particularly unattractive to prospective employers. This is because people with entitlement mentalities tend to see life as a deck staked against them. They feel that life is unfair, everyone else is responsible for their adversity and that others, including their employers, are taking advantage of them.
In short, people with an inflated sense of entitlement are pre-disgruntled employees. Ask any employer and they will tell you that one of the single most damaging thing to their business is a disgruntled employee. One of the worst things about a DE is that they are highly effective in spreading their poor employee moral to other employees causing a substantial loss of production, poor attendance and perhaps worst of all employee theft. In fact, employee moral is the single largest determinant of employee theft. When an employee feels he is treated unfairly, its time to keep an extra vigilant eye on that employee as theft becomes much more likely. Often people who steal like to rationalize their actions and being "taken advantage of" makes for a great rationalization. Now that I think about it, the whole concept of the unfair society created by the evils of Capitalism is largely such a rationalization only of collective theft rather than theft on an individual level.
When broken down, it should be easy to see how having an entitlement mentality is antithetical toward finding more lucrative employment. Perhaps it is this and not "society" that is mainly responsible for the adversity of many people. Perhaps if people would lose this toxic way of thinking and develop a better attitude towards life and the marketplace of skills people would find their situations improving.
As an employer I have seen employees come and go and one lesson I have learned is that people are where they are in life for a reason. Those with a strong work ethic and a good attitude tend to go far where as those with poor attitudes who feel that the world owes them a living tend to go nowhere. The former make for great employees, they bring value to my business and therefore wind up earning more, the latter are to be avoided like the plague.
The best answer I can think of comes from the notion that when people are used to having something and then that something is cut off, people tend to go ape shit, for lack of a better term. For example, if you give a child a toy and take it away the child will through a tantrum. But, if the child never had the toy to begin with it is a different story.
Now consider that our parents generation was the most prosperous in history and we are the first generation that can plan to earn less than their parents. Combine the two and you have a perfect recipe for this type of thinking. Now, as never before we have children raised with a relatively high standard of living growing up and having to make a downward move when they leave home.
The problem with an entitlement mentality is that it makes a person particularly unattractive to prospective employers. This is because people with entitlement mentalities tend to see life as a deck staked against them. They feel that life is unfair, everyone else is responsible for their adversity and that others, including their employers, are taking advantage of them.
In short, people with an inflated sense of entitlement are pre-disgruntled employees. Ask any employer and they will tell you that one of the single most damaging thing to their business is a disgruntled employee. One of the worst things about a DE is that they are highly effective in spreading their poor employee moral to other employees causing a substantial loss of production, poor attendance and perhaps worst of all employee theft. In fact, employee moral is the single largest determinant of employee theft. When an employee feels he is treated unfairly, its time to keep an extra vigilant eye on that employee as theft becomes much more likely. Often people who steal like to rationalize their actions and being "taken advantage of" makes for a great rationalization. Now that I think about it, the whole concept of the unfair society created by the evils of Capitalism is largely such a rationalization only of collective theft rather than theft on an individual level.
When broken down, it should be easy to see how having an entitlement mentality is antithetical toward finding more lucrative employment. Perhaps it is this and not "society" that is mainly responsible for the adversity of many people. Perhaps if people would lose this toxic way of thinking and develop a better attitude towards life and the marketplace of skills people would find their situations improving.
As an employer I have seen employees come and go and one lesson I have learned is that people are where they are in life for a reason. Those with a strong work ethic and a good attitude tend to go far where as those with poor attitudes who feel that the world owes them a living tend to go nowhere. The former make for great employees, they bring value to my business and therefore wind up earning more, the latter are to be avoided like the plague.
