The young at work

Over the last few days I have been subjected to long lectures from friends and acquaintances on the quality of fresh graduates entering the work force and the time required in getting them up to speed. While complaints abound, solutions offered are few and far between and there is smug undertone that we ( my generation ) were better than the current crop. Considering the volume being written on the current youngsters one would assume that we are facing an epidemic of sorts and that India has missed the bus or about to miss the one on demographic dividend. What's the real truth? Well, here is my spiel: 1. We tend to reflect on the past through rose tinted glasses and with fond nostalgia. In short - we had our share of gaffes and were as much as clowns! 2. Our managers were a lot more patient with us than we are with the current breed of graduates. I had pretty good bosses's and wince at what they had to put up from me. 3. Today a larger volume enters the professional workforce and there are bound to be hits and misses.We had ours too. So are things hunky dory and are we being paranoid ? No, on the contrary, I think serious problems do exist. At the start of any career a youngster needs to be able to manage oneself and his/her environment. There seems to be a serious problem here. A young career professional never seems to grow up and is unable to deal with a changed environment.The mind set simply does not exist to accept that serious adulthood has begun!It's like if SRK can prance around trees at 50, why can't I? Simple things cannot be grasped, even to the point where the youngster can answer as to why exactly he/she is in a job? Some obvious areas of concern 1. Arriving to the office on time 2. Being civil to others at the work place 3. Distinguishing between work time and personal time 4.The work place is not a country club and point for socialization but is one where serious work gets done 5. Work gets done in teams and the individual is just a cog in the giant wheel 6. Learning never stops but needs to be accelerated at work 7. A career is like running a marathon and not a 100 yards sprint. One needs focus,discipline and the the good sense to look after one's health rather than indulge in wild partying and drinking binges. Not all of us are Superman! The great Indian middle class taught many of these values to their children at home, but that seems to have been lost, so many of the young are buffeted by conflicting pulls at the workplace and fail to focus. When the inevitable pink slip arrives it leaves many shattered and bitter. While I envy today's young for many things that I missed, I also feel extremely sad at their inability to come to terms with a complex, complicated and ruthless world of work.