I’m a "narcissistic praisehound”

Reading the 37Signals blog today, I was pointed to a “report” that can best be described as a 60 Minutes hate video .

Watching this video literally made me blink in disbelief. I’ll admit I haven’t watched a lot of 60 Minutes in the past, oh, 25 years, so maybe that’s why they’re so cranky about people my age (it’s probably safe to assume none of my friends watch it either).

Basically the premise of the “report” is (only slightly paraphrasing): ‘The workplace is being filled with an entire generation of kids that have tattoos, wear flip-flops to the office every day, don’t know how to work hard, can’t accept tough feedback, live with their parents, play video games at work, don’t know how to use a KNIFE & FORK (!), and are ‘narcissistic praisehounds’ (my favorite) from years of getting trophies in AYSO despite losing.’

I’m not kidding.

Some of my favorite moments:

• The ad agency manager who thinks she needs to speak like a therapist to her employees. Sorry lady, but if you think you need to talk like that to get my attention, maybe you do need some psychological help.
• The “consultant” shown teaching 20-somethings about how to use a knife and fork properly, followed by shots of her smiling audience, no doubt thinking, “Does this bitch really think we don’t know how to use basic eating utensils?”
• The two “representatives” of our age bracket who seem like total douchebags, proudly stating that, ‘for our generation, it’s perfectly normal to have four jobs on your resume in a year,’ and, ‘we love the praise and, truly, we want our parents to know.’ Sorry 60 Minutes, can you please go find some reasonable human beings who are in “our generation”?

I’d write seven pages of commentary here, but I think the absurdity of this is pretty apparent. I’m not going to lie, there are probably some folks in my generation who actually match up with the profile described in this “report”. Unfortunately, 60 Minutes: 1) paints my entire generation with a single broad brush, and 2) does not even try to display any semblance of balanced reporting.

The equivalent would be 60 Minutes also doing a 15-minute report (with a reporter under the age of 30) that talked about how everyone over the age of 40 is incapable of using technology, intensely interested in senseless meetings, and continually hiring incompetent people based solely on their experience. Would that report fly with the execs? Probably not, yet I’ve seen plenty of those types of people too.

Actually, can someone go and MAKE that video? I’d love to see it.

Oh also, if 60 Minutes could go interview some of the 12-year olds that fall into the age range they give (they slander everyone born from 1980 to 1995) just to get their perspective on the new-age office environments that they work in, I’d love to see that.

Idiots.