Are Morals And Manners Going Down The Pan?
I work for a top law firm, and I was chatting with one of the partners recently about how they hired people. He said that it's actually much harder to hire people nowadays than it was even 5 or 10 years ago. This surprised me, as I'd thought employers would almost be "spoilt for choice" given the huge increase people going to uni - granted, there are more employers as much as there are more graduates, but if you're a prestigious place (I personally work for the Magic Circle; this is my first day off in ages, and only because I'm horribly sick!) you'll still be as "in demand" as ever.
According to him, even though we have more people graduating from Uni than ever and so more for employers to choose between, the people he sees applying every year are, on average, less and less prepared, polite, and aware of what the socially acceptable way to behave/dress when in a work environment is. I personally worked with several interns at a winter placement scheme we run last year, and I can see his point - many of these were recent graduates or final years, but the way they acted (even the way they talked to the "higher ups," or their personal standards regarding getting drunk and so on in front of clients at events) was an utter disgrace a lot of the time. What happened to the standards of yesteryear?
I know every generation in ages has been saying this, and in a lot of ways society has improved significantly even just over the past century. However, I do agree with him to a large extent. My brother is much younger than me, and I'm surprised at how even his peers of both genders behave sometimes. A lot of the current generation seems ridiculously spoilt, narcissistic, ill-mannered, selfish, self-centred and out of touch, even when compared to the kids of the 90s. And parenting standards seem to have gone AWOL. Divorce and having kids out of marriage is rife too, which doesn't help matters.
Do you think this is true? Or is it just that those people who are now capable of going to uni (and hence of applying to a law firm) will have been more of a mixed bag?
According to him, even though we have more people graduating from Uni than ever and so more for employers to choose between, the people he sees applying every year are, on average, less and less prepared, polite, and aware of what the socially acceptable way to behave/dress when in a work environment is. I personally worked with several interns at a winter placement scheme we run last year, and I can see his point - many of these were recent graduates or final years, but the way they acted (even the way they talked to the "higher ups," or their personal standards regarding getting drunk and so on in front of clients at events) was an utter disgrace a lot of the time. What happened to the standards of yesteryear?
I know every generation in ages has been saying this, and in a lot of ways society has improved significantly even just over the past century. However, I do agree with him to a large extent. My brother is much younger than me, and I'm surprised at how even his peers of both genders behave sometimes. A lot of the current generation seems ridiculously spoilt, narcissistic, ill-mannered, selfish, self-centred and out of touch, even when compared to the kids of the 90s. And parenting standards seem to have gone AWOL. Divorce and having kids out of marriage is rife too, which doesn't help matters.
Do you think this is true? Or is it just that those people who are now capable of going to uni (and hence of applying to a law firm) will have been more of a mixed bag?
(edited 9 years ago)
Divorce and having kids out of marridge don't make them Have bad manners you do know that right? Also I don't know what you would consider good mannered. How do you think these people should act or say? I think some examples would really help 
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Madisonrose
Divorce and having kids out of marridge don't make them Have bad manners you do know that right? Also I don't know what you would consider good mannered. How do you think these people should act or say? I think some examples would really help
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
I'm aware of that, obviously
. However - call me conservative if you will - there's a wealth of evidence to show that children who grow up in stable, two-parent families (and those whose parents are married) tend to be healthier, happier and so on, which obviously leads to more consideration for others. I do see several examples of worsening social skills among the young people of today, which I also think can be put down to less involved parenting.Obviously, good manners are subjective to some degree. However, stuff like knowing when to hold your tongue, how to act appropriately (and that you should probably act differently) in things like work situations, or even just basics like how to greet a stranger seem to be things a lot of youth today are disgustingly clueless about.
To give an example - a couple of the young male interns at A & O last winter were made to "have a word" with one of the partners over a complete lack of appropriate behaviour (not just for a law firm, for any workplace). Some of the clients they'd been asked to work with had reported them being rude, blase, swearing in major meetings and basically giving off an impression that they didn't care.
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