I am at the end of my friggin tether with this generation. Huge rant alert!

First of all let me say that I am aware there are exceptions to this trend and yes, you may well know a young person of the Millennial generation who is totally unlike the people I'm describing, perhaps one of them is yours. I get it. My girlfriend falls in this generation and she is a notable exception. But I cannot ignore the huge increase in flaky behavior and the humongous decline in work ethic that I've seen in young people as an employer of 10 years. It's getting to the point now where I'm actively seeking employees over the age of 35.

You would not believe some of the crap I have to put up with. Employees who think that work hours are a "suggestion." Employees who have taken the day off without even asking in advance. Employees who are literally shocked to their foundations when I point out that this sort of thing is not acceptable, and almost burst into tears and say "why are you yelling at me" when I haven't so much as raised my voice. Employees who cannot understand basic instructions and despite being college graduates, have trouble reading and writing.

And then there's the job applicants. I recently had a job opening come up, and it's a cool little position, part time hours, decent pay. I get barely literate emails written in texting language. I get resumes with employment histories which show that they are like "job butterflies" - they flit from job to job, taking a brief sip at each before getting bored and trying something new. I once asked an applicant about her erratic job history and she tried to spin it by saying that it shows "diversity." She was genuinely baffled when I pointed out that to an employer, it shows not being able to stick anything out.

So yesterday I had someone contact me for the job and she seemed very interested and enthusiastic. Liked the pay, liked the hours, said she had relevant experience etc. I arranged to meet her at 6pm tonight for an interview, and as I'm waiting at our designated meeting place at 6pm I have this pessimistic feeling that it's going to be another Millennial flake and she won't show up. To put my mind at rest, I gave her a call and a bubbly young voice answered.

"Oh you know what? Something came up that I have to deal with and I can't make it tonight, can we reschedule?"

I am totally frigging done with these kids let me tell you.

Why not go further and go 50+?
 
That gen have gotten wicked burned and tossed from their jobs before retirement and are undesirable elsewhere because... well who knows why?
 
Responsible, workready, motivated and likely to not only have more animal experience but many might even consider it a nice dream "pre-retirement" gig... or at least a good interim gig.
 
I have faith in the youngsters myself (otherwise we're all boned) but this gig SCREAMS oldster crowd. They have the discipline to do it and many of them certainly could use the break.
 
Freaking crime what's happening to that gen. Told if you work hard all your life you'll be rewarded only to get the carpet pulled out from under you? Shameful.

I totally hear you about the 50+ age group Beepster. Great work ethic, reliable, responsible, actually focused on things other than selfies and social media post likes, etc etc. I have a couple of concerns though, the main one being physical fitness. You'd be surprised how physically demanding walking dogs is - there's sometimes a lot of walking in between dogs, and lots of running up and down multiple flights of stairs with big heavy rambunctious mutts. It can put a real strain on the arms and shoulders, not to mention the legs. I just had someone quit recently because of foot problems (mind you, he did stick it out for 5 years). So they'd have to have a good clean bill of health and be in good shape. The second one is the pay - I do pay a good rate for the business (it's not a high paid job in general, mainly due to the amount of competition there is these days and the consequent market rate that I can charge for the service). So in a city with a high cost of living like NYC it's a job which mainly suits younger people who either still live at home or are "rooming" with others. Having said that, there are a lot of older folk here who are grandfathered into cheap apartments and pay an insanely low rent because of rent control. My positions are generally either part time or semi-full time, but getting paid in the region of $400-$500 a week for hours which are typically around say 10:30-3:30 (ish) isn't bad. Especially for unqualified work. 
 
It's hard to recruit from a certain age group though - I'll have to look into it. This is a highly regulated city and I'm not sure just how far I can go in terms of specifics when advertising the position before I get labeled some kind of "ist." 
 
For example - and I hate to get into ethnic or nationality specifics - most of my best employees have been South American. I've never hired anyone without papers but I have had some incredible young Columbian employees. For a while most of my employees were Columbian, mainly through hiring one and then having subsequent employees who were either friends or relatives of this one guy. Just an awesome no-nonsense work ethic, they all got on with the job without any whining or fuss and were very reliable. However they've all moved on now, either jobs with more hours or going to college. There's no way on earth I would be able to advertise a job and put "would suit Columbian" - lol! They'd haul me straight up before the judge. This Millennial lack of work ethic thing is certainly something which seems to afflict American (and I daresay European) kids more than anyone else. 

And yes it is absolutely nuts how this 50+ age group is being passed over for jobs these days. I have no idea why that is. I read an article the other day about some young, hip Silicon Valley startup (Zenefits) which is having to crack the whip because their Millennial employees are boozing and banging each other at work. This is the kind of sh*tty "anything goes" attitude I'm talking about, they just don't see what's wrong with it. I guess the perception is that they want youthful, "with it" workers who think outside the box and all that hyped up crap. I also read that this company has been valued at $4.5 billion - what a laugh! Will probably be another of those cases where 5 years down the line someone will realize that they're not actually making any money. 
 

Shyoze... If I were ambulatory enough to do it (and had the work permits) I'd do those wages just to be in Manhattan. lol
 
However IF you wanted to attract the crowd I mentioned maybe advertise for "fit, semi-retired animal lovers". Quite a few 50+ in great shape out there (of course a lot of flabbo gimps too). Seems the age range these days where the health stuff was sinking in so there's a lot of "oldish" fit buggers out there.
 
For the other demographic I'm sure you could recruit from the families of some the local shops around town (if they still exist in Manhattan). I'm just thinking of my old hoods/city. There were lots of family run stores who had a glut of family labor from the old country who'd fit the bill for such gigs. Good job, above board pay. Great stuff.
 
Of course that's based on my experience in "NYC North". We'd do our damndest to be NYC but there ain't no place like NYC. lol
 
Good luck, bro.

An inept generation of parents (my generation) couldn't raise anything but a generation like the millennials.
 
I look at guys my age and find that we're a bunch of overgrown teenagers. Collecting toys and comic books, watching superhero movies and cartoons, wearing stupid t-shirts, spending their free time playing video games in their "man cave", eating junk and getting high. And this behaviour is of course glorified... As is stupidity.
 
Me I say:
 

 
Unfortunately, it's too late for that.
 
I'm trying to imagine how I would have reacted as a kid if my dad behaved like a ****ed 16 year old, and tried to be "cool". I would have had no notion of what being an adult meant. Because that is one of the fundamental problem - my generation never accepted to grow up and not be "kewl", to act like adults.  They weren't fit to bring up kids. 
 
 
 

I found it went either way with the youngins. Either utter mouthbreathers or really motivated and intelligent workers (but perhaps a bit dispassionate).
 
Sorting through them is a pain in the arse but once you strike gold all is well. Different business though and there wasn't such an need/emphasis on timing/punctuality.
 
Kind of pushing a decade since I was actually dealing with staff issues too so I'm guessing the landscape has changed a bit as well.
 

Thanks. I've been trying to mine some more of my Columbian strain of employees but I think it's finally run out lol....I did ask recently but the couple of names they came up with, either they didn't speak good English (I need good communication) or they didn't have papers. Not that I would ever have any moral qualms about hiring someone without papers, I just like to keep things within the law. 
 
One angle I'm trying now to try and attract an older demographic is calling animal shelters and asking if they have anyone who's been volunteering for them and is looking for paid work. This is one of those jobs where you have to really love animals, I know some people in the business will just hire anyone who's looking for casual work and there are some really shady characters out there walking dogs on the street. All it takes is for one person to shoot some footage of a dog walker mistreating a dog and that's it, you're finished. The caring, compassionate animal loving personality is where it's at. 
 
Of course sometimes you have to deal with the a-holes who use the job to build up their own sneaky client base and then screw you over. Been there before. 

Rain
...

 
Yeah... most of us are kind of sh*tbirds. I always found that disappointing but some of us worked our bags off.
 
Some perhaps too much to make up for the others.
 
Which is why I hurt... and spend far too much time here.

Rain
An inept generation of parents (my generation) couldn't raise anything but a generation like the millennials.
 
I look at guys my age and find that we're a bunch of overgrown teenagers. Collecting toys and comic books, watching superhero movies and cartoons, wearing stupid t-shirts, spending their free time playing video games in their "man cave", eating junk and getting high. And this behaviour is of course glorified... As is stupidity.
 
Me I say:
 

 
Unfortunately, it's too late for that.
 
I'm trying to imagine how I would have reacted as a kid if my dad behaved like a ****ed 16 year old, and tried to be "cool". I would have had no notion of what being an adult meant. Because that is one of the fundamental problem - my generation never accepted to grow up and not be "kewl", to act like adults.  They weren't fit to bring up kids. 

We partied pretty hard in our 20's and I have friends now who seem to be doing a great job of raising their kids, but still it is true that generations from X onward seem to have trouble growing up. They seem to be unable to see themselves as "proper" adults. I have to admit, I have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I'm 42 and comparing myself to my dad at that age. He just seemed like way more of a "bloke" than me. I think I've grown out of the cartoons and comic books though, so at least there's that. I don't even watch the Simpsons any more (although to be fair, it stopped being funny around 1998 or so).