Entitlement?

It has been a long time since I last posted.  I need to make it a goal to write at least once a week on this site.  Not that anybody reads this, but that isn't the point right now.  

Tonight I was standing in line at a McDonald's waiting for my food when I was reminded why older generations are fed up with my generation.  A man was waiting to be helped for ten minutes without so much as an acknowledgement from the McDonald's staff.  He finally walked up to the counter and asked for a number so he could call report the obvious ineptitude of the staff.  After getting into a shouting match with a younger employee the man stormed out.  While I didn't appreciate his choice of words or what he suggested this McDonald's employee do with her time, I felt myself silently cheering this man on.  He was right!  To sit in a McDonald's Restaurant at 8:45 p.m. and not be even acknowledged or asked if he had been helped is unacceptable.  And instead of apologizing to the customer, the worker told him he should go in the back and make 8 cheeseburgers if he thought he could do better.

My problem with this situation is the deeper issue behind it.  It wasn't that this man had to wait. It was the attitude the young worker had with her customer.  It should be obvious that you never insult a customer, never get into a screaming match with a customer when there are others around.  As I was driving back from this episode I was thinking that this is not an isolated incident.  If that girl had been at a different job where a little bit of decency and respect was required, she would have been fired immediately for disrespecting a customer.  But since she was working at McDonald's, for a "crappy" hourly rate, she didn't need to put forth her best effort.  Teenagers everywhere are mimicking her attitude in the workplace.  They only make "minimum wage" so they don't need to try their hardest or work to their best potential.  Who cares if they have a crappy attitude?  Pay them better and maybe it will change!?

This attitude is so wrong and I am ashamed to be apart of a generation that lives and breathes it.  When our parents were kids, they worked for their pay.  It sucked, but they dealt with it and put their effort in.  Why?  Because it was what they had to do.  I am ashamed to be associated with this age bracket.  But I feel a tiny sense of pride, that I am able to recognize this, and that my parents raised me to behave with a different set of work ethics.