Trey Finley, Gleek Extraordinaire
I’m hooked. I’m a Gleek.
“Glee” performs the music of my generation. For some in Generation X, it’s the music of their high school and college years. For me, it’s the music of my elementary and junior high years. Either way, it’s a blast from the past.
The cast of Glee is good. Really good. I get chills when I hear Rachel Berry and her mom (played by Idina Menzel, who was part of the original cast of Wicked) sing together. It blows me away that Cory Monteith–the actor who plays lead singer Finn Hudson–is singing for just about the first time in his life. Sue Sylvester, the coach of the cheerleader team, has to be the funniest character on TV. I’d tune in just to watch her banter with Mr. Shuester.
Lest you think the show is pure cheese, there’s a character who’s gay and struggling to relate to his father. There’s the teacher with a Downs’ Syndrome sister who spends her free time caring for her. There’s a paraplegic who performs on stage with the other students, but dreams to be free of the wheelchair. There’s a character who gets pregnant and a character who says “no” when pressured to have sex. And there’s the glee club diva turned cheerleader (then back to glee club diva) who struggles with her self-image, especially her weight.
Glee, like Generation X, dares you to accuse it of being shallow. In a recent review of the show by the Los Angeles Times, their TV critic had this to say:
“Glee” is, in many ways, a very modern show, addressing topics usually reserved for serious drama — teen pregnancy, a father coming to terms with his gay son — in what is essentially a musical comedy that more than occasionally borders on camp. Over and over again, the message is: Don’t judge.
Millennials in the Office: Will They Stay or Will They Go?
You’re in human resources. You’ve been told by your COO and your CFO that it’s your job to hire three employees for a bank branch where there were only two before. And, while you’re at it, they’ll be expected to work under existing company policy manuals for that bank. We just poured thousands of dollars into that thick book, after all. Hire young, too. That place could stand to look a little younger. And did we mention that you’re going to have to hire three people using the same amount of money you were spending on only two before?
Posted on Linked In later that day… “Dying bank branch needs rules followers willing to accept lower pay. Business attire and long hours a must. Benefits include medical insurance and 403(b) plan. Apply by sending resume to wevegotitallfiguredout@oldguardbank.com.
OK, it’s hyperbole, though some of you in HR may be thinking to yourself, “That was exactly what happened last Monday.”
Laugh it up, Fuzzball!
I start this way to point out some of the statistics about the turnover in jobs among Millennials. When it comes to job-hunting, Millennials seem a bit like Han Solo, claiming, “Never tell me the odds.” (That quote would be from The Empire Strikes Back, by the way, for all you non Gen Xers.)
According to the Labor Bureau’s study, 37% of Millennials are unemployed. That employment rate is nearly four times the national rate for the workforce at large. Still, in spite of those odds, nearly 50% of all Millennials intend to look into other jobs in 2010.
Why aren’t more Millennials enticed to stay put, especially given the realities of employment? And, what can you the employer to do to steer them away from this stunning strategy of looking for work when 1 in 3 of their friends would be happy just to have a job? Here’s Troy Stirman:
Today’s graduates are not looking to work beyond 40 hours per week. Too, they want an employer that shares their interest in community involvement… So-called “green” companies are high on their list when targeting organizations they wish to engage. Traditional office settings are also being challenged by today’s generation of graduates. Gen Y grads tend to look for flexible hours, some want to work from their home, and still others enjoy telecommuting from other locales. With today’s mobile technology, these attitudes are fast becoming the norm…
Today’s students resist professional dress. No matter what feedback they gain from their interviews, most graduates don’t reflect the workforce of 10-15 years ago when it comes to proper business attire. Flexibility is a given with this group…
Childcare/health facilities. Today’s graduates tend to leave children with daycare centers and work full-time for more of their career. This generation is also more health conscious. Companies who offer services such as in-house daycare facilities or who extend gym memberships as part of their benefits package will have leverage when luring quality candidates to their firm.”
Tomorrow, I’ll share Troy’s thoughts on how Millennials are responding to the current job market–good and bad. And I’ll throw in a couple of coaching points on the topic myself.
Funny Gen X cartoon
The four generations in one very funny frame. Thanks to the writer at http://twenty-x.blogspot.com/ for the picture.
Bermuda is Now Taking Resumes
“Yes, hello. Is this the executive assistant to the CEO?”
“It is? Well, I’d like to apply for the job of bringing executive coaching to the Island of Bermuda.”
Hey, it’s tough, but apparently someone needs to do it.
Everything I Learned about Leadership, I Learned from Star Trek
OK, not really, but here’s a fun piece I came across today. The top three movies that teach us valuable leadership lessons are…drum roll please…
- 300 – Play to your strengths.
- The Bad News Bears – The right coach can turnaround any team, from worst, to first. It’s about the journey and the destination.
- Kung Fu Panda – The right team can kick arse. You’re the sum of your network (remember the Furious Five.)
For the full Top 16, follow the link.
How far will you go to find a Starbucks?
I’m not addicted to Starbucks. I do not go to great lengths to grab a $4 cup of coffee. I’ve been known to meet there, though, on a fairly regular basis. That’s my plan today. I’m headed towards Uptown in Dallas to meet a friend who’s helping me with some legal paperwork.
After searching online for our agreed upon location and finding it, I headed there. Upon arriving at the address in my GPS, I discovered this Starbucks was in a building several stories high. The address said “Suite 100.” Thinking that the coffee shop would likely be on the ground floor, I headed down to the parking garage. Here is where my story begins.
After parking on the fifth floor of the basement garage, I had the very responsible idea to take the stairs. Spotting a large powder blue sign that said, “Exit,” I headed up a claustrophobic stairwell to the ground floor. Taking the red rail in my left hand, I started my five-story climb. Reaching the top and thinking quite a bit of myself for making the climb, I pushed open the door to the outside air–and jumped as I heard the piercing cry of an alarm.
Somewhere on the powder blue sign marking the exit, I had missed the “Emergency Only” message. Fighting the urge to look around for the S.W.A.T. team that would descend upon me, I headed towards the building. I casually remarked to the security guard inside that I had heard an alarm in a stairwell on the way in. I’m certain they’re still looking for the culprit.
Wait, there’s more.
Inside the building, there was no sign of a Starbucks. The guard, looking perplexed, noted that there was no Starbucks in the building, but nevertheless pointed me towards a section of walk-up restaurants on the first basement floor of the building. No Starbucks there, either. After calling my friend, and reporting that there was no sign of a Starbucks, I resigned myself to finding another location. First job: get some cash to pay for parking used to discover a non-existent Starbucks. (Really—you have to work hard to not find a Starbucks.) I asked the basement level security guard for an ATM location. She sent me back upstairs to the now less friendly stare of the upper level security guard. Didn’t find an ATM.
Back to the basement. Ah hah, I thought, I’ll just buy a bottle of water and get some cash. That’s it! You guessed it: they don’t take debit cards. However, there was a parking pass validation machine. Surely that will take a debit card and shorten my trip out of the building. Of course, to validate your parking pass, you have to have it with you. And of course, my parking pass was in the car.
Back to the parking garage on the elevator, and then back to the basement floor. After shaking off the stare of the security guard and wondering who would be answering the telephone she had picked up when she spotted me again, I walked up to the validation machine, inserted my card, and looked up to discover that my parking fee was only $1. Naturally, I possessed a $1 bill in my wallet.
Apparently, I will go to great lengths to get to a Starbucks.
Is Generation X irreverent? Yep.
Just in case you’re not convinced that there’s a growing irreverence towards office space that’s stuffy and boring, consider yourself convinced.
Your Morning Facebook Status
On a social media site like Facebook, I must see a dozen or more status updates in the morning that sound something like this: “Up way too early this morning…coffee, must have coffee…is it really only Thursday…”, etc., etc.
Status updates like these have me wondering, what gets you up in the morning?
Balloons, Hoaxes, and Wife Swapping
I know we were thinking some pretty harsh things about Richard and Mayumi Heene. If the names don’t ring a bell, they’re the family who put together the balloon boy hoax this month. They claimed their six-year-old son Falcon was trapped in the basket of a giant homemade balloon that went sailing, pilot-less over Colorado. Authorities discovered after the fact that little Falcon had been hiding in the attic, and upon being found declared to the world in an interview with Wolf Blitzer, “You guys [his parents] said we did it for a show.”
This, of course, left us all feeling somewhat less than sympathetic for this family. But now, I have come across news this morning that will soften your heart towards the Heene family.
It seems that they had been chosen for an episode of “Wife Swap,” a lovely little show on Lifetime Channel where wives swap homes with one another in a reality TV test-tube experiment. The experiment? To see what happens when you take a person out of their usual family environment and drop them into another’s. Test-tube science meets daytime soap opera.
The episode the Heenes filmed has been canceled due to poor publicity. Seems they just didn’t have enough credibility to be on the show anymore. I know you’re just dying to read the whole story, so here. Good news for all you sorely disappointed folks–they’re going to post the episode on YouTube.
The Question Matters 