Maybe pay them more money and don’t treat them like shit?
JackStrawWitchita on
A smallish professional company I worked at stopped hiring graduates because they took up too many resources to manage. They needed far more support that we imagined, and couldn’t be relied on to do any meaningful work without lots of supervision and checking the accuracy of what they produced.
But this was 20 years ago.
This is nothing new.
endangerednigel on
Ahh yes “these young people today are lazy and feckless” thats been in the _top 40 greatest boomer complaints_ every year the past 2000 years straight
Youd think theyd get some new material by now
[deleted] on
[deleted]
No_Concern_2966 on
It seems little wonder this is happening when we have developed and encouraged the adoption of systems that enable all people, not just students, to imitate professionalism without needing to learn it with the assistance of technology.
Also, the modern student environment is so much more liberal than it used to be, so there will be a clash of generations.
NoSwordfish1978 on
Maybe because young people don’t want to be treated like shit?
mattymattymatty96 on
In debt they cant pay off, they wont be ever able to afford a house and eventually their job will be taken by AI
I dont blame them to be honest
08148694 on
My own personal and purely anecdotal experience of new grads is they tend to have very little attention span, a lot of them just cannot stay focused on work – always catching them doom scrolling in the office when they think nobody is watching
Obviously that’s a sweeping generalisation- some of them are great, but it’s certainly a minority
Adventurous_Cat_1559 on
Keep coming back to this with my partner, why would anyone work hard in this country? There’s no mobility. My quality of life has stayed the same as I went from 16k income as a phd student 10 years ago to now having a joint income of over 130k. It feels like if anything it’s slightly worse. My access to healthcare is less, dentist’s cost a fortune, had to pay 20k for a surgery 2 months ago that the NHS should have covered but had years of a waiting list, so I lost a chunk of a house deposit I was working on the past few years.
For example, I keep being told I should go up for promotion at work, but why would I? More stress for a life quality that won’t change. So I don’t think it’s just graduates
sober_disposition on
Because work doesn’t pay.
The only way the overwhelming majority of people can afford the same standard of living as their parents’ generation is by inheritance.
You’re almost equally fucked whether you’re stacking shelves in a supermarket or land a decent graduate job.
Tax wealth, not income.
Anonymouscoward76 on
I employ a load of graduates and apprentices and they work very hard actually.
“Kids these days…” is almost always BS.
Every-Birthday6726 on
It goes two ways. It takes time and effort to up skill people coming into the workforce. Noticed that a lot more people sitting in senior management don’t want to put in that effort and complain when the junior member of staff isn’t competent a year down the line. Also whilst working from home has its benefits I regularly hear complaints from junior staff who feel it is negatively impacting their development which is an absolutely fair enough observation.
amlamba on
I think much of the lack of motivation comes down to grads being paid minimum wage
Qwayze_ on
The issue is when you’re at college they advertise university as some cheat code to instantly earn more money which is false
I remember in 2013 being told if I went to uni if instantly start on 30k (42.8k equivalent in 2026). Was far from reality when my first job out of uni was 18.5k in 2019 AFTER 14 months of searching for an actual job
Uni isn’t what it was in the 70s, everyone goes to uni it’s just the expected next step to “go through the motions”. Don’t get me wrong I’m doing well now but it’s not because of university, take all that effort and debt away and I’d be in the same place
Some_Masterpiece6639 on
So they must expect minimum wage when they have racked up 50k in debt…
No motivation to work hard if you aren’t going to see pay results quickly…
No motivation to work hard when you have to take any job to survive…
MrsTheBo on
I don’t think it is fair or accurate to tar such a wide demographic with the same brush. I work with some highly motivated grads, but I have also encountered some who are very entitled. I imagine the same could have been said of new graduates 20 years ago too.
That said, I have observed a shift in higher education towards an attitude of “I am paying a lot of money for this degree, and so I’m not the one who has to be accountable for achieving it” amongst many students. This is not good foundation for a good attitude to work.
10110110100110100 on
I see the opposite. I routinely manage new entrants (grads or masters level STEM backgrounds) who rotate in and out of my research department. Pretty much without fail they have been motivated, interested to upskill, dedicated, insightful, and able to make genuine research contributions after mentorship.
I think these 35% of companies just have shit recruitment and onboarding processes. You can’t expect out of the gate motivation from people who are not a good fit or have taken any job for a salary regardless of academic training.
WantsToDieBadly on
Seems companies and managers dont like it when they need to train people
Bosses think they can just hire people and they’ll be 100% Productive day one
Hitching-galaxy on
‘Graduates should be willing to degrade and debase themselves for bugger all salary, especially as we will get rid of them as soon as possible via AI.’
If headlines could be truthful
Worldly-Mushroom4805 on
Iv seen a lot toxic managers make young workers cry and leave for dumb shit and laugh about it after
BritChap42 on
Graduates are paying 20% tax, + 8% NI, + 9% student loan, + 5% pension on £30k salaries.
Easy to lose motivation when you’re paid like shit in the first place, and immediately cough up nearly half of what you do get.
Reach_Reclaimer on
Graduate salaries have remained the same or if anythihg, decreased if legally allowed since I’ve been in work. The few companies that have increased their graduate salaries has to because they were previously under living wage
Not surprised younger people have no motivation, it’s all used on their job hunt for 6 months
nellion91 on
Motivation for what? The corporate pay scales for midst careers is dead.
Lifestyle on minimum wages vs lifestyle on 1st or second level of management is very similar thanks to progressive taxation.
There s a few exception in top end finance / CS / law but for the rest there’s no more carrot so guess what the motivation s gone too
HoverPopper on
As the people supposed to be providing motivation…that’s on you?
Easy_Topic_8273 on
Maybe because they are slaves to debt:sort it tf out
EtherealBipolar on
My motivation is directly proportional to my buying power I’m afraid.
You want motivation? I want something to be motivated by.
Originzzzzzzz on
I mean as someone studying for a degree I haven’t got an idea of why anyone would hire someone with less experience tbh. I might just be letting my depressed mind take over here but I don’t rlly know what to expect after uni other than oblivion, i was never looking forward to adult life anyways lmao
RonnieBarter on
Screw it, at this point I’ll work 996 for £5 an hour if it means getting a good job with growth potential isn’t a sisyphean task.
28 Comments
Maybe pay them more money and don’t treat them like shit?
A smallish professional company I worked at stopped hiring graduates because they took up too many resources to manage. They needed far more support that we imagined, and couldn’t be relied on to do any meaningful work without lots of supervision and checking the accuracy of what they produced.
But this was 20 years ago.
This is nothing new.
Ahh yes “these young people today are lazy and feckless” thats been in the _top 40 greatest boomer complaints_ every year the past 2000 years straight
Youd think theyd get some new material by now
[deleted]
It seems little wonder this is happening when we have developed and encouraged the adoption of systems that enable all people, not just students, to imitate professionalism without needing to learn it with the assistance of technology.
Also, the modern student environment is so much more liberal than it used to be, so there will be a clash of generations.
Maybe because young people don’t want to be treated like shit?
In debt they cant pay off, they wont be ever able to afford a house and eventually their job will be taken by AI
I dont blame them to be honest
My own personal and purely anecdotal experience of new grads is they tend to have very little attention span, a lot of them just cannot stay focused on work – always catching them doom scrolling in the office when they think nobody is watching
Obviously that’s a sweeping generalisation- some of them are great, but it’s certainly a minority
Keep coming back to this with my partner, why would anyone work hard in this country? There’s no mobility. My quality of life has stayed the same as I went from 16k income as a phd student 10 years ago to now having a joint income of over 130k. It feels like if anything it’s slightly worse. My access to healthcare is less, dentist’s cost a fortune, had to pay 20k for a surgery 2 months ago that the NHS should have covered but had years of a waiting list, so I lost a chunk of a house deposit I was working on the past few years.
For example, I keep being told I should go up for promotion at work, but why would I? More stress for a life quality that won’t change. So I don’t think it’s just graduates
Because work doesn’t pay.
The only way the overwhelming majority of people can afford the same standard of living as their parents’ generation is by inheritance.
You’re almost equally fucked whether you’re stacking shelves in a supermarket or land a decent graduate job.
Tax wealth, not income.
I employ a load of graduates and apprentices and they work very hard actually.
“Kids these days…” is almost always BS.
It goes two ways. It takes time and effort to up skill people coming into the workforce. Noticed that a lot more people sitting in senior management don’t want to put in that effort and complain when the junior member of staff isn’t competent a year down the line. Also whilst working from home has its benefits I regularly hear complaints from junior staff who feel it is negatively impacting their development which is an absolutely fair enough observation.
I think much of the lack of motivation comes down to grads being paid minimum wage
The issue is when you’re at college they advertise university as some cheat code to instantly earn more money which is false
I remember in 2013 being told if I went to uni if instantly start on 30k (42.8k equivalent in 2026). Was far from reality when my first job out of uni was 18.5k in 2019 AFTER 14 months of searching for an actual job
Uni isn’t what it was in the 70s, everyone goes to uni it’s just the expected next step to “go through the motions”. Don’t get me wrong I’m doing well now but it’s not because of university, take all that effort and debt away and I’d be in the same place
So they must expect minimum wage when they have racked up 50k in debt…
No motivation to work hard if you aren’t going to see pay results quickly…
No motivation to work hard when you have to take any job to survive…
I don’t think it is fair or accurate to tar such a wide demographic with the same brush. I work with some highly motivated grads, but I have also encountered some who are very entitled. I imagine the same could have been said of new graduates 20 years ago too.
That said, I have observed a shift in higher education towards an attitude of “I am paying a lot of money for this degree, and so I’m not the one who has to be accountable for achieving it” amongst many students. This is not good foundation for a good attitude to work.
I see the opposite. I routinely manage new entrants (grads or masters level STEM backgrounds) who rotate in and out of my research department. Pretty much without fail they have been motivated, interested to upskill, dedicated, insightful, and able to make genuine research contributions after mentorship.
I think these 35% of companies just have shit recruitment and onboarding processes. You can’t expect out of the gate motivation from people who are not a good fit or have taken any job for a salary regardless of academic training.
Seems companies and managers dont like it when they need to train people
Bosses think they can just hire people and they’ll be 100% Productive day one
‘Graduates should be willing to degrade and debase themselves for bugger all salary, especially as we will get rid of them as soon as possible via AI.’
If headlines could be truthful
Iv seen a lot toxic managers make young workers cry and leave for dumb shit and laugh about it after
Graduates are paying 20% tax, + 8% NI, + 9% student loan, + 5% pension on £30k salaries.
Easy to lose motivation when you’re paid like shit in the first place, and immediately cough up nearly half of what you do get.
Graduate salaries have remained the same or if anythihg, decreased if legally allowed since I’ve been in work. The few companies that have increased their graduate salaries has to because they were previously under living wage
Not surprised younger people have no motivation, it’s all used on their job hunt for 6 months
Motivation for what? The corporate pay scales for midst careers is dead.
Lifestyle on minimum wages vs lifestyle on 1st or second level of management is very similar thanks to progressive taxation.
There s a few exception in top end finance / CS / law but for the rest there’s no more carrot so guess what the motivation s gone too
As the people supposed to be providing motivation…that’s on you?
Maybe because they are slaves to debt:sort it tf out
My motivation is directly proportional to my buying power I’m afraid.
You want motivation? I want something to be motivated by.
I mean as someone studying for a degree I haven’t got an idea of why anyone would hire someone with less experience tbh. I might just be letting my depressed mind take over here but I don’t rlly know what to expect after uni other than oblivion, i was never looking forward to adult life anyways lmao
Screw it, at this point I’ll work 996 for £5 an hour if it means getting a good job with growth potential isn’t a sisyphean task.