I read an article in the Times supplement yesterday about why men get divorced. The case studies were of men at different stages, different ages and with different responsibilities but (as I read it) the ultimate point was “I got bored / fed up / couldn’t get over the problem and walked away”
And it got me thinking about the society we live in and how we got to this point where working at something just doesn’t seem have value any more. I came up with some reasons – in no particular order – and I wonder if you agree
Many UK families consist of two children singletons and whilst I don’t advocate going back to the Victorian age of families that could field a football side, in larger families of 4 or more you do have to learn to give and take, to apologise and get a long, how to be fair, wait for your turn, know that you have turns. With good parenting, it becomes ingrained behaviour
Relationship with technology more interesting than relationship with people
Many years ago, before the internet was invented, I used to queue in builder’s merchants and the like and be totally infuriated when I reached the counter only for the phone to ring and the guy to pick up the phone than deal with me. Why?! Look at me, I’m here, how do they get priority?
Fast forward “several” years and when I visited my daughter recently at Uni I noticed that although she’d only been gone a few weeks I had forgotten hw infuriating it was to have a conversation with long pauses and occasionally forgotten topics while she texted or read texts or played with an app. Look at me, I‘m here. Talk to me
And as for supermarkets, well. You’re lucky if you get a person and not some automated gadget. And if you do get someone under 21 the chances of them actually looking at you and talking to you are minimal. I was at the dry cleaners the other day and their computer system and I actually had a conversation with the assistant while she looked up prices and dates rather than being rapt with what was going on on the screen.
Delayed gratification
And whilst I am not advocating a return to civil service promotions boards I think there is something to be said for joining at the bottom of a company and working your way up but mention it to Gen Y or the Millenials or whatever label is being applied this week and you’d be laughed out of court. Like Headmasters & CEOs who go in “to fix a problem” and move on rather than deal with the consequences of their fix they don’t get promotion they job hop.
I don’t think it’s sustainable. I don’t know where it’s going to end but I suspect we are cooking up a whole shedload of trouble for ourselves down the line
and someone else has reinforced my fears http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/201109/the-end-the-conversation
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