I give my baby margaritas, too. Wait, what?

I also enjoyed the e-mail from the would-be intern. I see a mention of Playbill.com; dying to know the company.

I'd like some of the drugs that make one feel so desirable. A margarita won't do it.

Not to play the Generational Representative card, but I've never met anyone like the people they describe.

Then again I'm a drop-out burn off who left the kind of places where you'd meet these people a long time ago.

(or can I read the "job offers" as a kind of mental block to protect agianst the fears of OMG THERE NO JOBS FOR ANYONE ANYWHERE. I know more unemployed people then employed, and if you look at AskMe it would seem that every 25 year old in America is having a panic attack RIGHT NOW)

I was somewhat dismayed to see that the writer was born around 1979, making "the grumpy old man," as they say in the comments, 15 years younger than I am.

I have encountered lots of people like that, maybe because of so much hiring being part of my job, though admittedly not as egregious as that crazy intern. One of my favorite internship cover letters said that the student had recently gotten interested in "the whole history thing."

My mom has a hilarious story about a girl who "worked" for her newspaper a few years back. Her main interests were surfing and also surfing, but she did some photography on assignment. However, she was unreliable, unprofessional, failed to meet deadlines or deliver what was requested, etc. There were several disciplinary conversations, none of which worked, until finally my mom called her into the office to fire her. She said the usual message, "We're gonna have to let you go," and the gal replied something like, "OK, I get it. I've really dropped the ball but I totally hear what you're saying and it won't be a problem from now on." My mom: "Sorry, we're past that point, we've given it a try and it's time for us both to move on." The girl: "So, wait...what if I, like, come in on time, and meet my deadlines?"

Yeah, um - that was the original job expectation which you failed to meet, kiddo.

I perceive the problem too, but I'm not sure I locate it in the language of choice or parenting methods. I think it's much bigger than that, a symptom of a very affluent society in which kids perceive adults using salesmanship and presentation skills to negotiate their way out of tight spots. We celebrate that kind of activity in movies and TV and in celebrities and in our news broadcasting: the story you tell is the truth, you control the narrative. I have known lots of parents who give the "limited choices" to their kids, and who haven't raised monsters as a result. The power remains in the hands of the parents to define the choices, which ultimately determine behavior. Some parents make the mistake of letting the kids start to push the boundaries of the available options, and that's when you descend into negotiating. Negotiating with kids is indeed a bad idea. But I'm not sure we can pin widespread entitled behavior on one parenting strategy - it's not the strategy that contributes to the problem so much as the misunderstood and poorly applied attempt at using the strategy. I think that's part of the cultural change, but it's broader, too. Affluenceand the privileges it brings alone create entitlement and a larger-than-life sense of self, unless that's carefully guarded against in the family.

Not to play the Generational Representative card, but I've never met anyone like the people they describe.

I'm a dad of a generational representative and I don't really see any kids like that either. My son isn't the most ambitious kid ever but he's more responsible than I was at that age (20) and seems to know what he wants to do in life. His friends are all very hard working and aware of the world at large. If anything, I'm a little worried that this generation is too serious and doesn't party enough.

Yeah, that some of them try to negotiate their out of failing a course isn't necessarily a sign that they're just spoilt. Maybe in bad economic climate they take that kind of failure more seriously than previous generations, and so they try to wriggle out of it.

If the author of the piece was born in 1979, then he would have been in high school during the last big recession of the early Nineties: his whole working life till recently has been spent in the great bubble that looked like a boom. I call that generation the bubble-boys.

But I do think it's more your formative years than your adult working years that define your relationship to the world of work. I was in high school in the mid-80s, and watched my parents claw their way slowly out of the late 70s/early 80s recession. It wasn't easy to get jobs as a teenager and you had to compete and treat your job pretty seriously. I think kids who grew up in a time of expanded employment possibilities might not have had to struggle so hard to get or keep a high-school part-time job, and might not have had to watch their parents struggle. But kids who did come of age in a time of struggle will naturally have a very different perspective on financial security, the importance of a job, and the world of work.

I agree with Miko that it reflects the culture. I "negotiate" with my 17 year old, but it's the kind of negotiation between two people who care about each other and understand each other.

HAHAHA those wannabe intern's emails are redonkulous.

Anyway. I have definitely known people like those he describes. And I am the complete opposite. I tend not to negotiate even when I should. And maybe that's because I was raised to believe that I'm not all that special. There should be a happy medium.

Among interns here at work I've seen some people like this, but also a LOT of people NOT like this. For whatever reason it probably is a recognizable trend, but not the majority of people by any means.

I think I've linked to this study before: they reckon that ages between 18 and 24 are most important for forming your social/economic beliefs.

Having taught post secondary and having hired and fired people I believe such tactics transcend time and age grouping. Some folks are just like that.

Well in any case, just like my 8th grade civics teacher said, folks like that are in for a ruuuuuuude awakening.