introducing “the celebrations assistant”

Thanks to STA reader Kristine for sending along this article from the Wall Street Journal.

According to the WSJ, the current generation of people entering the workforce (btw, that’s probably you) are the most overpraised generation in history. Raised by parents who constantly told them how beautiful, special, and perfect they were, they expect that same kind of constant positive reinforcement at the office. While most articles on this topic take a very self-righteous “kids these days” tone, author Jeffrey Zaslow takes a somewhat more nuanced look at the situation, even citing a recent study showing that “the average college student in 2006 was 30% more narcissistic than the average student in 1982.”

So how are workplaces handling this wave of new workers? If they’re anything like my former boss, they continue being giant douchebags and don’t give any praise, let alone constant praise, but let’s imagine some of you work at a company more like the ones in Zaslow’s article than the one where I unhappily toiled. Lands’ End Bank of America, for example, even hired a “celebrations assistant” whose job is to praise workers for doing something well by buying balloons, tossing confetti, or passing around a card for everybody to sign. That could either be a really fun job or the most obnoxious one in the world: I’m on the fence about it.

For more about the phenomenon of the narcissistic worker and how different age groups ask for praise at work, check out this article.