About fourteen years ago the term “Generation Y” was coined to describe people of . Recently my generation has started to enter the work place and I am reading a lot of articles about how hard it is for companies to manage and retain twenty-somethings like me. I would like to address what I have read in the media about my generation and work from my own experience.

buy generic viagra online canada — This is the number one thing hiring managers complain about Gen-Ys in the workplace. Basically they say that Gen-Ys want to be paid well and do not want to work their way up. Here is how I see it. If I have the same title as 50 year olds and I perform the same job, why shouldn’t I be compensated at the same rate? Why should I be paid lower if I can produce just as much quality work as people much older than me? So I don’t see asking for a good compensation package as a sense of entitlement, but as a sense of fairness. Recently a hiring manager told me that I am paid very well for a 24 year old and I am asking for a lot, but my answer to that is I am worth it and age shouldn’t matter in determining a salary. Additionally, it’s illegal to discriminate in hiring based on age. I did get an offer on that particular job but I turned it down. Another key thing companies have to realize is that years of experience do not equate to quality work.

buy generic viagra online canada — Research states that Gen-Ys have a lot less respect for authority than previous generations. I don’t think this is true at all. I have a lot of respect for my highly intelligent and sensible managers, but I am not afraid to tell a person higher up that I think they’re wrong and suggest something different. I think most of my peers are the same. We have respect for those who deserve our respect, but when we encounter stupidity we will question it. The worst thing that can happen is that we get a new job. I think a lot of older managers are not used to this type of questioning from their subordinates and conflicts arise when they’re stubborn and want young people like me to follow directions to the tee. Basically, if a boss wants the best out of me he/she has to be at his or her best as well. Respect has to be earned and not taken for granted and abused. So I would say it’s closer to the truth that we have no fear of authority, but we do respect our supervisors if they are good coworkers.

buy generic viagra online canada– Another big complaint of companies is that Gen-Ys switch jobs much more often than their predecessors. The reason for that is companies aren’t loyal to their employees anymore. I am young, but I am not stupid. I’ve seen how corporations lay off thousands of people in a blink of an eye for their own bottom line. Most hiring agreements are at-will and if companies are all about their own individual profit there is no incentive for me to stick around if there is a better opportunity. With the cutting of pension plans and benefits there is very little incentive for Gen-Ys to become “lifers” at a company.

buy generic viagra online canada — This is a paradigm that isn’t practiced very much by older generations. I think a lot of people of my parents’ generation realize that work shouldn’t be the most important thing in life, but still work so much that they don’t spend time with their families. As children of these workaholics Gen-Ys want flexible working schedules and more time off because they want time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Of course, this behavior is considered lazy and demanding by a lot of traditional workplaces. I think the growing popularity of telecommuting and flexible work hours is a change for the better and our older coworkers could benefit from it if they choose to.

buy generic viagra online canada — I think most of us want to be treated as equals by older coworkers. I can see why people would be resentful when they’re being managed by those who are half their age when they feel more experienced and skillful. Heck, I have experienced a bit of this resentment when I interviewed older people. When there is a huge disparity in age in the workplace the older workers greatly underestimate the ability of the younger workers. I think everyone needs to just take age out of the equation and objectively examine the quality of work of each person. Otherwise, underestimating the ability of anyone based on their age is discrimination.

With that said, I am constantly learning from those around me regardless of age. I just think there are quite a lot of misconceptions thrown in the media about twenty-somethings. We are not lazy, and we don’t have an easy and coddled life. In fact, we’re facing lower pay, less social benefits, and higher costs so corporate America really can’t blame us for constantly searching for a better life. I think a lot of readers of this blog are young professionals like me and would agree with my observations, but I would like to hear about what you consider as a misconception about our generation. Also to my older readers, what irks you the most about twenty-somethings in your workplace?

So, once again it’s Monday. I am taking a couple days off before I start my new job. Today my article about was an editor’s pick on I’m very honored that David picked my article. Another editor’s pick is Grad Money Matter’s . I read this article before it was featured in the carnival and wrote a pretty long comment on it because I have had some personal experience with that. Grad Money’s article is what is prompting me to write this article about how Asian parents influence their children’s success in life.

Anyway, when I was in college one of my friends was talking about Asian parents and we came to the following conclusion. Basically the following are the only acceptable careers to our parents: doctor, lawyer, engineer, and financial professional/investment banker. Then my friend mimicked his mom’s accent and said that these were the only acceptable colleges, “STANFURD, HAHVARD, YALE, and MIT”. The whole room busted out laughing and then one guy said, “Well, I guess we’re all failures since we’re at Berkeley”. We may have hyper-stereotyped our parents, but it’s funny because most of what we concluded is true.

Pretty much all of the Asian kids with first generation Asian parents I have met have felt pressure from their parents in choosing a college major that may lead to a high paying career. I think this family enforced career selection may be one of the many reasons why Asian households have the . I think it makes sense that parents want their children to be successful, but a lot of Asian parents’ perception of success is very narrow and consists of a high GPA and then a high paying job. So many children are pushed to be doctors and engineers whether or not they like it. I have known several girls who were pushed into engineering and medicine only to despise their majors and found their coursework to be too difficult. Not everyone is meant to be an engineer or doctor, and some Asian parents do not seem understand that. I have also seen Asian parents that pushed their kids to succeed to the point of hurting them. For example, a girl I knew in high school was scolded by her parents on her graduation day for not being the Valedictorian. That is just very unnecessary and cruel.

Cultural clashes occur between first generation Asian parents and American educated children because in America you are encouraged to think outside of the box, create, and be yourself, but in most of Asia you are expected to memorize, repeat, and obey. When Asian children step outside of the box of what their parents consider to be successful, conflicts arise and for the most part I think the parents are just worrying too much. For example, my second cousin was groomed by his dad to be a doctor and he went to an ivy, but he chose to major in photography instead. It didn’t please his dad at first, but now he is successful as a technical game artist. Generally people perform better in what they love to do, and people find success in all kinds of random things in America. I think it is much better to do what you’re passionate about than to go to a job you hate everyday. In fact, some of the pushy Asian parents really stunted their children’s success because when their children end up in a despised career they are usually lugubrious and do not care to excel in any manner. I have seen many examples of these engineers who absolutely hate what they do and want to get out everyday.

Despite all the slightly negative stereotypes about first generation Asian parents in this article I do believe that like all parents they want the best for their children. The parents are right in wishing a good career on their children, but ultimately for their children to achieve success they need to learn to make decisions for themselves. It’s problematic that a lot of these parents do not take the time to understand their children’s strengths and preferences and just try to push their children into a mold of what is considered successful in the Asian community. It’s true that when we are young we are not absolutely sure what we want, and parental advice is always helpful but I think it is unnecessary for Asian parents to throw a ballistic fit when their children consider a career in fine arts. There are many ways to succeed, and parents are human beings who can make mistakes too.

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Well, I haven’t done a carnival roundup for a while. Today was my last day at my job and this entire week has been quite crazy.

at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already. My post in this carnival is about .

at Millionaire Mommy Next Door. My article in this carnival showcases theI have met.

at My Adventures into the Street. My post in this carnival is .

included my .

hosted ! Check out the carnival for some awesome stories from all more than twenty personal finance bloggers.

Finally, the story about my got a 4th wind this week since it was linked on one of the MSN Money Central blogs and then linked by JD over at . My ex-bf wants to say that the part I exaggerated about is the 25 cent spaghetti, and I want to say I didn’t really break up with him because he is cheap.

I am so pissed off right now because my mother harassed me for 12 hours straight about my last post even after I took it off last night. Her harassment consisted of spamming this blog with comments and calling both my husband’s and my phones from 11pm to 7am. After my dad and husband both tried to convince her that I already took down the post she continued to harass me and I had to block her IP. Then my dad found out that she didn’t even read that I took down the post and just continued to harass me anyway. Because of this the both of us didn’t get a good night sleep. All I wrote about was that my parents bought two homes and lost money on the second home because it was bought at the peak of the housing bubble. This is probably a situation faced by many couples all across the world. I posted no names, no addresses, and no extremely private information. Past and present housing prices are all public information anyway so I don’t see what the big deal is on posting that without pinpointing the actual addresses.

Her argument was that I gave too much information about their personal finances without permission, but what I don’t understand is that they talk about their personal finances in detail all the time to everyone they know. They brag about the stocks they own, the houses they own, and their jobs constantly so I always had an impression that they are pretty open about this topic. They also tell their friends and friends of friends about my personal finance without my permission. This incident actually brought back the memory of when they bought the second home. When I went to see the place my mother flat out told the loan agent how much money I made at my job without prompting. Then the loan agent said to me, “you should buy a house.” This was when I was making $60,000 a year by myself, and THAT really pissed me off too. I felt like they were just mocking me for no reason and looking back it is like they are throwing me to the wolves of the real estate industry.

Dear readers, isn’t what they do to me much worse than anonymously telling random people about a nameless couple? The difference between what I wrote and what they do all the time is that what I wrote is anonymous and what they do actually affects me in real life because all those Chinese parents that they talk to know who I am and they tell their kids to look up to me because of how much money I make. I’ve actually been introduced by a Chinese dad to his daughter by my networth and that was rather disturbing. I really don’t want to be defined by my salary and networth and yet they continue to do exactly that without my permission. This is really a flaw of the Asian culture because so much of who you are is based on money, but I could really write an entire series of rants about Asians and money. It’s really bizarre and annoying to have such hypocritical parents, and on top of that for my mother to act like such a vainglorious and spoiled brat really amazed me.

So I have been writing this blog for three months and I am surprised that I haven’t written about being an only child. I am an only child because I was born in China and my entire generation was subject to the . In China my entire class consisted of only children and the closest thing I had to a brother was my first cousin, who happens to be only 3 days older than me. Last year I read quite a few articles published by the official news agency of China about my generation of “little emperors” and “little princesses” and I found them quite interesting. Here is a short summary of the central government’s findings on this enormous social experiment.

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1. A lot of only children are quite independent and very productive.
2. Urban females are more educated than past generations since parents could only give attention and care to their only child. In past generations the boys usually received preferential treatment. The only-child policy actually did create more gender equality in urban areas.
3. The only-child generation did not show distinct personality defects as feared by sociologists when the policy went into place. In fact, they are generally healthier than previous generation.
4. Only children are more sociable than children with siblings because they have to get friends outside of their family.

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1. The only-child generation tends to have less responsibility growing up and end up being lazier.
2. Divorce seems to be rampant in this generation because of overprotective parents and unyielding egos.
3. Only children have no idea how to take care of their own kid.
4. As their parents and grandparents age these peers of mine will have to potentially take care of six people.

When I was a child I really thought that being an only child is the right and normal thing because it was the law and I was born into a world of only children. I remember that it took me a while to adjust to the fact that only children are fairly rare in America and most people has at least one sibling. Since in China the kids with brothers and sisters were from the countryside I thought that maybe most Americans are farmers. I had a few classmates that also came from China, but their parents chose to have more children in America. Most of these American siblings were ten or more years younger than my classmates. In fact, one of my friend’s mom produced his last little brother when he was a senior in high school. This is because in the Chinese culture children are considered blessings. In America the one child policy has many critics, and I agree that it does impede on the basic reproductive rights of human beings and millions of babies have died because of this law. However, population control is probably needed in the world and it’s a tough issue to resolve when most humans are biologically driven to have more children.

For the most part I did benefit from the law because I had the full attention of my parents and they provided me with all that I needed. Even though I live in America now I think I am not so different from my Chinese counterparts. However, my dad wrote in his blog (in Chinese) that I am much because I grew up in America. Looking back, I probably wouldn’t want a sibling to play and fight with and I quite enjoyed being an only child. There are definitely moments of loneliness, but I just filled my time by reading a lot of books and spending time with my parents. To this day I am still more comfortable talking with older people because I am used to having my parents as my friends. Maybe that’s why I identify with an old baglady and I am so keen on retirement planning. Now that I am married I am trying to adjust to not being an only child, but a wife. It is kind of hard since my hubby takes care of so many things around the house. He is the older brother in his family and he is definitely taking care of me in a lot of ways. I definitely need to take care of him more so that I maintain my marriage and not end up a divorce statistic.

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