Precept Employee Benefits Blog

There have been many, many articles of late describing the newest members of our workforce – those classified as “Generation Y” or “Millennials” – those young workers born since 1980. I myself fall into the Generation X class – being born prior to 1980 (and that’s all I’m going to give you on that) – and find that there are definitely some similarities between Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers. However, I just finished reading an article in the November issue of Human Resource Executive, and I’m a little disturbed by what I’ve learned is apparently a common-enough occurrence to warrant an article about it – helicopter parenting.

Let me back up and say that catering to these newly-graduated and energetic young workers is just a good, strong, and necessary recruiting tactic. They are the ones that are going to be running the world in another 20-30 years (unless you’re in the online or technology business, in which case, they already are running the world – did you read about the teenager who makes $1 million a year by creating background designs for MySpace pages? But I digress.), and they bring the fresh ideas and enthusiasm that every company needs to stay competitive. We know that they don’t just look at the size of their potential paycheck as a determinant for whether a job will be right for them – they recruit us as much as we recruit them.

On to the topic at hand – in Human Resource Executive’s article “Meet the Parents,” Barbara Worthington discusses this new phenomenon of parents getting – in my opinion – a little too involved in their children’s interview processes. HR and recruiting staff for companies are having to deal with parents who go with their children to job interviews, who call to either promote their children as candidates or to get feedback on the interview, or to even get feedback on their job performance!

I understand wanting your parents’ advice on your first job (or even the subsequent jobs) and your interviews, but it would never occur to me to bring my mom or dad along with me to an interview. And I would be absolutely mortified if I found out that one of my parents had called a potential employer on my behalf! On the other side of the coin, I think I would have a hard time hiring a candidate who brought his mom or dad with him to the interview. There seems to be a certain level of maturity and independence lacking in that person, and that would not be something I would be looking for in an employee. I’m not here to be your mother, and when you come to work, you are responsible for yourself – your mommy can’t be there to hold your hand throughout the day. Work is not the place to be coddled.

Is this something that you have faced in your own organization? If so, how do you handle it? Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?