Legal Commentary

A Generation Gap The Width of the Grand Canyon

By Kevin Funnell

Likely, I was officially an old fogy the day I was born. At least, one of my brothers-in-law insists that I have always had the tolerance level for fools of a black rhino bull with a thorn its hoof, situated on the wrong side of a fence from the females in the herd during rutting season. Nevertheless, I personally think there's an increasingly serious disconnect between the way I think and the way Generation Y thinks and this disconnect is making me a tad cranky.

Here's a perfect example: While traveling on business on few weeks ago, I'm left a voice mail message on my office phone from a first-year associate with an East Coast law firm. The young man read a post of mine on my professional blog from 2004 that discussed some esoteric point of a federal regulation and that made reference to some "guidance" that had been published by a federal agency. He couldn't find anything in the guidance that discussed the point I was making in the post. He asked if I could discuss it with him.

No mention was made of financial remuneration for me in return for my giving a first year lawyer the benefit of my 35 years of professional experience. He just asked for free advice.

Luckily for him, I was feeling like a good Christian (a rare event when you toil daily in a cesspool devoted to serving financial intermediaries who make Goldman Sachs executives look like Joe Six Packs), so I sent the kid a copy of an e-mail that contained a discussion between me and a compliance officer with the federal agency from ten years ago. The e-mail contained information he would have had to dig and dig to obtain, and saved him a scad of wasted time and effort. I also offered to send him copies of some articles I'd saved over the years that discussed this particular subject in greater detail.

I never heard a word from him. Not even a thank you.

If this was an isolated incident, I'd shrug it off as the actions of a joker whose mommy never potty trained him properly. Unfortunately, it's emblematic of a series of experiences I've had with young adults in their twenties and early thirties, lawyers and non-lawyers alike. All these incidents have common themes running through them: there's an overwhelming sense of entitlement, a lack of basic manners, and a complete lack of respect for experience and age. It's as if these young people think they have a right to whatever I know for free, and the idea that they should have to earn respect for themselves, or that they should accord respect to older successful members of their profession, is completely foreign to them.

In addition, because I write a professional blog and am not shy about expressing my opinions, I get strong disagreements from a few readers, some of whom will write me e-mails taking an opposing view. From my older correspondents, the following actual recent example is indicative of how many of them preface and end their disagreements: "While I follow your blog and enjoy it, I don't necessarily agree with all your views...Thanks again for your fine blog.  I truly enjoy it!

In between, he basically told me that his experience on the issues did not mirror mine, and that he thought my view was wrong. Fair enough. We agreed to disagree.

A recent e-mail message from a young person in his late twenties opened with the greeting "You're weak!" He was upset that I had not gone into great detail on a blog post to explain to him the mathematical calculations that are involved in FDIC Loss-Sharing Agreements. Clients pay me hard cash (in US dollars, by the way) to give them that advice, yet this puerile jerk, who works for a real estate developer, was throwing a thumb-sucking tantrum because my free blog didn't dish out the expertise he needed. Another correspondent, a third-year associate for a medium-sized law firm in a backwater Deep-South burg, opened his e-mail by telling me how "disappointed" he was with my "rote recitation of consumer advocacy group talking points" on an issue related to a federal consumer protection law, and then proceeded to demonstrate convincingly that he completely misunderstood the basics of the law.

I'm far from a mellow fellow, but when I was a young lawyer, it would never have occurred to me to address an elder in that fashion. Never. It makes me wonder whether we're from the same planet, much less from the same society.

Friends with children in this age group tell me that these attitudes are common among Gen Y. They require "special handling," the parents advise me. The only special handling they'll get from me is a size 11, Justin Copper Caprice work boot up their asses.

I guess that just makes me one gosh-darned insensitive guy, doesn't it?

I'll try to live with that character flaw.

Full post as published by Counseling Kevin on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).