Dealing With The Characteristics of Gen X and Millenial Employees

Via Photon Courier (see blogroll at left) comes this story about how employers are dealing with Gen X employees and their--how shall I say this delicately?--interesting attributes. Here's a sample:

A 22-year-old pharmaceutical employee learned that he was not getting the promotion he had been eyeing. His boss told him he needed to work on his weaknesses first. The Harvard grad had excelled at everything he had ever done, so he was crushed by the news. He told his parents about the performance review, and they were convinced there was some misunderstanding, some way they could fix it, as they'd been able to fix everything before. His mother called the human-resources department the next day. Seventeen times. She left increasingly frustrated messages: "You're purposely ignoring us"; "you fudged the evaluation"; "you have it in for my son." She demanded a mediation session with her, her son, his boss, and HR--and got it. At one point, the 22-year-old reprimanded the HR rep for being "rude to my mom."

It's one thing to have a parent tell me that I have it in for their kid, but for a parent to say that to a human resources director about their adult child? At work? Amazing!