A parallel universe in Walnut Creek?

Those of you that follow my blog have heard me bitch about our new intern who clearly has no work ethics or drive to prove his value. Back in the days when I was an intern, I worked my ass off for almost no pay. All for the valuable recommendation and the ability to include, "Advertising Account Manager" on my resume.

Friends of mine and I have spent many times discussing and analyzing Generation I (not I as in me but i as in internet because they do not know any other way of life than a life with the internet). http://tinyurl.com/4eqj85

Generation I is the generation that has recently entered the work force or will soon enter the work force.

This group is very me-centric. They spend much of their time on the social networking sites and texting their friends in a language only they understand. They also grew up being coddled by their parents and when the going gets rough, they got used to mommy bailing them out.

So now that they've entered the workforce, they still expect to be able to act the way they've acted all their lives. They weren't taught about the importance of working your way to the top, performing grunt work, saying "yes" when you don't want to, and all the other unpleasant aspects of being an employee at the bottom of the barrel.

Instead they block their calendars for their lunchtime yoga sessions, complain to their higher-ups about workload, and feel it is well in their right to spend time during the workday editing their Facebook profile. (okay, so I do that too, but I wouldn't have dared do so if this were my very first job!)

This is a pretty interesting article about Gen I,
http://nymag.com/news/features/27341/

So what's my point? I do tend to ramble.

This morning I had to return my rental car and pick up my newly repaired Jeep - I can't recall if I blogged about it but someone backed into me while I was parked. Luckily, I happened to be dining on a patio right in front of my car!

Anyhoo, I had to go to Enterprise Rent-a-Car then Cook's Collision, both in Walnut Creek. The experience was quite strange. I'm still scratching my head wondering if it really occurred.

I walk into Enterprise, where I'm greeted by two young men dressed in suits and two young women dressed very sharply in business attire. They all had big smiles on their face and the second I walked in, one of the gals asked if I was returning or picking up? She proceeded to pull up my information. She made sure to ask me how I liked the car, and if I had any problems. She was so efficient, I was done in a couple of minutes. Immediately, the other gal stepped forward to give me a ride to Cook's Collision, even though it is only a block away. As I left with the other gal, one of the men yelled out, "have a great 4th of July". I looked back to say, "you too" and he had a huge beaming smile on his face. Almost freaky! Customer service is clearly a priority here.

When I got to Enterprise, it was almost the exact same experience. The two gals working there practically ran to the front when I walked in. The rest of the experience was pretty much identical to the experience at Enterprise. I was in and out.

Every single person I encountered this morning, I'd classify as being part of Generation I. So why were they so different from our lazy, careless intern? I am really wondering if I walked into a parallel universe.