A post office licensee has found herself in hot water after she posted a job advertisement that discouraged “over entitled millennials” from applying.
Warilla Licensed Post Office licensee Angela Cramp was forced to remove the statement from her job description after it was found to allegedly be in breach of age discrimination laws.
Upon first glance, the job description for the “retail traineeship” position seems pretty normal. Desired qualities included being “honest and reliable”, “able to work in a fast-paced workplace” and being “eager to learn.”
But it was the final dot point that found Angela in potential breach of age discrimination requirements.
“Unfortunately, the successful applicant will not be an over-entitled millennial with an inflated sense of entitlement,” the description read.
Yes, it’s 2020 and we’re still generalising millennials as over-entitled and difficult. Not to mention, people still struggle to wrap their heads around the fact that anyone between the ages of 23 and 38 in 2019 is considered a millennial. It’s a huge, incredibly diverse group of people, and they’re not necessarily young.
But to make matters worse, Angela confirmed to 9News that the statement was not a joke.
“We want someone who understands that it is an entry-level job,” Angela told 9News.
“If they think they will be equal to people who have been doing this job for five years just because they got there on the first day, then I’d rather them not bother or waste our time applying for our job.”
After age-discrimination allegations were thrown at her, Cramp claimed she’d be happy to hire a young person if they were right for the job (here’s another reminder that the oldest millennials are turning 39 this year).
“It is by no means age discrimination, I have five millennials working for me now,” Cramp said, although it appears she thinks “millennial” is synonymous with “young people.”
“It’s time to get through to young people – there are job requirements, you need to take instructions and if you’ve never heard the word ‘no’ in your life, this isn’t for you so don’t waste your time or mine in applying.”
Ms Cramp continued to defend her actions by claiming that she’s looking for someone who is happy to be “at the bottom of the pecking order,” which should probably be a red flag to look out for in your next job interview.
“If they have expectations that they will be in charge of the business on the first day, then they will not be successful in this job,” she said.
Personally, I’ve never met anyone who thinks “entry-level traineeship” means running a company, but maybe I don’t know enough people.
Thankfully, the statement in question was removed by Ms Cramp after Seek informed her that her language was allegedly in breach of anti-discrimination requirements.
We’ve seen it before and we’ll undoubtedly see it again, but here’s a friendly reminder that millennials (and Gen Z) are an extremely diverse group of people, filled with many hard-working individuals. Sure, there’s plenty of lazy, entitled millennials, but no more than any generation before them.
As someone who’s not even old enough to be a millennial, I’ve learned two things in my 21 short years on the planet.
First of all, society has no fucking idea what actually constitutes a “millennial.”
And secondly, young people are labelled as “entitled” the second they stand up for their basic employee rights. You know, the stuff you’re legally entitled to.
If you’re reading this as a millennial (or a Gen Z bebe), make sure you know the difference between being entitled, and simply knowing what you’re entitled to. You’re not in the wrong for standing up for your legal employment rights.
