This is everything wrong with Gen Z in one viral video.
A designer decked out a freshman dorm room like a luxury hotel suite. The price tag? Reportedly around $20,000.
For a dorm room.
The dorm reveal video has gone viral.
My generation got a milk crate, a comforter, a poster, and whatever furniture the university hadn't bolted to the floor.
Now? Design consultations. Mood boards. Custom decor. Parents spending five figures to turn a dorm room into a boutique hotel.
Whenever my daughter complains about her college dorm, I give her the same response: "Dorm is short for dormitory. It's not supposed to be glamorous."
That's the point. College is supposed to involve some inconvenience. Some discomfort. Some figuring-it-out-for-yourself.
That's called growth.
Because four years later, these freshmen become your employees.
That's where this stops being a funny story about ridiculous dorm rooms and becomes your workplace issue.
When parents remove every inconvenience, solve every problem, and upgrade every ordinary experience, kids don't learn resilience. They learn that discomfort is unacceptable and that someone else should fix it.
Then they show up at work.
The assignment isn't interesting enough.
The feedback feels too harsh.
The promotion didn't come quickly enough.
The office isn't flexible enough.
The boss isn't validating enough.
Employers aren't hiring the dorm room. They're hiring the expectations that came with it.
And entitlement learned at 18 doesn't magically disappear at 22.
Here's what I read this week that you should, too.
Brewery Visits Are Up. Wait, What? — via Brewers Association
Union Contracts Are Becoming HR AI Playbook — via EntertainHR
An Employer Told Two Different Stories About One Firing. How Do You Think It's Going? — via Eric Meyer's Employer Handbook Blog
Is an Employer Required to Allow an Employee to "Cure" a Seemingly Fraudulent FMLA Medical Certification? — via Jeff Nowak's FMLA Insights
Does An Employer's Mention of "Retirement" Satisfy an Age Discrimination Claim? — via Dan Schwartz's Connecticut Employment Law Blog
Hotel Union President Accused of Corruption in Bombshell Whistleblower Report — via Labor Pains
Gen X employees say they are burned out from caregiving responsibilities — via HR Dive
LinkedIn Is the Golden Goose for Introverted Lawyers: 5 Ways to Get Comfortable with Discomfort in Legal Business Development — via Above the Law
Is Showing Some Midriff at Work Inappropriate? — via Improve Your HR by Suzanne Lucas, the Evil HR Lady
How is time off supposed to work when you're salaried? — via Ask a Manager