What can I say? Trust me, lots.

First, read this: Britain’s universities are turning out more graduates than ever before, and a report overnight from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGA) said employers found the generation born since 1982 ambitious, demanding, confident – or overconfident – tech-savvy and ethically conscious. But they also said some were simply “self-centred”, “fickle” and “greedy”. “They are coming up to recruitment stands at events and saying “what can you offer me?”,” LGA chief executive Carl Gilleard said. “Better would be to say “Do you have time so I can tell you what I can offer … Generation Y is me, me, me.” But perhaps unlike the more cynical, disaffected “Generation X” of the 1960s and 70s, they are less focused on salary and more on work-life balance, environment and ethics, he said. With a job for life being something of the past, they are also seen as less loyal to individual employers.

So what do I say? First up, if this is based on a survey – and we can’t tell – then let’s remember that surveys are usually rubbish. Especially when we are given no details on how the report was prepared, or the biases of the organisation. Let’s face it, people say what they think you want to hear, or simply just lie. Sure, some tell it like it is but get lead up the garden path by poor or leading questions. You need to look at actual behaviours, not what people say they think and do.

More particularly, the report says “employers found the generation born since 1982 ambitious, demanding, confident – or overconfident – tech-savvy and ethically conscious”. How did they arrive at a measure for “over-confident”? Is that an empirical value of some sort, or an opinion? Let me guess…. And note that if you were born in 1981 then it doesn’t apply. Just like a light-switch, it’s off or on. Sure. And should we be surprised that young people who have grown up with personal computers and the like to be tech-savvy? On the other hand you could be born in 1957 and still be tech-savvy, enough to know and use the latest gadgets, anyway. Because people continue to learn throughout their lives. Yes, the proportion of uptake varies with the late baby-boomers – as it does even with those born after 1982 – because (a) we have our own needs (b) we are all different. Let’s not forget that the technologies that those born post-’82 are so savvy with were more often than not invented by the un-savvy “boomers”.

It gets more opinionated. The report goes on to say that “they also said some were simply “self-centred”, “fickle” and “greedy”.” Well “some” certainly pins it down. What proportion does “some” represent? 10%? 2%? It reads like a significant percentage, but as always it’s never quantified, is it?

And yet more opinion, and the anecdotal evidence chimes in: “They are coming up to recruitment stands at events and saying “what can you offer me?”,” LGA chief executive Carl Gilleard said. “Better would be to say “Do you have time so I can tell you what I can offer … Generation Y is me, me, me.”

Well fancy people expecting to get answers from employers? They should just accept what’s offered and shut up, eh? And how many of these so-called Gen-Yers actually are so assertive, and how does this compare with say other labels, like their presumably non-assertive baby-boomer or Gen X parents? Well, the whole house of cards falls over because the parents are apparently a problem as well, in that they are acting assertively too!

To quote again: “I think we as parents are certainly partly to blame,” Mr Gilleard said. “In America, there are now big global companies who have to have policies on how to deal with parents… Some parents are coming back and saying their children are worth more – they are effectively acting as agents for their children.” Heavens above, assertive parents, just like their kids. Funny that. The article – from news.com – goes on with examples like how one person apparently showed little initiative in finding transport. That’s convincing. Therefore they are all like that. It has a slap at Gen-X as well and then laments that these kids are living in a global economic boom that may well bust. Can these pampered Gen-Ys actually survive an economic downturn, this opinionated labeller asks. Perhaps they will all melt-down when faced with a problem?

Well maybe these young people have hidden reserves, like all of us, and will adapt. Irrespective of when they were born.