Thirty-five percent of senior managers said in a 2016 study that they became annoyed when parents got involved in their children’s search for work. There’s little evidence that such intensive parenting improves their children’s shot at getting hired. And it was the “snowplow parents” who found ways to make their way into their kids’ offices well before companies started launching initiatives to involve parents in the workplace. By 2013, “snowplow parents” was being used to describe those who went a step beyond helicopter, working to “preemptively eliminate any obstacles from their child’s path,” in the words of Carolyn O’Laughlin, then director of residence life at Sarah Lawrence College. She was so troubled by what she saw at Stanford that she wrote a book addressing the issue, called “How to Raise an Adult,” which delves into the issues created by raising a generation that she argues never had the chance to psychologically separate from their parents.Īs millennials went to college and entered the workplace, the term “helicopter parents” evolved. “This generation does not know how to make their way forward without an adult handling them,” said Lythcott-Haims of millennials. In an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune published that year, she blamed the baby boomer generation for fostering an attitude of “protectionism” that “depriv the children they love so much of learning to do for themselves.” The dean of freshmen and transfer students at Stanford University, Julie Lythcott-Haims, noticed that hovering parents were hindering their kids’ success through this type of behavior as far back as 2005. Cline and Jim Fay, these parents were compelled to “hover over and rescue their children whenever trouble arises.” In the words of child development researchers Foster W. The term “helicopter parenting” first entered the American lexicon in 1990 to describe parents who had become overbearing in their kids’ lives. “They will even email an employer directly, which is crazy.” How ‘helicopter parents’ evolved “I hear about parents applying on behalf of their kids, either covertly or openly, filling out an application,” said Alison Green, who runs the blog Ask a Manager and regularly receives messages from perplexed hiring managers that receive such requests from parents. He believes this kind of “coddling” is detrimental to the candidates who come to his staffing agency: “Not allowing them to experience failure on their own that’s huge,” he said. Hart said that since then, he’s also received calls from parents looking to set up interviews for their children, and witnessed them physically bring their kids into the lobby of the agency looking for their first jobs. When he told the woman he wouldn’t be able to share information with her, he said she became argumentative. “The mom reached out and said, ‘I’m wanting to find out why this person wasn’t selected,’” Hart said. Surprised, she recalled telling them, “if your young person can’t survive an interview with me, they’re not going to be really successful out there in the plant.”Ībout three years ago, recruiter Brian Hart received a call from the mother of a job applicant who had applied for a job through his agency in Austin, Texas. “More than once in the five years I was there, I had parents that would show up for the interview with the young person,” said Hartman. “I hear about parents applying on behalf of their kids, either covertly or openly, filling out an application.” It was still a surprise, however, when several job candidates showed up to interviews with their parents. Hartman said it was generally a nice place to work. And that’s a trend that goes back decades, but also has roots in socioeconomics.Ībout 20 years ago, Phyllis Hartman was working as the director of human resources at a plastics factory outside of Pittsburgh that produced household goods and pet products. Why? Many young professionals seem to value a different kind of close relationship with their parents than previous generations. Cornerstone is one of several companies-including Google, LinkedIn, and Amazon-that have started hosting these events in recent years in an effort to better attract and retain millennial hires. Once a year, Cornerstone OnDemand, a tech company based in Santa Monica, California, hosts an event where they pull back the curtain for parents of adult employees who are interested in learning more about their children’s jobs. But it’s a different story on Take Your Parents to Work Day. On Take Your Child to Work Day, you’d be hard pressed to find an employer who bothers to explain concepts like “software service compliance” or “experience-driven” work culture to your 7-year-old.
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