The Lax Generation

About the Book

What is wrong with today´s young workers? Why do they wince when the company asks them to fill out a job survey? Seasoned newspaper journalist Greg Deal uses his own experiences working in the fast-paced and often chaotic newspaper business to examine what he calls The Lax Generation. Laxers (lackadaisical, that is) are people ages 20-27 who focus primarily on themselves at work and fail to invest themselves as human stock in a company, thereby making it impossible for them to garner a sense of ownership in the global aspects of the place they work. Deal uses research to critique the generation and how it has been failed by its parents and teachers, and even its bosses. The educational system has over-pampered Generation Y (or Laxer) members and molded them into a self-consumed group that is difficult to assimilate into the workforce. Deal uses research from people who have studied the workplace environment or are human resource consultants, while staying on the central focus of the book: that young workers today don´t perform to the best of their abilities because the work environment doesn´t provide them a reason to seek a sense of ownership in the company. He says the biggest threat to the American work force and capitalism in today´s society is not outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries, but members of Generation Y. Young workers are both prized assets and land mines in the workplace, Deal says. He tries to offer suggestions for bosses and young workers to help them meet somewhere in the middle so they can find harmony in the workplace. While the book is secular in nature, Deal argues that many young workers have narcissistic tendencies that lead to laziness because they have lost touch with spirituality, which can help them open their eyes to the world around them and explain their roles in the workplace when things go wrong. But don´t think Generation X and baby boomers are let off the hook. The book critiques their roles and failures in managing and motivating young workers and offers advice on how to turn young workers into valuable resources.

About the Author

Greg Deal has been in the newspaper business for 11 years, working as a sports writer and sports editor in Greenwood, S.C., for five years before assuming roles as assistant managing editor and managing editor of the daily paper there. Deal has moved on in his writing journey to become a full-time author. He received an Associate of Arts degree from Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte and later a Bachelor of Arts degree in mass communications from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He has a wife, Shea, and two children