Helicopter parents—hovering, ultra-protective, unwilling to let go—are coming to the workplace in recent years. Young people
are consulting their parents before accepting a job offer. Parents are calling up managers to negotiate benefits and protest poor
performance reviews. “Parents are contacting us directly,” says Betty Smith, university recruiting manager at Hewlett-Packard. “This
generation is not embarrassed by it. They’re asking for parents’ involvement.” Such parental participation would have been unheard
of for earlier generations of young workers. As a researcher described, “Today’s parents would have had their attorney in there to get
a hold over the boss.”
Rising numbers of employers are seeing young employees whose parents hover over their job search and early careers.
According to a 2007 Michigan State University survey, nearly a quarter of all employers have “sometimes” to “very often” seen
parents involved in the recruitment and employment of recent college graduates. Employers have been surprised by this, but maybe
they shouldn’t have been. Parents have given this generation special attention from cradle to college, so why stop when their sons and
daughters enter the workplace?
Parents who get involved most often gather information about prospective employers: Fully 40% of employers have had parents
gather employment information for their children. Nearly one-third of employers have seen parents submit a resumé on their child’s
behalf, prompting one manager to comment: “Please tell your child that you have submitted a resumé to a company. We have called a
student from our resumé pool only to find they did not know anything about our company and were not interested in a position with
us.” Over one quarter of employers have had parents promote their children for a position, and 15% have had parents call to complain
if the company does not hire their son or daughter.
A smaller share of employers report even more hands-on parental involvement, including negotiating salary and benefits (seen by
9% of employers), advocating for salary increases (seen by 6%), and actually attending the interview (seen by 4%). Commonly,
young workers get help from their parents to complete work assignments by a deadline, or have parents review their work and make
improvements, report employers. Employers have also witnessed a number of employees who insist on talking to their parents before
meeting with a supervisor who is reprimanding or disciplining them.
In fact, helicopter parenting is just one element in a shift in the attitudes and behaviors of both the young and parental
generations towards each other. Today’s young people have a closer and more involved relationship with parents than any other youth
generation in living memory. Throughout their childhood and adolescence, today’s youth have been more likely to trust their parents,
depend on their support and guidance, and tell them about their lives than prior generations at the same age. A key aspect of this new
relationship is the acceptance—and even the expectation—that parents will be highly involved in their children’s lives. According to
the Datatel 2006 College Parent Survey, parents of today’s college students say they spend much more time with their kids than their
own parents did with them. By a three-to-one margin, today’s parents say they are more involved in helping their children succeed in
college.
While most employers see young workers’ close relationships with parents as a problem, it is in fact an enormous opportunity.
Handled properly, helicopter parents can be an enormous asset to employers’ goals of recruitment, productivity, and retention. Instead
of shutting out parents, employers can develop a strategic response to enroll parents as allies and harness these potential strengths.
Employers that respond successfully to protective moms and dads will have a key advantage in attracting and retaining young workers
in the decades to come.
【題組】49. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?
(A) According to a 2007 university survey, around 25% of parents involved in college graduates’ job applications.
(B) The relationship between young and parental generations becomes closer in the current days.
(C) Young workers’ close relationship with parents is detrimental to the employers’ goals of recruitment in the workplace.
(D) Compared to their own age as a child, parents of today’s college students spend much more time with their kids.
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