Ask HN: Do the younger generation lack professional standards? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do the younger generation lack professional standards?

18 pointsGigachad17 comments

Hey guys, there has been a situation in my team over the last few months which I'm unsure about. We have had several new hire React developers, who seem quite talented and capable at their job, but seem to lack professional standards. 3 members of my team have set their profile pictures on MS Teams to furry pictures, these pictures also show to calls with clients. To me this seems clearly inappropriate. While there is nothing explicitly inappropriate in the images, as I understand it, furries are a kind of sex thing.

I've tried to bring this up with management but have been told they don't see any issues and I should drop it. Am I overreacting here? Is this normal in a corporate environment? I get that with remote work, things have become more casual, but not too sure if this is too far.

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10+ years ago, my very first profile picture at a corp was a screenshot of the statue from the flash animation "Truckers Delight".

In case you don't know, it's a giant golden statue of our protagonist giving a thumbs up, with scantily clad ladies laying at his feet.

Of course, the resolution was very high, but the thumbnail very.. small, so nobody noticed the ladies, until they upgraded some software that allowed one to click on said thumbnails, and hilarity ensued when my superiors understood what I'd been using for a (customer facing) profile picture for almost 2 years.

Nothing came out of it, I changed my picture..

Now I'm a boring black-white headshot like everyone else, and that's fine too..

To be honest, that's not the part of professional standards you should worry about.. How's the stuff they do? Do they put some pride into doing good work? Are they honest and responsible when their blunders float to the top ?

People grow out of thinking furry pictures are appropriate profile pictures.. But they don't grow out of not caring about doing shoddy work.

They [Young People] have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations; moreover, their hopeful disposition makes them think themselves equal to great things -- and that means having exalted notions. They would always rather do noble deeds than useful ones: Their lives are regulated more by moral feeling than by reasoning -- all their mistakes are in the direction of doing things excessively and vehemently. They overdo everything -- they love too much, hate too much, and the same with everything else.

(Aristotle)

It's a good thing. I'm all for honesty, clarity in communication, respect and all that good stuff, but I abhor all these arbitrary social norms that serve absolutely no purpose.

One that really gets under my skin is being told "thank you" at a store or restaurant. One time a worker told me thank you from all the way across the McDonalds; just yelled it across the room like no person would ever do outside of work. It's not normal human behavior. I didn't do anything to benefit them. They're not saying thank you, they're performing an arbitrary action so they'll continue to be allowed to work to survive. It's done out of fear of starvation and homelessness.

Stop making people wear stupid "professional" clothing too. It's useless. You have to be all careful and not get your pretty little useless clothes dirty. "OMG is that a wrinkle? Please someone help me do this basic task because I can't get my little outfit dirty".

I say stop trying to make people act like robots. The life is already being sucked out of the everything in every way the parasites can manage to find. Why make it worse?

Yeah I do get what you are saying. Perhaps I have been reading too much in to it. Suppose nothing wrong with a bit of freedom.

Hi Gigachad!

Is there a policy on using portrait photos of oneself at your company? Then the profile photos should indeed be changed, because they're not photos of oneself, but drawings of cartoonish animals.

Otherwise there is no issue here but your understanding of subcultures and these three members of your team. I invite you to talk to them directly, mention the sex thing, and watch hilarity ensue.

> I've tried to bring this up with management but have been told they don't see any issues and I should drop it.

They probably value their contribution to the company over potential misunderstandings should these developers come into contact with customers via Teams. Management might not know what furries are. They might have googled it and found it to be benign. They also might have reacted that way due to the way you presented the issue, or interact with management or your team in general. It's impossible to tell from your post alone.

> Am I overreacting here?

Yes, but that is understandable if you believe that it's a sex thing.

> Is this normal in a corporate environment? I get that with remote work, things have become more casual, but not too sure if this is too far.

Depends on the company. Some may have policies on profile pictures, none of those will explicitly ban furry avatar pictures.

Good luck with the younger generation, Gigachad!

Everyone believes it’s a sex thing.

Even me, someone generally familiar with this stuff thinks it’s a sex thing.

And even when it’s not it still comes off as one of those “It’s not Pedophilia, it’s Ephebophilia” type arguments that nobody really cares if you’re right or not.

You’re sending a message. You’re representing the company saying you want to have sex with animals (and pretend like you don’t)

I was about to send a rational response to explain how furries are just a bunch of LGBTQ folks (though maybe we met different ones), but then I briefly looked at your HN comments history and decided not to. I hope that not too much of the younger generation has to deal with your bigotry, so I also wish you good luck with them.

I looked at your comment history and found your pro-nazi comments to be extremely disturbing.

You’re welcome to have a different lifestyle, but please be respectful of others.

From the description I’d say it’s the exact opposite - they can tell the difference between professional standards and arbitrary, made up bs older folks tend to mindlessly accept.

At my large health organization the ONE guy that approved badge photos was so strict that, he wouldn't let me change my profile photo one time, in support of the Save the Children red nose day. But now since we all use teams, everyone has everything from furries to pictures of Lebowski. I don't think many people care anymore. But I can understand why you wouldn't want to see a picture of freddy kruger when the sales person is calling to close the million dollar deal you've spent months working on.

Otherwise, I'm hoping we're getting closer to a point where we don't judge people based off of what they look like or what profile pics they use.

I’m not Mr. Lebowski. I’m The Dude.

> Do the younger generation lack professional standards?

Yes, always has, always will, for every generation.

"professional standards" is a made up thing. Not as in non-existent, but it's a vague consensus of random people who decide what's professional in their environment.

If you get enough people who don't line animal pfp, it's not professional. If people don't care, it's professional enough.

> I get that with remote work, things have become more casual, but not too sure if this is too far.

Too far for what? Has anyone actually complained, or do you project your own view as something a customer may potentially complain about in the future? If you're just worried about the looks... maybe you should think why that bothers you.

Hasn't every older generation said this?

That said I'm approaching the old fart age and it's not how I'd want my employees representing my company, if I had one...

I think the people you’re working with lack professional standards, no point in trying to generalize to a whole generation.

As Jenssen has already said - I think it’s just immaturity of the younger generation. That will always be there.

> but have been told they don't see any issues and I should drop it

HN is not your supervisor.

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