TEFL= the perfect job
According to Garrison Keillor, “92% [of young people] want a ‘flexible work schedule’, 96% want a job that ‘requires creativity’, and 97% want a job that ‘allows me to have an impact on the world’”.
And for my reaction I can do no more than quote Mr Keillor too:
“All I can say is, Wow. Good luck. And now you know why we need illegal immigrants to do the inflexible uncreative stuff that simply needs doing right now”
So, how does TEFL stack up as a job for Generation Y? If flexible schedule equals split shifts and having to work all over the city- check. If creativity includes trying to make a textbook listening with the guy who set up amazon.co.uk (no, not Amazon.com, they couldn’t afford him) interesting or thinking up a new way to keep all 29 teenagers awake for a whole 90 minutes- check. And for those who manage to have their debate on Japanese war crimes- check for “world impact” too.
So, if TEFL is the perfect job why isn’t the world even more swamped with TEFL teachers? And more to the point, why are so many of the teachers so unhappy in their jobs?
To start with, to Generation Y ”flexible schedule” obviously does not mean your boss making you finish 10 pm one night and then start teaching at 8 am the following morning. It means you wake up any time you like and then walk to your computer down the hall in your pajamas to telecommute. Quite what a company has to gain from offering someone a job like that is beside the point, it is of course young people’s birth right to be offered flexibility while not being forced to be flexible themselves…
Saddest of all, this self-indulgent attitude is even reaching Japan. Young people are refusing to take jobs until they are offered jobs for life, then refusing to buckle under to the demands that a Japanese permanent contract has always demanded and quitting after 2 years. Please ignore everything you have ever read about this Japanese generation being more individualistic and creative, that was the last generation- they just gave their dreams up for the sake of their children. This is the molly-coddled generation. God help us all, and sell all your shares in Japanese companies now!