After Boss Says There's No 'P' in 'Hamster,' Millennial Reportedly Starts Sobbing and Gets Mom on Speakerphone
If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard a lot of stereotypes about the Millennial generation, which is loosely classified as the people born between the early 1980s and late 1990s.
Millennials are coddled, some people say. They’re ruining everything from focus groups, dinner dates, cruises and napkins to golf, soap bars, marriage and homeownership.
Heck, they’ve even been accused of ruining wine corks!
So is all of that true? In short, probably not.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a gap when it comes to the differences between Millenials and the older generations. And those differences were highlighted perfectly in a lengthy Twitter thread that’s gone viral.
The thread from Carol Blymire, who describes herself on Twitter as a “Communications and public policy executive,” is from July. But the story is timeless. (Ok, maybe it’s not timeless, but it’s still sad/entertaining/funny, depending on how you see it.)
It starts with a young woman in her 20s meeting with her boss.
In office space near a client, a young woman was meeting with her boss. She was (by my estimation) in her late 20s.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
“The boss (also a woman) was giving her feedback and reviewing edits she had made on something this young woman wrote,” Blymire said.
“They had been speaking in low tones, but their volume got louder toward the end of the conversation because the young woman was getting agitated about a particular edit.”
They had been speaking in low tones, but their volume got louder toward the end of the conversation because the young woman was getting agitated about a particular edit.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
The edit had to do with the spelling of the word “hamster.” The young woman thought it was “hampster” with a “p,” while the boss was correctly noting that there’s no “p.”
“I don’t know why you corrected that because I spell it with the ‘p’ in it,” the young woman reportedly said.
Her boss calmly responded, “But that’s not how the word is spelled. There is no ‘p’ in hamster.”
The young woman countered that she was always taught to spell the word with a “p” in it. And though the boss offered to look it up with her on Dictionary.com, the worker refused.
Young woman: “But you don’t know that! I learned to spell it with a P in it so that’s how I spell it.”
The boss (remaining very calm and professional), let’s go to https://t.co/n2ZU5Uuuy3 and look it up together.
(mind you, this is a woman in her late 20s, not a 5th grader)
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
The young woman insists she doesn’t need to look it up because it’s FINE to spell it with a P because that’s HOW SHE WANTED TO SPELL IT.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
Eventually, they move on to the rest of the edits. But later, the young woman appeared to be having a hard time holding it together.
Boss gets up from table and goes to her office and the young woman can barely hold it together.
She moves to another table in the common workspace area, drops all her stuff loudly on the table top, and starts texting.
A minute later, her phone rings.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
“She moves to another table in the common workspace area, drops all her stuff loudly on the table top, and starts texting,” Blymire wrote. “A minute later, her phone rings.”
It was her mom. She had texted her mom to call her because it was urgent, and I’m sure her mother maybe thought she was in the ER or something.
She then … PUTS HER MOM ON SPEAKERPHONE. IN THE WORKPLACE.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
“It was her mom. She had texted her mom to call her because it was urgent, and I’m sure her mother maybe thought she was in the ER or something,” Blymire wrote. “She then … PUTS HER MOM ON SPEAKERPHONE. IN THE WORKPLACE.”
She bursts into tears and wants her mom to call her boss and tell her not to be mean about telling her how to spell words like “hamster”.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
It gets worse.
“She bursts into tears and wants her mom to call her boss and tell her not to be mean about telling her how to spell words like ‘hamster,’” Blymire wrote.
“The mother tells her that her boss is an idiot and she doesn’t have to listen to her and she should go to the boss’ boss to file a complaint about not allowing creativity in her writing.”
The mother tells her that her boss is an idiot and she doesn’t have to listen to her and she should go to the boss’ boss to file a complaint about not allowing creativity in her writing.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
“I thought what I wrote was perfect and she just made all these changes and then had the nerve to tell me I was spelling words wrong when I know they are right because that is how I have always spelled them,” the young woman reportedly said.
The young woman continued to insist she was right, before reportedly talking to her mom about how hungover she was.
The colleagues in and around the workplace kept looking at one another and some even put earbuds/headphones in/on. It appeared as though this was a regular thing with her.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
She ended the conversation asking her mom how she should bring this up with the boss’ boss. “I mean, I always spell hamster with a P, she has no right to criticize me.”
She walked to the office kitchen for the rest of the call so I don’t know what happened next.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
“She ended the conversation asking her mom how she should bring this up with the boss’ boss. ‘I mean, I always spell hamster with a P, she has no right to criticize me,'” Blymire wrote.
“She walked to the office kitchen for the rest of the call so I don’t know what happened next,” Blymire added.
Now, Blymire made it clear she wasn’t sure if the young woman had some sort of learning disability.
But it seemed more like someone who has never been told no, or that she is anything other than 100% perfect and amazing and can do no wrong. And that is going to be exhausting for anyone in her orbit.
— Carol Blymire (@CarolBlymire) July 12, 2019
However, Blymire also has some insightful commentary on the whole situation.
“But it seemed more like someone who has never been told no, or that she is anything other than 100% perfect and amazing and can do no wrong,” she wrote. “And that is going to be exhausting for anyone in her orbit.”
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