Following on from the "What I wish my new employee knew" post, Steven Silvers left an interesting comment on Todd Defrens' post at PR Squared:

"I’ve gotten a lot of notes from students and newbies since I wrote this. Most of them acknowledge that battle-savvy veterans like you and me are empathetic totheir challenges. But amazingly – and this business does not amaze me easily anymore – I’ve also heard from many young folks who take heated issue with our advice.

They complain that we’re not doing enough for them, that employers and clients should be more understanding of their tenderfeet. They argue that they should be given unlimited opportunities to discover themselves, that they should have a big say in how they spend their day so they can get the experience they think they want. They want us to appreciate that they don’t view the concept of work they way we do, that they aren’t going to take reading material home or invest theirown time in making themselves indispensable. They want us to accommodate the fact that they may still be deciding what they want to be when they grow up, even years after committing to an employer.

They seem surprised and agitated that they are being held accountable for their knowledge, their maturity, their performance and even the gossipy stuff they post on their social networking page when they go home at night.

And they seem genuinely surprised to find out that a probation period is a probation period – that their boss really does have God-like discretion to fire them for not fitting in, for not adding value, for being a screw-up.

Some of these young folks even have enablers – parents, friends, other interns and junior account executives who reinforce their entitlement mentality. I know of a recent situation where a doctor dad wrote a scathing letter to the president of a prominent firm insisting that had not given his new graduate daughter enough attention or proper training, and that he was an idiot for letting her go. In 25 years, I’ve never seen anything like that before.

I try to respond to newbies who have these ideas about the world. I tell them that they’re setting themselves up for disappointment, that they’re at a self-created disadvantage against the go-getters who want it more than they do.

Then I tell them to add one more rule to the many that old guys like me are suggesting they keep in mind as they launch their career:

“Nobody owes you anything. Nobody."

I find that this comment is as useful, if not more so, than the original post. Getting the perspective of PR bosses is indespensible for those of us starting out on a career, which can make us all feel more comfortable in the positions we are in.

But it is also really useful to be reminded that your position is not that comfortable, that you do have to work, and work hard, to get anywher ein this world, and that their boss "really does have God-like discretion to fire them for not fitting in, for not adding value, for being a screw-up."

Potentially scary stuff, but a good kick up the bum for those who are at a "self-created disadvantage against the go-getters who want it more than they do", the go-getters being myself and the other young PR practitioners blogging and networking away to (hopefully) successful careers in PR.

(Read more from Steven Silvers at his blog, here)