Commentary: Young professional whiners

In Tuesday's CSBJ Daily e-mail, we reported about a survey released by the Economic Development Corp. done in conjunction with the Colorado Springs Young Professionals organization.

It would appear that there is a feeling of entitlement among our young professionals in the Springs.

Quit your whining. Respondents apparently noted that areas for improvement included "job opportunities, arts and culture, diversity and the ability to meet and interact with other professionals with similar interests."

Come on folks, give me a break.

I can't tell you how many invitations I get every week to an arts- related event or a lecture series at Colorado College. We have a world class Fine Arts Center, Business of Art center in Manitou and an annual arts festival.

We have a great Philharmonic Orchestra, and if you feel there is a lack of professional opportunity, why are our accounting firms giving away gift cards, car washes and other perks to attract accountants?

What about our medical community? Think we need nurses and other well-paid professionals?

According to the report, 56 percent of respondents had a neutral position when asked how they would rate the environment for young professionals in the Springs. It seems to me that some young people feel a bit entitled and want everything to be exactly peachy keen without putting in the work to make the difference.

There are endless ways to get involved in our community, and I applaud the 65 percent of respondents that ranked "ability to get involved/give back" as a 4 or 5 with 5 being the best ranking.

The 165 respondents were mostly single, ages 25-34, with 25 percent making between $60,000 and $99,000 a year. I know when I was that age I was floating around the Bahamas on yachts making something less than $20,000 a year, so these young whiners aren't going to get any "poor young people don't have opportunity" comments from me. There is plenty of opportunity, you just have to go find it.

There are so many ways to get plugged in to the community I can't even start to make a list. It is someone's own issue if they can't get involved. Go to any of the many community calendars from www.Peakradar.com to www.csbj.com to the Chamber of Commerce's Web site. The list could go on and on.

One respondent said "I don't feel like I can meet people on a professional or dating level with the same interests outside of Colorado Springs Young Professionals, or outside the bar scene."

Well, not knowing exactly what your interests are or what you look like, I can't solve that problem for you. I can tell you that the bar scene is probably not the best place to meet other professionals, but call me and I am sure we can get you connected around town. Not that I am a dating service by any means, but there is a plethora of professional opportunities for people of all ages in this city.

As I was talking with some of our young employees, they commented that some of the views of the young professionals' organization make them look bad. They don't see the issues that the survey apparently revealed. And I consider many of the staff here at the CSBJ to be true professionals. You can skip the "young" moniker.

There are plenty of opportunities here. You won't get them hanging out in bars with the CSYP group.

Does the "young professional" group consider itself to be one of the "other" business organizations, like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce or the Women's Chamber of Commerce? We are all in this together and I don't think we need to operate in individual organizational stove pipes, but I digress.

Forty-seven percent of the respondents said that diversity is an important factor when deciding where they would like to live. They should get involved in the diversity forum then.

I might just agree with the 92 percent that responded with 4s and 5s about the importance of our quality of life.

Read my column on www.csbj.com for a link to the report.

Lon Matejczyk is publisher of the Colorado Springs Business Journal. He can be reached at Lon.Matejczyk@csbj.com or 329-5202.

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