Vodka on Sunday

Den umulige generation

A new study from Berlingske Tidende with 300 Danish managers shows that the new generation has too high expectations and expects to become managing director without even having the experience. 78% of the Danish managers think that the young employees under 30 years are more demanding than others and they do not even want to work overtime.

The managing director Erik SÐ"Ñ'ndergaard says that there are no connections between the young employees' effort and the ambition. SÐ"Ñ'ndergaard's solution is that the new employees should know about the job through trainee-posts. Young people are spoiled and it is the parents' fault. They give them everything they need. And then the young people have never had any confrontations. And when both parts in a relationship want to have a career it is almost impossible.

Another managing director Peter GrÐ"Ñ'nlund sees this development as a positive thing. He thinks that the young employees want higher challenges. And they do not want to do the same thing for a long time. Now there are also a balance between work and private life. This new progress is healthy, but it puts the management under a lot of pressure.

The demanding generation has not only got high expectations considering the job alone, they also want friends, a great family and hobbies which are more important than work. Half of the young people in the research would say no to do overtime at work if they had a private arrangement. Money does not even seem to be the biggest deal. They think the companies should hire more employees instead of expecting them to do overtime. This new challenge will take a lot of convincing to do for the politicians, because the generation does not think they owe anything to the society.

Vodka on Sunday

(An Irish short story)

In Fiona Gartland's short story "Vodka on Sunday" we experience a family with a faÐ"§ade that they have been living with their entire life together. In this story we see how something you have done in your past can haunt you in generations, and that it can never be disguised or forgotten.

"Vodka on Sunday" takes place in a family of high rank where the father enjoys football on Sundays and the wife prefers to stay at home appreciating a nice drink. The frame of the home with the crystal lamp gives us an impression of a wealthy family. When the narrator comes home to enjoy an afternoon with her mother they sit together and relish some vodka drinks. The mother worries about her daughter, because she is afraid she is too much like herself. Dating boys in a young age, kissing and partying. The narrator is now in college, so she must be between 18 - 22 years old. This does not make the narrator a "lady of easy virtue" when she kissed her boyfriend at the age of 16, but we get the feeling of her being so anyway. The narrator thinks that her mother is radiant, perfect and she is very proud of her.

In the conversation the narrator and her mother have an intimacy between them, and they trust each other. Even though the daughter does not really want to be trusted. All the small talk softens up for the rambling, and they get more drinks. We see that men have always oppressed the mother, when she talks about her childhood. She had to serve her brothers, and Nina swore that her children should never have to do that, too. Therefore she became a kind of rebel and was wild when she was young. The narrator's mother had even lived in a convent. So she must have been a lady of easy virtue. ""To this day I'll never know why your father asked me to dance"Ð'...""We'd have to race home after a date, beat your Auntie Betty to the parlour, otherwise we'd be stuck on the stairs for a court." A court, a cuddle, the euphemisms of her youth. No question, then, of passion getting out of line." (Line 64-71) The narrator thinks that her mother did not do anything with boys back then, but when