My boss certainly expected to meet my parent when she came to the office. He would have been unhappy if I didn’t introduce her to him. I started working there in 1988. I’m an attorney, by the way.
Also, notice that the ONLY actual data ( as opposed to anecdotes) ithat nvolves young workers is that for most their parents influence" their career choice. That’s hardly helicoptering!
Also Google DOES have a " Take your parents to work day"!!
I think it is normal to discuss a job offer with parents, to talk about what benefits to sign up for, whether to get the insurance (life or health) through work, the savings plans. In the article it said the employers ask who the interviewee would want to discuss it with. Parents seem normal to me if there is no spouse yet. Not all 24 year olds have a mentor.
My friend’s daughter went over all the hiring documents with her daughter. My daughter called twice and texted three times this morning asking about filling out the W4. Could she have done it herself? Sure, but it was easy to ask me. This is her first W2 job and I do her taxes.
When I was 27 and taking a big corporate job, I discussed some of it with my sister. The rest I just guessed. I wish I’d had someone to discuss it with.
About 8 years ago (during the recession), I spoke with a woman who worked for a very large hi-tech company. She oversaw their new grad recruitment programs and described frequent parent contact, particularly around salary and benefits. I believe they had developed orientations for parents of grads who were recently hired.
Sounds like this is now a common circumstance and it is being addressed by employers in a variety of ways. Never occurred to us to be in touch with the kids’ companies; they wouldn’t have wanted that, either.
How is it even legally possible for companies to discuss the details of their worker’s employment with the employees’ parents? If we can’t see our 18 year old’s college transcripts or have conversations about their medical treatment/records without a legal document, shouldn’t a boss or HR just refuse to engage?
This would have been embarrassing for yours truly and most of my peers even back when we were in HS. One HS classmate recently recounted how embarrassed he was at his parents asking our public magnet to withdraw him to be from summer enrichment classes because his parents wanted him to join them for a vacation which overlapped with the period when he’d have to take finals for those enrichment classes. And this took place when he was AN INCOMING 9TH GRADER.
And my father’s parents…if they were still alive when he reached 24 wouldn’t have thought doing anything remotely like this would have been absurd. Especially considering he had not only graduated from college 4 years before…his mandatory military service obligation as a conscripted infantry platoon CO was a 2 year long memory by then.
I can’t imagine sitting in on an interview with either of my kids. Not that they would let me 
OTOH - parents “pulling strings” to get kids interviews existed way back in the '70’s. That’s not news at all. And D has asked me for career advice a few times , mostly as a way of getting suggestions/opinions. I admit that I visited her office last year and met several of her co workers. I see nothing wrong with that. Back in the '80’s and '90’s I worked in jobs where people would bring in and introduce parents, siblings or other family members - no big deal.
"How is it even legally possible for companies to discuss the details of their worker’s employment with the employees’ parents? "
What law is that you think could possibly bar an employer from doing that? Certain not FERP where the E stands for “Education”
There is nothing that would prevent this. But I agree that employers should refuse to engage. Also, I can’t imagine doing it.
I guess I am diffrent as I see I can not help my kids with connections or money but not resentful for helicopter parents at all, actually growing up with such kids is an opportunity if one can prove to these families that kids like mine can earn their respect through the poor kids work ethics. This give poor kikds opportunities to advance their career; my daughter has prep school friends whose patents started new hedge funds, vc funds or hired their kids at better posituons within companies; in turn mutual friends recommended and hired kids like mine for far better positions, had they not known them, my kids opportunities would have been limited. Getting a job is easy, maintaing it is harder, but grilling through prep school and college have made these work assignments far easier.
There is a difference between kids asking their parents for advice about their careers or taking parents on a tour and a parent contacting the employer on their kids’ behalf. For example kid gets a bad performance review and parent calls wanting an explanation.
@TomSrOfBoston it is pretty common in asian culture to ask realtive and friends to get a job for kids
Of course bringing the kids into the family business is an age-old tradition for those who have a business to bring kids into (like our current president, for example). It’s a way to keep the wealth in the family.
If having a parent as your boss a form of helicoptering? ;))
I remember a co-worker getting a call, some 30 years ago, from a young employee’s mother asking her why she, the employee, was making her son work so much overtime. That guy was known, forever, as “that guy.”
I don’t know DS’s internship salary, other than indirectly and vaguely (i.e,. it’s larger than a breadbox). I know younger DS’s salary, but I wasn’t involved in negotiating it or expressing an opinion about the job.
We have introduced older DS to a co-worker of his mother’s who had previously worked at the company where DS interned last year. He gave DS good tips and suggestions on how to make the most of the summer internship.