Right now, you are at what is considered a tender age.

You are probably in college, probably have a job and a boatload of responsibility. However, despite being in your late teens-early twenties, most of the adult world still considers you a kid and treats you as such.

This is prevalent in the work field. Older co-workers tend to scrutinize you more or underestimate you because of your age rather than your work ethic.

I speak from experience. I am 19, two months shy of 20, and I work at 7-Eleven. Not the best job in the world, I’ll admit, but it works with my school schedule so I can’t complain.

When I started, I loved my job. It was easy and I was good at it and at the time everyone seemed so nice. Once I got further along in my employment, that all changed.

Being the youngest that works there, I was coined as the “baby” of the place. It has come to a point that instead of my coworkers treating me as their equal, like we are, they try and parent me at work.

This bothers me because one, I have parents already and two, I’m there to do a job, which I do, better than most in fact.

This experience has shown me that the younger generation isn’t treated as fairly as they should be in the workplace. Many older adults tend to question the maturity and intelligence of the “kids” they work with.

It’s almost like they expect us to be immature and fail so they can scrutinize us.

They judge us based on our age before they have even seen our work ethic.

Now, this is not me saying that all adults do this, it happens everywhere, I’m just pointing out things I have noticed at my job as well as a few others.

I know not everyone does this, in fact, my best friend at work is a 47-year-old. He is old enough to be my father, yet he admires my work ethic and gave me a chance despite my age. He has even said that I have better work ethic than half the adults I work with. So, there are definitely good people out there that give you a fair chance.

However, despite having him as a wonderful coworker and friend, there is always one person you will find that will get under your skin.

Unfortunately, I have found that person and she is what sparked this article after a particularly bad night at work. She is constantly ordering me around like she is the boss, which she isn’t and constantly criticizes me to the point that it can be considered an insult.

I get she has kids my age and even older than I, but that doesn’t make her my mother or give her the right to say what she says. I noticed that I am the only one that she is like that with and I highly believe that it has to do with my age.

Another thing that really grinds my gears is that because we are young we are not allowed to hurt or be tired.

Adults always say, ‘You’re too young to be tired’ or ‘You're too young to be complaining of aches and pains.’ I have a couple co-workers who always do this. I get that the younger you are the easier things are, but that doesn’t mean we don’t get tired.

I go to school full-time and work almost full time as well. I don’t go out and party like other college kids and I don’t stay out all hours of the night. I barely have a social life because between work and school and homework there isn’t time for anything else.

My schedule any given day is very busy, so given that, I think I deserve the right to say I’m tired, especially when I have a day where I’m at school from 9:30 to 4 and then work from 5 to 11.

Yes, I’m young, but spending all day on my feet still, makes them hurt. Despite being tired and sore I still show up to work every day and do my best.

This generation has been painted as the “lazy” generation; the generation that takes the easy way out. The generation that does as little work as possible and possibly the most disrespectful generation.

While this may be true for some, it is not true for all. I know many “kids” that have terrific work ethics, that strive to be the best, and take anyway but the easy way out. Just because we are young does not mean we cannot work as well or even better than some of the old timers out there.

And now I’ll leave you with a quote with an unknown source: “Those who criticize our generation forget who raised it.”