The problem with a customer service job is this: You don't need a degree to get one.

Heck, even a friend of ours who's basically a high school drop-out (w/ no GED, even) managed to get a job there (though he quit after two days).

So basically, a lot of my co-workers are very young, and it's their first or even second full-time job, and some are even going through college at the same time. So basically, what happens when you're surrounded by all that youth? Well, it's a fun environment where everybody has shared interests. But... it also means that many of them have very little experience in the corporate environment. And the only one they can compare it to is school and parents. Now, that's usually not an issue, except that some of the people in managerial positions have never dealt with corporate leadership before. All they know of is teacher/parent leadership... where you're the disciplinarian, the evil watchful eye, and you're basically there to tell people what to do and to catch them doing something bad.

But anyone's that's ever worked for a corporation knows that when your employees are treated like children, morale and productivity will drop. And if people don't feel like they're part of the company, and they're just there to pass the time so they'll get paid... well, it'll end up costing the company more money and it won't have a chance to grow.

I guess part of the problem is that since so many of these people are young, there are people that don't take their job seriously, who will skip and be late like they were at school, and who do need to be told what to do or else they won't work (heck, that's what working retail's like). But it seems insulting to the rest of us who do know how to work but are being treated like children.
I'm just venting. It's not as bad as I'm making it sound. It's more of the extreme that I'm describing. And maybe I'm pissy that I'm older than 80% of the department. (An estimate.) (Maybe even an exaggeration.)