Respect Isn't Just For Elders, Is It?  

It seems to me that the age-old adage of "respect your elders" is getting a little out of hand lately. Why is it that elders are the only people that deserve respect? It isn't true with everyone, of course, but I've noticed lately that older people seem to like to treat young people as if they're stupid and incapable of doing anything right.

For example, the managers at the store I work in don't know how to do a lot of the customer service job that a lot of young people at the store doing, yet when we have a question they act as if we're stupid and can't do anything. We never treat them that way if they ask US how to do something, so why isn't that a two way street?

I always treat everyone with respect because that is how I was raised. I'm a pretty laid-back person, I get along with just about everyone, don't start trouble, work harder than most people at the store (including some full-time people that think they're better than all of us part-timers), so I don't understand why I go out of my way to respect my co-workers and call them "Ma'am" and "Sir" and they treat me like I'll never be at the same level as them? It's like they get a fancy title and suddenly the rest of the employees are dirt. That's even how it is when some people get promoted, too, to become a manager. One of the managers not only mocked me at today when I had done nothing to deserve it, but she also yelled at me for not straightening footwear. I wasn't scheduled in footwear. Heck, I wasn't even on the schedule at all. Someone called in and I went out of my way to cover them when I got the call asking if I could. They were scheduled in ladieswear and nobody told me to go to footwear, so why would I? Apparently I was just supposed to know?

So what do you all think? Certainly it's not only a case of elders disrespecting young people. Young people can be quite disrespectful, too, but all the younger people I've been around have actually been very good and it's been the older generation that hasn't. Or is it just me?