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I know there was a weird attempt to drill into me-- Gen X, mind you-- that it was Good And Normal to work something terrible that ground you into the dirt for the sake of, say, health insurance. That was Just What You Did. https://twitter.com/CassRMorris/status/1384885047136817154">https://twitter.com/CassRMorr...
Like, I remember my dad (who is technically late Silent Gen, not Boomer) telling me about some guy working three jobs for 20 years to support his family like it was an aspirational thing. Like I should be just as willing to grind through whatever for that sake.
And this was, mind you, at a time when I was already working a full-time job with benefits Monday through Friday AND delivering pizzas until 4am on the weekends. But I got the message of Still Not Doing Enough.
I was once given a "gift" of a book on getting one& #39;s dream job. First two thirds of it was sensible--if mostly self-evident-- advice on resumes, interviews, and so on.
BUT THAT LAST THIRD.
It was some wild.
BUT THAT LAST THIRD.
It was some wild.
The last third of the book was about "So, you& #39;ve scored an entry level position in the industry you want. NOW WHAT?"
The answer to Now What was, quite clearly, DESTROY YOURSELF FOR THEIR SAKE.
The answer to Now What was, quite clearly, DESTROY YOURSELF FOR THEIR SAKE.
It was entirely advice along the lines of, "Oh, your hours are 8 to 5? Come in at 7, leave at 6. Your boss comes in at 7? THEN BE THERE AT 6am. They don& #39;t leave until 9pm? YOU GO HOME AN HOUR AFTER THEM."
They ask you to come in on Saturday? YOU ARE FUCKING COMING IN ON SATURDAY AND YOU& #39;RE GOING TO BRING COFFEE AND BEAR CLAWS FOR THE WHOLE TEAM, YOU WORTHLESS KNOB. BECAUSE THIS IS YOUR DREAM JOB AND YOU SHOULD HAVE NOTHING ELSE GOING ON.
Make sure your boss knows you are at their beckon call 25 hours a day, 32 days a month, that you literally have zero priorities, nay, zero interests at all, outside of Working This Job.
And as Gen X grows into the executive class, you& #39;re seeing this mindset trickled down more and more. "This company, it& #39;s like a family." "We do everything for each other on this team." Deep toxicity masked with a veneer of Everything Here Is Perfect.
So now we have Millennials and Zoomers, who are, frankly, STILL working themselves to the bone just as much-- though the people who write NYT articles only see upper-class urban-living trust-fund Millennials and think they represent the whole of the generations.
But these kids (I say kids, though I& #39;m talking in part about people in their late thirties) AT LEAST are having the presence of mind to go, "Hey, if I& #39;m going to work myself to the bone, I might as well, if nothing else, do it for MY OWN bullshit instead of someone else& #39;s."
And even Gen X is already becoming the curmudgeons going, "I scooped ice cream for $3/hr," (and I did) "Why do these kids demand so much for so little?", not realizing how much is being asked today, and how little is given in return.
So, yeah, articles like the one Cass referred to, which boil down to, "Why aren& #39;t the Kids Today more willing to put up with our bullshit?" irritate me, because IF NOTHING ELSE we should have learned to break the cycle of Passing Down The Same Bullshit.
