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I’m a boomer and I would also blame some of us for raising entitled kids. You can’t blame them as everyone want the best for their kids and to give them what they never had. The unintended results is kids are disappointed with their lifestyle when they have to pay for it usually at starter wages.
I'm also a boomer and although my kids had a fantastic childhood, I kept warning them that the real world sucks and that they would need to be very serious about attaining education and skills in order to prepare themselves.
That worked. They now have many choices and don't have to settle for a crappy job.
From the article : "It's not even that I don't like my job, because I do. But it feels like it takes up most of my life."
It's not that she doesn't want to work.
I'm a boomer and felt this same way when I worked. A 40hour work week is archaic, IMO. She has my sympathy.
Right. I am either Gen-X or a millennial depending on who you ask and the way I feel is anything that makes my life easier I am all for it. I have seen these jobs use and abuse people and just kick them out the door when it was convenient for the company. It kills me that these older generations, mine included, loves being on some holier than thou pedestal as they grow older. Just because we had to something does not mean the generations behind us have to. Plus a lot of those 40 hours in the office is time spent bs-ing around. I am so Another reason why I could never work in an office environment again. I am beyond thankful with teleworking becoming more common!!
When I look at my SS earnings it always brings a smile to my face as I see that $40.00 dollar earnings year when I was 14 picking up hay bales on farm wages that summer. I had fun and I thought I was a millionaire.
For those that are unaware, the Social Security website now shows your wages and (if you click on the embedded link) your employers for each year.
It's fascinating to look at old high school and college jobs. The dollars earned may seem impossibly few (yet were so important at the time), but in the SS retirement calculator, those dollars are multiplied by a factor to account for inflation.
Just because we had to something does not mean the generations behind us have to.
Totally agree. They don't have to aspire to a nice home, they do not need to drive well-made automobiles, they do not need to feed their children or pay for their college (if they're lucky) or their lifetime of health care (if they're not lucky). They don't have to do any of those things.
Older generations didn't take "abuse" because there weren't options. There were options. They just chose the good of their NEXT generation over their own without complaint.
Going back many generations, obviously, workers were indeed abused - but this is, basically, pre WWII and beyond. My parents and grandparents never spoke of abuse, even though they worked three jobs. They worried more about feeding a house full of kids, about putting those kids through college, about saving for a new furnace or a new roof, and so on. They didn't say "WOE IS ME." Nope.
They said one thing that stuck with me though: "Get a good job, so ya only work the one, instead of three."
I took that advice.
Today's advice is: "One full time job is probably too much. Anyway I can just work part of a job, but still get all the stuff?" The trend here is - no work, free stuff. Everything else is just negotiation. It doesn't work that way.
I think that we all know the connection. We must work to be able to live.
What some of us would like to have happen (and it's not just Gen-Z), is that we would like to be able to work less and still be able to live.
I'm a Gen-X'er with a standard 40 hour job - 45 if you count my commute. And there still isn't enough time for me to be able to do all the things I need and want to do in my home life.
I have to be in the office 40 hours of week but more often than not, I really have about 20 hours of actual work. The other 20 hours - I'm just here. There are exceptions, of course. I have much busier weeks when I can easily work 50 hours but those are spaced out a couple months apart. It's annoying because those 20 hours are just a waste when I could be doing other things. Sure, I could change jobs but I still need to work full-time for the full-time benefits and like I said earlier, I need the money to be able to live.
So pay me my salary, allow me to have a flexible schedule, and they'll have a much happier employee.
If I were in your company management, I'd be looking at how to either keep you busier, or offload your 20 hours of work to someone else and let you go.
If you and those like you want to make the same salary for less effort, then let's hear your proposals.
Maybe you'd like to pay 60% of your income to the national government in taxes, like in Sweden, where health insurance is covered by the government, there is a huge range of social services, but most people live in small flats and have very little? In other words a society where there are fewer people who have a lot and fewer people who have nothing? You'll want to impose high tariffs on imported goods then, to maintain local industries against overseas competition, and you'll have to seal up the borders so it becomes extremely difficult to immigrate and start taking advantage of those benefits. That could well be a recipe for the country. But remember, with that setup you have to take the non-PC parts with the PC parts; like, that business about high tariffs, lower standard of living for educated professionals, and highly restricted immigration.
There is a push among some Americans to establish the work week as 32 hours instead of the standard 40 hours. I think that in comparison to some European countries, the American worker is overworked. The encroachment of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence into the workplace could make a shorter work week reasonable. On the other hand, we would need more workers to keep the robotics and AI working properly.
In France there is a push by the government to lengthen the work week and cut back on the benefits and vacation time. I was surprised to hear that some workers were in favor of longer hours because it meant more pay. I talked to a Parisian cab driver who would love to work 40 hours a week but can't. He is only earning 100,000 euros a year now and that was okay when he was single and carefree but now, he is married and wants a family.
The Gen-Z worker quoted in the OP article just graduated from college and works in a YMCA office. She likes her job. She doesn't like working a 40-hour week. She goes to work at 10 AM and comes home at 7 PM -- thus missing out on the joys of rush hour traffic. It could be worse.
Transitioning to the workforce isn't easy. There are different expectations and demands on your time. As I remember my long-ago college years and later in graduate school, there were some very long hours then. I worked a 40-hour week and had a family when in grad school. My first "real" job after college was low pay and long hours, but the friends I made then are still very close friends 50 years later. I met my wife there.
Yeah, work is a drag, but I managed to make my work life part of my social life and that helped. Ms Hanson's work schedule takes an awkward chunk out of her day -- starts late and ends late. I can see that if her friends are on a different schedule, maybe 9 to 5, she feels disconnected. She needs to mature a little, maybe make a few new friends, and/or get a better work schedule. She has set her priorities as time spent with friends and dating. That Parisian cab driver was in his late 20s and wanted to give up free time with his wife and friends to work more hours and earn another 14,000 euros. If Ms Hanson feels trapped and harried now, having a spouse and family will probably be a big surprise.
Right. I am either Gen-X or a millennial depending on who you ask and the way I feel is anything that makes my life easier I am all for it. I have seen these jobs use and abuse people and just kick them out the door when it was convenient for the company. It kills me that these older generations, mine included, loves being on some holier than thou pedestal as they grow older. Just because we had to something does not mean the generations behind us have to. Plus a lot of those 40 hours in the office is time spent bs-ing around. I am so Another reason why I could never work in an office environment again. I am beyond thankful with teleworking becoming more common!!
Remember that next time your bank's website goes. down and it's the weekend.
The difference between Gen Z and the boomer generation is that the Boomer generation had a wife at home doing all those things that the Gen Zs claim they don't have the time to do them.
I think that we all know the connection. We must work to be able to live.
What some of us would like to have happen (and it's not just Gen-Z), is that we would like to be able to work less and still be able to live.
I'm a Gen-X'er with a standard 40 hour job - 45 if you count my commute. And there still isn't enough time for me to be able to do all the things I need and want to do in my home life.
I have to be in the office 40 hours of week but more often than not, I really have about 20 hours of actual work. The other 20 hours - I'm just here. There are exceptions, of course. I have much busier weeks when I can easily work 50 hours but those are spaced out a couple months apart. It's annoying because those 20 hours are just a waste when I could be doing other things. Sure, I could change jobs but I still need to work full-time for the full-time benefits and like I said earlier, I need the money to be able to live.
So pay me my salary, allow me to have a flexible schedule, and they'll have a much happier employee.
You can work less but you will also earn less.
What most seem to want though is to work less but earn the same.
The difference between Gen Z and the boomer generation is that the Boomer generation had a wife at home doing all those things that the Gen Zs claim they don't have the time to do them.
lol..I do not know any boomer women that were SAHM.
Now my mother's generation...Silent...most were SAHM.
Growing up none of our moms worked.
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