Okay, I have a cluster of observations and opinions that relate and contribute to the existing working conditions that our nations is in, but have no way to organize these observation/opinions into any type of order or sensible transition. All I have determined from this list is -the baby boomers had it fuggin made and a lot of millennials born in the early 80’s that entered the work force during the great recession had to work their asses off.
On a number of occasions I have heard older baby boomers tell me while I was in my 20’s “you kids just don’t wanna work hard” , well fuck every single old fucker that ever said or thought that. I wish I could have been given a job at GMC or Ford where I was paid close six figures in the 90’s, full health and dental for the family with little to no training and barely passed high school. I’m pretty sure I and all of my friends from high school could have sat on a stool reading a newspaper for eight hours, while hitting a reset button on a machine once or twice an hour. But its definitely my laziness that kept me from being successful in 08, even though half the baby boomers couldn’t see their dicks while they took a piss for more than half their lives.
My father inlaw who is a baby boomer was a journeyman machine programmer at GMC from the mid 70’s till 2000’s. He never got in trouble, never written up, no issues what so ever in those 30 years. When GM closed he retired but needed to find a new job, from the mid 2000’s to 2020 he worked for 4 or 5 different small companies, was basically fired from 3 and left the other job due to tension. None of these firings had anything to do with coming to work late, behavior, etc, it was always conflicts with work procedures either with engineers owner of the company etc. How can a man who never had an issue with gmc for 30 years, go through 4 or 5 companies in a matter of a 15 year span? Is it him, the small businesses or a combinations of both? Maybe this is the some of the problem with todays small business and expectation of their employees.
Sense of Hopelessness- Many millennials were sold a lie, going/graduating from college= a successful career. If you went to school in 90’s or 2000’s that is all you would hear, weird how we now have a shortage in skilled trades currently. So many millennials and their baby boomer parents bought into this scam and spent tens of thousands of dollars in savings and student loans to achieve this fairytale that the school guidance counselor allowed college representative to sell to you. So, these kids go to school for four years work their asses of getting degrees (even a degree in feminine studies takes a lot of work), are constantly fed a line of shit about how great life will be after college by their professors and accomplish their goal and graduate. Once graduated they enter a world of dog eat dog where there are little to no jobs in whatever major they studied and they are completely over qualified for any available low paying job and now owe 60k. Because of this scenario now younger millennials can barely afford rent for a 2 bedroom apartment (1k a month), a decent car ($500) , phone, their monthly loan payment, etc, etc. So some these 20 somethings have basically given up. With the current housing market, the revolution in Airbnb’s buying a first home is now impossible.
Really young millennials and generation z give no fucks- Because these generations grew up with a sense of entitlement with little moral standard due to pop culture and no sense of work ethic, working and getting jobs is not priority. A lot of kids this age have babies out of wedlock and with no career knowing that the government will provide for them They have no real incentive to work as they know someone (mom, dad, sister, brother, government) will provide for them and give them a place to crash. This age group popularized the term “baby mama” “baby daddy” . Which is now refusing to take entry level jobs because they are above it. The kids from this generation that are decent and hard working have a much different approach to work, many of them will try to find ways to work smarter and not harder/ This is not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes this isn’t an option and hard work is needed. Once they become a part of the work force and are established, these kids will do whatever it takes to become management asap, they will throw anyone and everyone under the bus anything they can to make themselves look better.
Nepotism- It really doesn’t matter how skilled or competent you are at your job-raises, promotions, etc are really about ones ability to kiss ass, network and say all the right things. The only profession that I have found that this does not exist is college and professional sports as an athlete. Working for people that are not as qualified as yourself and some how have slithered their way into upper management position and are now your boss will make you lose your fuggin mind. Often times after this happens many workers realize they can work for themselves (be their own boss), entering the small business/LLC world, which then they as small business owner begin cycling through workers for their own personal gain.