Twentysomething: How my generation works
(Flickr/mugley)
There’s been a lot of press about my generation lately. A lot of it questions our values, work and goals. So, here is my admittedly unsolicited opinion of my generation and, more specifically, our work life.
You must understand that we are not starting out with a positive attitude. In our short careers, we already have been laid off or at least afraid that we would be laid off. We have seen our parents downsized and left high and dry by companies that they helped to build. We have been unable to get work after doing “the right things” that we were told would make us successful — school, internships, volunteer work, mentorship, etc. We have gone into high-demand fields like IT only to see those jobs outsourced overseas for pennies on the dollar. We have joined the military, served our country, come home broken and with no opportunity for honest work in the private sector.
The corporate leadership in this country has made it clear to us that no one in our generation is getting a gold watch. We don’t have any delusions about that. Hell, many of us can’t even get insurance or make a living wage now, and no one sees it getting any better. Why would we make a job anything close to a top priority in our lives, when we can have no realistic expectation of having a long-term career to begin with? No one I know in Gen Y (or Gen X for that matter), has any faith whatsoever that any employer will ever give a crap about them as human beings. We accept that we are numbers on a spreadsheet in the current corporate landscape, but we don’t have to like it. We check off your boxes, and we accomplish the goals you lay out. We play nice. But, if there is no benefit to going the extra mile, then why bother?
That said, we are largely financially conservative. Our debt is daunting. We try to save more, we try to live more sustainably. We do not trust Social Security or that our 401Ks will see us through retirement. We are waiting to buy, and avoiding rent by living with our parents. We rely on your help because you offer it. If you didn’t, we’d scrape by somehow. Many of us live at home to help our parents as they struggle with their own low wages and financial trauma. We have no idea how we will ever afford a family or a house or anything on our own when we cannot attain jobs with basic benefits and full-time wages.
We have a lot to be excited about, but less and less of that exists within the current corporate structure. We communicate constantly. We love to collaborate. We are data junkies. Many of us are imbued with entrepreneurial spirit. We strike out. We tinker. We play. None of this is particularly valued in the current corporate environment. But, we value it in ourselves and in each other. We have interesting side projects. (And, we keep them from you so that you won’t fire us.)
We also have a conscience, and we expect it to show up in the workplace. We were raised to be aware of the plights of others and to understand environmental issues. It is important to us to be involved in our communities. Our friendships run deep. Really deep. We view our core friend groups as family, and family is supremely important to us. We give our time and our energy to causes we believe in. We share. We expect our peers and the companies we work for to do the same.
So, we work, and we wait. We are working and waiting for our side projects to become our main projects. We are working and waiting for the right kinds of relationships to solidify in our personal and professional lives. We are working and waiting for you to retire so that there are funds and jobs available into which we can “grow up.” We are working and waiting for a chance to change the establishment to reflect our values. No, we don’t want what you have, just as you didn’t want what your parents had. We don’t want to spend our lives as perpetually burned-out slaves to a company that does not value us. We don’t want to be in bad marriages and isolate ourselves in McMansions. Neither did you when you were our age. Of course those things will happen to some of us, or perhaps most of us. But, right now, we’d rather hope they won’t.
Every generation goes through its turn in the news cycle. And, every generation thinks they’ll do it better. Time will tell. But, there’s one really great thing about coming of age in America in an era when things are generally thought to be pretty bad: It forces an early decision about what’s important in life. No matter how it appears while looking down from 25 years up the corporate ladder, we are decidedly chasing our own ideals, even when things seem hopeless. I’m proud of that. Maybe, if we’re lucky, this experience will pay off when we get the chance to examine our kids in the harsh light of our own age, experience and privilege.
It’s nice to see someone from our generation speak about our generation!
Keep it up.
Brilliant
I agree, Rebekah. I am 29 years old. Near the beginning of my career (2001) I was laid off 3 times in the same year. I was considering bankruptcy and I wasn’t even old enough to drink. I didn’t think this at the time, but I am so glad to have had this experience. I have worked for 4 companies over the last 10 years (work in IT). I have been on both sides of acquisitions and loyalty only affected your severance pay once your position was eliminated (usually equated to a weeks pay for every year; more if you’re lucky). Always got raises for outstanding performance, but never got one for just being there (inflation) and they were usually too little/too late. When I left one job for another I would see at least a 20-30% increase. If it weren’t for these lessons, I wouldn’t have near the same success. And you’re right about debt. Haven’t had a personal credit card in 8 years, though I hear that actually hurts me a little.
Don’t settle and remember it’s always easier to get a job when you have a job. Interview at a few “sweat shops” for practice and a boost in confidence.
I like it, but it’s really: “How My White Upper-Class Generation Works.” I don’t like how twentysomethings are typified by those living in NY and SF. There are plenty of us–a whole heck of a lot of us–who don’t have the luxury of being able to live the lives described in that NYTimes article.
My girlfriend forwarded me your blog, I agree with this whole-heartedly. Thank you for putting it into words as, I too, will be sharing it with my friends. My husband owns a small business and it has given us SO much freedom from being under that ridiculous corporate headship. He is only 26, but it has survived since ’05 and we are just praying it continues to do so.
Can’t remember who sent me here (had this link bookmarked in ReadItLater from someone on Twitter), but very happy to have read this. Hope some executives of large companies find their way here as well.
_Excellent_ post. Very well written.
more whining about one’s lot in life I see. 2000, 1990, 1980, 1970 were no different, today’s recent college grads expect high paying jobs immediately, and whine when it doesn’t happen overnight
This is just amazing! Great piece overall!
That’s what you get living in a selfish consumer society.
And whenever someone in the US wants to make things more social, he or she is called not only a socialist, but also a communist and a fascist (which apparently are all the same for the people living in the US).
This article is garbage. I’m 36 yrs old and own a company with 15 employees with an average age of 27. It’s so sad to see the “next” generation as one that (proudly) wears its “disillusionment” and angst as some sort of pride. The Gen Y work ethic and self-entitled attitude is an insult to everything that made this country great. Here’s a newsflash: EVERY generation had it tough, not just yours. But yours is the first generation that received a trophy even when you lost. That ain’t the real world. Now why don’t you go put on some emo music and write a hiaku about how UNFAIR life is, and the rest of us will just work harder and reap the rewards.
I agree with most of the content here, about the difficulty of our generation to find – and keep – entry level positions in the current corporate climate. And especially if we don’t want to go the corporate route, the lack of financial resources (a.k.a. hiring ability) for NGOs and newspapers in the modern economy is frightening.
The one thing that I think should be mentioned, however, when you talk about the fact that “We communicate constantly. We love to collaborate. We are data junkies…” but “None of this is particularly valued in the current corporate environment,” is that social media online dialogue IS being valued, now more than ever, in the current corporate environment. In fact, if there ever are any jobs, that’s where they are, if that’s what you’re interested in. That is the one positive feature of our jobless generation – at least for now, we can usually find a job in social media.
This is excellent writing. I appreciate you sharing your perspective. I hope you are wrong about the gloom and doom your generation sees in the marketplace. I, for one, still believe that there are good jobs for good people. I am a Gen. Xer and have an excellent career. I’ve never had trouble finding or keeping a job. I make a good income. I hope the same for your generation and beyond.