Kids These Days

I hear it every day.

“The kids just don’t want to work! I don’t know what’s going to happen once we are too old to do it anymore.”

And that’s a generational thing.

Every generation thinks the next one sucks.

Yet, my stance has shifted a bit. 

A work ethic is definitely required, but I’ve watched my boys move from job to job a bit - they seem to have settled in now - but early on…

…Jake came home a tad unsettled one day.

“My manager is nasty. He was all over me today because I put my name tag on the wrong side. I’m left-handed.”

The manager was a 22-year old kid. Jake was 17.

“He does it all the time. He just tries to make everyone’s life miserable.”

“Don’t take shit from anyone,” I said. “Ever.”

Jake hung in for a little while, but he eventually left that job. He did it with dignity, but I had zero problem with him leaving.

And things have certainly changed.

My first job had health care, dental insurance, a high hourly wage, and a pension plan.

Now an employer pays the lowest wage he can possibly pay…

…and acts like the employee is lucky to have a job.

So, I get the attitude of “this generation”.

Loyalty is a two-way street, and frankly, some of the jobs aren’t all that special.

Yet, I also don’t think it’s true that people don’t want to work.

There are people working two or three low-paying jobs to try and make ends meet.

Unemployment has been low. It was near full employment prior to Covid. It’s heading back to that now.

But many of the jobs out there aren’t all that different from the job down the street and you certainly shouldn’t take garbage from anyone.

Health care being tied to employment is horrific. Especially when it’s usually low quality programs for tons of money each month.

People doing Go-Fund-Me to pay medical bills makes me ill.

Retirement?

Saw an old man, mid-70’s, selling hot dogs out of a cart to try and stay in his home.

Social security just wasn’t cutting it.

Restaurants are crying because they can’t get people to come back for the $2.10 an hour plus tips that they’re offering. 

So, I have shifted.

Millennials do seem to be saying, “You know what? What you’re offering isn’t enough to make me bow down and take your crap.”

A CEO used to make ten times the amount of the lowest paid employee.

That’s now something like 240 times more.

So, they have copped an attitude and they appear to some to be entitled.

Well, maybe they are entitled to do just that. We haven’t exactly rolled out the red carpet.