Here are some thoughts about the general scheme of things, or more precisely how corporate ethics evolved, and how generation Z is the offspring of this. Not rebellious, no. But faithful believer of the new corporate governance, besides corporations.
So, the old :
I talk about the grandeur of industrial times: the 50’s to the 70’s, and certainly a bit of the 80’s too.
By then, one average worker job could support a family of four or five. How do I know ?
There is a ton of show from around that time that told me.
What’s the common point with, let’s say : Homer Simpsons (The Simpsons), Al Bundy (Married with children) and some other soap deconstructions of father figure in the American TV history ?
There are non-executive workers who can support a family of 4 or 5, two cars, a multiple floors house, on just one paycheck a month.
Is that sci-fi ? How could it be ?
Yeah, I used to be. And what does it tell us about the work ethic of that time ?
That work ethic indeed frowned upon lazy people who refused to work. But in a time when getting a steady job and provide for a big family was at the reach of even the sorry loosers.
Yeah, the work ethic of that time was much less demanding. Just getting a job was enough, and pretty much anyone could do it.
In this world, extra involvement in the workplace was rewarded with career opportunities to take management positions and further, to make, how they called it back then, a career.
Making more didn’t make much sense in the time of chain work. You did your time, and that was it.
But you belonged. You’d remain in the corp for the entire career, climb a few ladder. You’d take care of the corp as the corp took care of you.
But slowly, getting a job was not enough anymore.
The new: The hustle culture
You are now supposed to give up your heart, soul, social, and family life to work. Work, work, and work some more. Barely take enough time to sleep, barely enough money to live.
How did it come ?
Well, sometime in the mid 70’s came a new governance doctrine, a revolution after decades of old fashion Fordism, of ‘the workers you pay today are your tomorrow’s consumers’, then was the time to realize that the only one the management owed to, was the shareholders.
In the meantime, industries took some non-vacation infinite time to the sun of Indonesia, China, and the Philippines, alongside its well-paid unqualified or low qualified jobs.
Came in the service economy, where there are not so many jobs between the lawyer and the waitress, between the expert tax adviser and the delivery boy.
Also, you know what the enemy of that time was?
The government ! Also, it’s well-paid jobs and steady careers.
New corporate management decided that it was time to press workers like citrus to get every last drop of juice in it for the lowest cost possible.
Suddenly, the average job doesn’t pay enough. But don’t panic. The bankers’ world is at your rescue. And can get you at outrageous interest rests what your former good industrial job don’t provide anymore.
Also, great progress, a true one, the number of college graduates exploded. It used to be rare and precious, and a distinction, and the ticket for a very good job. Now, well, not anymore.
But the subprime crisis hit ! Oh no, everyone is faced with the absurdity to live on credit. Everyone relies on the sole working income to live now. The king is naked. You realize that working doesn’t pay that much.
The new ep. 2. The work culture adapts, and new generation Z learns its lessons
You see, it used to be, simply, that work paid enough, extra work paid even more.
Now, work doesn’t pay, extra pay barely more.
It used to be that extra work meant fast improvement in careers, now it just means you’re in the right place.
It used to be that you could reasonably hope to get a higher position. Now you know you can remain 20 years on the same spot.
It used to be that you accepted you get a low ranking job when even low ranking didn’t mean misery.
It used to be that company management were guys who used to do your job, now they are hired manager who got a degree in management, for whatever that means.
You know for a fact you won’t get promoted, the last one to be was in 2005. And if you ever get a better job, it’s gonna be somewhere else.
It used to be that you trusted the company you were hired. Now you want your money and compensation, and also, your remote work, here and now. You don’t buy promises; you know they won’t be kept.
It used to be that you worked enough to keep the company that kept you. Now you do just barely enough not to get fired. They call it ‘quiet quitting’, but you don’t care.
You take just as much as you can get here and now. This is no communist revolution. This is just the backlash of new corporate governance. Everyone now is taking as much as he can with as little cost as they can.