I graduated from college in 2009, which as most of you know was not the best time to be entering the workforce. At that time, I was “lucky” to get a job at a local non-profit paying $30k/year + benefits. The employer made us very aware that we should kiss their feet daily about how “lucky” we were to work there, which involved daily abuse and the expectation that we would be available 24/7 “for the children.”
Since that first job, I have clawed (I use that term deliberately) my way to different jobs both in the public and private sectors, so I have a somewhat broad view of what's currently going on – and it's very, very different for Gen Z today than it was for us just 10 years ago. At my current company, the entry-level positions pay salaries that took me years to crawl to. And generally, the entry level kiddos do not seem have the same level of angst (at least from my observation) about their careers that I remember having at that age.
Not that I resent a more worker-friendly economy – I think it's great that Gen Z is having a better time of it than I did. I also think that in general, working conditions have improved, on many different levels. But I'm now staring down 13 years of full-time work, mostly under the supervision of moronic Boomer bosses, and I can't help but wonder what the point of it all was/is. I'm not entirely sure what the future holds, or where I'll be – and obviously I have many years of work ahead of me. All I know is that devoting to myself to this elusive “career” thing may not have been the best use of my time, my life. I mean yeah, we all need a paycheck. But I've spent too much time worrying/caring about dysfunctional organizations over things I had absolutely zero control over, and I regret doing that.
Any other millennials feel the same way?