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Antiwork

“What do you want and what are you willing to do to get it”, and other bits of “advice” from one of my parents (with context by what they meant).

“What do you want and what are you willing to do to get it” – Them saying that if I want to own a house I need to knuckle down and work hard until I get one. More specifically that I should work two jobs and 60 hours a week until I get one 20+ years off. “I was never out of a job because I couldn't find one” – Not the worst advice, just taking any job listing out there, but certainly not the best. This was given to me during about a 1 year span at the beginning of the pandemic because all the listings for jobs in my field in the area were for about $14/hr, which is a nice $5/hr under the state average. “It builds character” – Hardships aren't really bad because you come out the other side a better person across the board, be…


“What do you want and what are you willing to do to get it” – Them saying that if I want to own a house I need to knuckle down and work hard until I get one. More specifically that I should work two jobs and 60 hours a week until I get one 20+ years off.
“I was never out of a job because I couldn't find one” – Not the worst advice, just taking any job listing out there, but certainly not the best. This was given to me during about a 1 year span at the beginning of the pandemic because all the listings for jobs in my field in the area were for about $14/hr, which is a nice $5/hr under the state average.
“It builds character” – Hardships aren't really bad because you come out the other side a better person across the board, be it getting laid off, injured, or harassed.
“Don't be a C employee” – In reference to the Bell Curve for performance they're implying that I should strive to be an A employee at all times because It'll get me promoted and whatnot lickity split. Again, not the worst advice, but I feel like that isn't going to help in (Current Year).
“(Story about how they paid for college and bought a house by 25 by working two grocery store jobs in the 70's)” – A very cool story about how the world has changed and generally leads into the first advice, which then results in a stalled convo. Good times.
“Go in to (Place that's Hiring) ever day with your resume and a lunch box and ask when you can start” – I feel like this doesn't work any more since most places hire online, though there might be one or two places that this works on these days.
“Switch careers, I did it twice” – I could, aye, but in the current market where I need 5 years experience for entry level positions and my current lob required 7 years experience, it'd probably be counterproductive to just “restart” my career.

tl;dr boomer parent has some very interesting and boomer-y advice that they tend to give unprompted (as is tradition).

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