Jobs are created because there is an economic need to get something done. Whether that is build a road, or replace a computer application is all the same. Somebody will pay to get something done. 'Hustle culture' is facing an existential crisis with millennials - CNET
And I call BS on the idea that Millennials are the first generation to switch jobs at the drop of a hat better offer. I don't remember when I started hearing that the 30-year-career with a single company was dead, but it was at least in the early-to-mid 1980s.
This idea that your job is supposed to be fulfilling in some deep way is a creation of educators (so called) over the past couple of generations. Everyone is a special snowflake, and you should find something that makes you happy. You the unique snowflake that you are, should find someone to pay you to be your unique self. Good luck with that.
People started looking at work not just as a means of survival. Instead, a job could have meaning.
"That ideal collides with reality for most people," Arnett says, "as desirable as that ideal is, it's awfully hard to find work that can live up to it because ... a job is not created to fulfill people, jobs are created because people need things done.",
Of course people are looking for "meaning" and "fulfillment" in their work, because they have absolutely nothing else in their lives. Well, and then there is the group that has politics, but the nihilism of that seems evident in the number of buildings they burn down.
They have no intention of looking for a life partner. They believe in nothing but their own enjoyment. They don't volunteer (they say they don't have time). They see no one outside their small group of coworkers and friends. They are not looking for a meaning in Life itself, because that would veer too close to religion, and they are too cool for religion of any kind.
This isn't a condemnation of Millennials. It describes most of the Boomers I know, including me at various times of my life. And a fair number of them are not sure what to do with themselves when work comes to an end.
There is an old book; I'm sure it has fallen out of favor, though I understand a new edition was published sometime in the 21st Century. You Money or Your Life.
One of the central tenants of that book is that paid employment has one overriding reason for existing. To get paid. Or look at it this way: If you won $100 million in the lottery, would you keep working at your job, or would you retire/quit? If you're like most people, you are only doing the work because you get paid. The lies you tell yourself, notwithstanding.
As for this generation being the first to change jobs frequently... I changed jobs quite a bit, but then I worked in technology when there was a shortage of people generally in technology. Most of my friends in IT also changed jobs a lot.
Look for meaning in your job. If you dont find it there, try a very different line.
ReplyDeleteIf that fails look for it in charitable activities, social organizations or hobies.
If that fails, look within yourself.
When I graduated in the mid 70's I worked several shit jobs because I needed to work. I then got a job in IT and stayed at it till it got boring doing the same thing everyday. Worked a lot of different jobs especially when I stared consulting. Did that until my mid 50's when all of a sudden I was too old to do anything new even though I bounced between mainframes, minis and PCs. Ended up going to a University to teach IT full time. 20 years later I am still doing it and enjoying it and plan to till I reach 25 years or it is no longer enjoyable whichever comes first. The 70s and 80s is where it became very obvious that companies no longer cared about their employees and changes in the vesting laws made it easier to job hop.
ReplyDeleteIs this different from the current crop of people? not too much but they seemingly jump ship faster as they have an expectation that the job is supposed to be "perfect" whatever that is to them. I wanted the job to be interesting and make me a decent salary. Later when I had a family I also wanted some flexibility in working hours/conditions but still expected to put in the time required to get things done.
I see more of the current ones saying that they are only getting paid to put in x hours or once quitting time comes they are done for the day or weekend.
That attitude may be healthier than what we had.
I had a career similar to yours, minus the stint in academia. I wanted a job to be interesting, and they usually were for a year or so, and then they got to be the same-old-thing.
DeleteBut I didn't expect to find my true calling working in Info Tech. Originally I wanted to be a college professor, but then I saw the reality facing graduate students, where there are so many PhD's applying for a single opening. And if you did get a job, it was not anywhere I wanted to live. So I took my college degree and went into IT. The hours were sometime nuts, but the compensation was amazing. And once I moved out of California, I was able to buy a house almost immediately.
But today people have 2 things in their lives. Politics, which for the most point is toxic, and work, which they have been told their whole lives should feed their soul. Which is in part why there are no plumbers, no electricians, a shortage of welders, etc. Because earning a decent living to build a meaningful life outside of work is unthinkable. Which is how humans have existed for most of our existence.
Back when I was actively working (work, as such, having been on largely hold for some time now, between family matters and the Pestilence), I was generally working on things that couldn't simply be dropped on someone else on short notice.
ReplyDeleteSo, yeah: had a fortune unexpectedly fallen on me, I would have quit ASAP, but that would have taken a year or so as I unwound my obligations.
Then, of course, I would have started working on related stuff, but chasing my own ideas instead of somebody else's.
(Had I won $100 million in the lottery, I would have been exceedingly surprised, given that I used to play using the Pomeroy Method. I had my numbers picked out, and, had they ever come up, I would have kicked myself for not buying a ticket.)