My friend Grey wrote a fantastic bit about the constant harping on “Millenials” for being lazy and entitled and I thought more people should read it, so I am posting his writing here. I know a lot of folks younger than me who are struggling with temp jobs and student loan debt and it’s fucked. It’s time their voices are heard, so here ya go.
Guest blog By Grey Putnam
I’m so over “The Millenials” this and “The Millenials” that.
You know what, Baby Boomers? The Millenials are what they are not because they’re lazy, or over-entitled, or because everyone got a participation trophy.
The Millenials are “the way they are” because you broke the economy, you refuse to admit that you broke the economy, you won’t fucking retire, raise the minimum wage, or admit that student loan debt is crippling and irrational.
This is not a PERSONALITY TRAIT. This is a bunch of young people trying to survive while the old people point and laugh.
And everything in the business world is all about “How to reach the Millenials,” and “What Millenials want out of a job,” and things listed are like, “Most Millenials aren’t looking for a permanent career – they expect to spend less than five years in a job.”
GUESS WHAT FUCKERS ITS NOT BECAUSE THEY’RE FICKLE
OR HAVE SHORT ATTENTION SPANS
ITS BECAUSE THEY EXPECT TO GET FUCKING FIRED
So, yes, Millenials are going to focus on things other than their careers. We’re going to privilege experiences, and friends, and hobbies. Because there’s no such thing as staying at the same company for 35 years now, and we’re not stupid. We’re not going to kill ourselves working for a company that won’t keep us.
Companies don’t add to headcount anymore. They hire contractors and temps and lean on interns. We get a lot of empty promises, and you know what, let’s go back to that example of Everyone Gets A Trophy you like so much.
You don’t think we saw that everyone got a trophy?
You don’t think we still knew that some of us had won and some of us had lost?
Did you really think that by handing all of us a trophy, you were somehow helping?
“Everyone Gets A Trophy.” I should be glad for the experience; I should be happy to get my foot in the door, to make connections. It’s all a distraction from the fact that I don’t have health insurance (I pay my own through Obamacare and you fuckers want to take THAT away from me, too), that I barely make enough money to pay rent now, and when I graduate next month I only have six months to breathe before the weight of my student loans slams into me.
I’m not stupid and I’m not irresponsible or unaware. I would KILL for some financial stability, and so would everyone else I know. Trophies are cheap symbols, and they have been since I was eight years old on my first soccer team. I’ve got a closet full of them, but it doesn’t mean we ever won a single game and don’t think I don’t know that.
You made this game. You rigged it before we even started playing. We’re all playing it, because we don’t have a choice. We choose what we can, which is to care about each other. To try and fix what we can.
Trophies are great, but how about giving us a real chance to win.
