Ambition once came with a promise: a home, a salary, progress and fulfilment. What happens when that promise is broken? Meet the women who are turning their backs on consumerism, materialism and burnout
Ambition once came with a promise: a home, a salary, progress and fulfilment. What happens when that promise is broken? Meet the women who are turning their backs on consumerism, materialism and burnout
Once again this X-er is cheering for how aware Millennials and Zoomers seem to be compared to how oblivious I was through my first several decades. Trying to figure out a (non-catastrophic) way out of the rat race myself.
My job is cozy and not too stressful. Its a shame I will have to quit in a few years once inflation catches up again. I’d stick around if wages stay livable but that’s a strech.
Still living paycheck to paycheck but it seems best I can do. Worse, im afraid if getting pushed up to the bosses seat. Im not trying to move up unless its life changing money. I don’t know the pay, but I dealt with being on call before and that was hell. Last thing I need is to burn out , I don’t know if I can live through that again.
I found my “level” and just stayed there. Am comfortable and don’t have to hustle. I could do or earn more, but I don’t think it would be worth it to my life.
I’m afraid I’m going to get pushed forward just to make ends meet, get stressed, and become miserable again.
I suffered through decades of poverty. Managed to get through a bachelors and then a masters, and now work in a comfortable position that I enjoy. Sadly, you have to get to that masters level to really get ahead and that, for the most part, is only available to the children of upper middle class parents. Either you need to force your way through it or just get by for life.
Military service is another “fantastic” way to get higher education
yeah I hate the bs of trying to push management stuff on ya when its not part of the job you signed up on. Certainly aint doing it without a hefty pay increase. Why do all the bootstraps folks not want to pay for anything. I mean I know why. They did not get rich by writing checks.
I may do it if the pay is impressive but seems the intention is to move me up. I dont even know if I can actually pull off the job without looking like a clown.
thats like all jobs really. at least in tech. go from feeling like an unstoppable god to being the biggest fool that ever failed to fool a fool.
Potentially to sysadmin for the building, from being just the tech guy that kinda stagnated. Not much I been learning on the job other than the setup. I don’t know if I could even manage to land it though.
Over an entire life worth of experience difference between me and the boss.
If you’re being considered for this position by the boss with “over an entire life worth of experience difference” more than you, then trust that experience in their hiring judgement too.
There are SO MANY THINGS that simply cannot be taught. Maybe your boss would far rather teach a guy how to do advanced sysadmin tasks than try to teach him how to own and operate a working conscience, for example, or have to depend once again on a technical genius who lies constantly and fails to show up on time. Maybe he likes that you’re learning – and you’re actually continuously doing the unseen tasks of teaching yourself – and not just coasting on some very thin laurels you constantly repeat to everyone so that no one EVER forgets you’re a genius, even long enough to refill your coffee. And those are just examples; there are many, many more where those came from.
See, employees have a lot more to offer than the actual job skills. Those are just the first step for a seasoned manager. And sometime they’re not even as important as the other skills you’re discounting as unimportant. This boss isn’t thinking of you in this position because he likes constant hemorrhoids and anal bleeding; if he’s thinking of you in this position it’s because he knows you can make a go of it, learn on the job, and not make his life hell while you constantly lie about what you can do (including the personal five-finger employee discount program you created for yourself and think no one knows about).
Maybe he likes that when you say you’re gonna do something, you either do it as planned or keep him apprised of actual progress. Maybe he likes that he can trust you with outside clients, and knows you won’t show up in the C-suite in flip-flops with a bag of Fritos and then stare at some suit-wearing highly-paid CFO’s bodacious rack for the whole meeting while he’s trying to get or keep the funding that is what keeps you both in a job. Maybe he just likes that you don’t lie when you fuck things up, and look actively for solutions instead of engaging in immature emotionally self-protective behavior to the extent no one wants to work with you. Again, lots more examples where those came from.
But whatever his reasons, if you trust his experience, and he seems like a decent person and good manager, then trust his managerial expertise too. Just tell the truth about where you are, regarding both skills and concerns. Don’t exaggerate. Maybe let him decide if you’re a good fit before you turn him down, lol. IOW, if it’s ever offered, don’t turn this advanced position down on the sole basis of your inexperience.
Effective managers know the difference between good employees and bad ones, and chances are almost perfect that HE learned on the job too. So if he wants to hire you for this, even knowing your true level of skill, he’ll make sure you have support just to save his own ass – and you can ask about the kind of support you’ll have in the job yourself. Hope this helps.
Holy crap, man.
I can’t tell if that’s good or bad, lol. It’s just boomer yelling at cloud; you’re free to ignore it all. I wrote it because I was shocked at how short you’re selling your total employee value, but now that you’re thinking about it, my job here is done.
That’s when you say yes, pad your resume, and the find an actual managerial job with the extra pay. Think of it is free training, but only take it if you either want it or plan to leave.
training. lol.
Speaking as a child of the late 1970s, this was my experience. We had nobody to look at or talk with this about, it was just Boomers being Boomers and pretending that 1995 was no different than 1975. They really just expected us to hustle and get ahead, when THEY WERE THE ONLY GENERATION IN HISTORY THAT THIS WORKED FOR. It took the 2000 and 2008 crashes before people could actually speak about it.
Make no mistake: the world is now a better place BECAUSE people are talking about this.
Well said.
They didn’t even hustle. Boomers grew up in basically the only industrialized country that hadn’t been bombed to fuck. Good jobs fell into their laps.
Thank you for giving voice to years of frustration from feeling like I was screaming into the void.
Not sure where you grew up but the suburban midwest was/is a nightmare for thinking, rational, empathetic humans.
Suburban south Puget Sound. It’s filled with angry alcoholics who never had a life or a real chance and just vote Republican.
I now am in a nice apartment in one of them there anarchic cities of whatever they were called during Lockdown, working for a university and living a life that my family hates.
I miss Seattle. For 9 years I finally got to feel sane.
Moved back to the midwest for good reasons but believe me we’re getting back out as soon as we can.
You really described it well:
And no amount of reason or logic will get them to believe they’re being duped.
wasn’t the Xer stereotype a slacker that did not really run the race?
This is because the parents of Boomers invested in their children but Boomers did not invest in their children. We were shat out and expected to get a job and “just do it” without support.
Xers tend to have the silent generation as parents unless they are younger ones. 20 years seperates generations which is getting to the time when folks have kids and boomers were the first to start putting it off till more like 30 than 20.
Boomers produced a great number of Millenials even though the majority surely came from Gen X.
basically X started in the 60’s so if they were impregnated before 80 it was likely illegal. Im sure though that plenty of older Xers had kids in their 20’s though.
Yep, but it’s been pretty hard to exist while also remaining true to that ethos. Never been a ladder climber, but I have a corporate job working for a good boss at a good company that still sucks my soul away.
Recently I’ve realized I’m old enough that the end of the road doesn’t feel so far away as it once did. Would be good to be able to just enjoy my family, but there’s the little problem of being able to afford to live during retirement. :)
This is why I work in public sector, with a solid retirement plan, and put in an additional 15% into retirement. I’m not making the big bucks now but am saving them for later.
im there and even feel I do a good days work with my job but I work at my pace and at my current compensation 40 hours and no more.
Yeah, but that stereotype was only because we didn’t have families or places of our own to take care of yet. We got older and almost all of us (not me, tho) joined the race alongside everyone else.
Gen X and you’ve never heard of Slackers?
Bruh.
Not sure where you are getting that from. It was a movie, not a blueprint for my life. :)
IME even the folks I knew who fully fit that stereotype were still not as aware as what I am seeing from Millenials and Z today. (some were I’m sure)