Obligatory douchebag wealthy boomer remark about “avocado toast” and the outrage over man buns. They’re out of touch and their perspective of having afforded a house means they cannot understand a world in which they ruined opportunity for future generations.
This, I actually went to a program called Step Up that tried to help people out of work find employment in town, the program did not last long and I stopped seeing adverts for it very shortly after I graduated the program.
As I thought they were going to set me up with resources, or maybe there were some businesses in the area that worked with the program and directly hired from them, but no, they were just a bunch of Boomers from the big cities offering their practical advice and where to get yokels like me back to work.
Basically none of their advice was practical, and they kept getting the phone numbers and URLs we were supposed to call or click on in order to go to the next class mixed up, causing me to miss a few. They actually threatened to kick me out of the program over it, until I pointed out with screen caps that they legitimately did give me wrong urls.
So what was the advice that their needlessly complicated program offered? Well they kept asking me to show up at random businesses and just ask to talk to people, and if I was unwilling to do that I could just make a bunch of cold calls. I told them that I was not comfortable doing that and if they had any other help they could give me I would take
Eventually they threatened to drop me if I wasn’t going to take their advice, so I made cold calls. To pretty much every business I was qualified to work for, because oh yeah degree inflation has been a thing since these people were in the marketplace.
And exactly what I thought was going to happen happened, a lot of really annoyed customers sales representatives told me to never call them again unless I was buying something or had a question about store operation.
These people still think it works like it does in black and white movies, were you just go into a local mechanic shop, talk about how you know what a wrench is, and shake hands with the guy who runs the place.
These people believe that it’s a wonderful life, a movie where a 20,000 a year dollar salary is more money than George Bailey can imagine, and a house worth $5,000 is just this amazingly extravagant property, is an accurate representation of the modern Marketplace.
Ever wonder why baby boomers are so stingy even when they’re rich, to the point where they’ll throw a fit upon being expected to pay average price for things? They don’t have much of a concept of change, to them spending a dollar on a candy bar is highway robbery.
They are so stuck in their ways that they are constantly baffled when a nickel can’t get them a Coke.
That analogy is really a big deal, and you would think the inflation that they lived through during the Carter and Reagan years would’ve made them as a whole, more sympathetic. We’re dealing with prohibitively expensive medical costs, and home ownership being a pipe dream, to where we try to explain to them that a $400k mortgage on a $70k wage/salary doesn’t equate to what they had available to them.
There are some who get it, but anecdotally they seem obscure and silent in comparison to those who pulled the “nOboDy wAnTS tO wOrK AnyMOre” card.
I really wish it could be highlighted how shitty people are treated when they’re trying to get employment. Between getting ghosted or some of the bullshit hiring managers have in their minds, I’m seeing that people who eventually do find a role are very well justified in just sticking to the job’s expectations, and “going above and beyond” is an uncommon practice.
Ending hustle culture is one of the best things I’ve seen over the past year.
Honestly the only time I go above and beyond is when I have a few hours left on the clock, and I need to find something to do outside of sitting down.
Going above and beyond is something that only makes sense, if your boss is a sociopath and you really need a job, or you live in 1970 whatever and getting promoted up the corporate ladder is realistic.
