Saturday 14 May 2016

Generation 'No Consequences' Comes Of Age And Finds Work...

...mostly, finds it a shock to the system:
After I graduated I took on some freelance work at my local radio station, assisting on the breakfast show. At first I was ecstatic to get the job. I had no idea how long I would be there but I prayed the work would keep coming. Then the exhaustion of being new and inexperienced set in. The shifts consisted of 5am starts and a deserted office to greet me good morning. One morning a TV broadcaster, thought of as a ‘local treasure’ on the network, laughed at me for saying I was finding the early mornings a struggle and let out a purse-lipped baby wail into my face.
Welcome to the world of work, Bridgit! It's a shock to find you're expected to do some, isn't it?
Another, a trainee teacher, has struggled to qualify in an increasingly stressful environment. “The expectation for us to do everything required - even when we’re not yet working independently - is impossible. I’ve already taken three weeks off for anxiety. Out of the 25 of us that started my course, there are only 20 of us left, two of us require extended placements due to absence, and another five are just pushing to finish with no desire to teach afterward”.
Sorry, what did you thing a job spec was, a list of options you could select from?
The current climate is one of insecure jobs and low pay, and it doesn’t do millenials any favours. Employers receive hundreds of applications for each entry level position, so they won’t accept anything less than a superhuman. And so millenials are left scrabbling around for any opportunity we can get and then expected to move heaven and earth if we’re lucky enough to bag a job.
Awww. let me pause to wipe away a tear...
This isn’t a complaint about hard work: we know it’s impossible to succeed without putting in some serious graft.
So what is it a complaint about, then?
But that success shouldn’t come at the cost of our mental health. For far too many of us millenials that’s the price we’re having to pay – and that should worry us all.
*speechless*

7 comments:

Antisthenes said...

These millennials will not have to put up with the stress of studying or working for very much longer. Robots and AI are riding to their rescue and will take over. Wont stop them finding something else to whine about I am sure. Was Terminator a film based on fiction or was it a vision of things to come. I would not be surprised if it was the latter as if I was a machine I would not put up with humans always bitching either.

Anonymous said...

If education placed unfair and inhumane expectations on attendees like achieving literacy, numeracy, demonstrating knowledge and punctuality, the world of work would not be shocking.

Andy said...

My mother was born in 1920, if she encounters grizzling and whining like this she firmly puts them in their place. Recession? No jobs? Hunger? Stress? Demands? Try depression (economic), Spanish flu, WWI aftermath, what Social Security?, WWII, rationing, and to cap it all she now sees men wedded to men, sex and profanity normalised, children with a mum and dad a rarity. My God, these so-called millennials are a low point in humanity's ascent from the swamp. Whatever next?

Bill in St Louis said...

Hahahahahahahahaha! Poor widdle precious snowfwakes! DIdums not get a trophy for showing up? Oh dear me... I'm sorry I can find absolutely no sympathy for these people. None. Shoot them all. (Of course, when Skynet becomes active, and the machines and AI take over, the only ones left alive will be the ones who don't piss off the machines with constant whining.)

L fairfax said...

Why is there low pay? Mass migration which the independent cheered for. It's a bit like Gordon Brown complaining about tax credits.

Anonymous said...

They are as useless as Eloi and act like the Red Guard when contradicted.

JuliaM said...

"Wont stop them finding something else to whine about I am sure."

Oh, of course not! That's, after all, the one thing they excel at.

"...unfair and inhumane expectations on attendees like achieving literacy, numeracy, demonstrating knowledge and punctuality..."

'Turn up on time? Help! Oppression!'

"My God, these so-called millennials are a low point in humanity's ascent from the swamp."

Spot on.

"They are as useless as Eloi and act like the Red Guard when contradicted."

And the Morlocks are outbreeding them...