NocturnalMorning ,

Turns out treating employees like dirt, plus an impending climate collapse makes people unhappy. Who knew

bhmnscmm , (edited )
@bhmnscmm@lemmy.world avatar

This is also a shift from when older generations were young: In a 1995 survey by the consulting firm Wyatt Co., under-30 Gen Xers — the “works sucks, I know” generation — were actually the most satisfied with their jobs than any other age group.

That answers the main question I had after reading the headline: did all generations feel this way at this age, or is this unique to Gen z.

Edit: just read the about the 1995 survey referenced in the article. It’s pretty interesting. reason.com/1995/05/01/heh-heh-work-is-cool/

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

Am on the tail end of Gen X and when I started working even low pay allowed me to afford a place to live, food to eat, and doing fun things occasionally. While work sucked, it at least paid the bills and allowed the freedom to live. Plus there were still some companies that offered actual long term perks, tried and keep people with experience around, and promoted from within.

Gen Z still gets the low pay, but are treated as expendable, and can't afford anything and so it is understandable that they would hate working in comparison.

The_v ,

Want to have fun. Look up where you lived as a young adult and calculate how much it would cost today.

First wage out of college 28K. In two years it was up to 42K. Since it was a government job, I can look up the wage today. Start is at $37K, in two years its $55K

Studio apartment $650/month then, $1,800 now for the same place. Included heating and electricity and a awesome view from the 22nd floor.

Car with 30K miles on it, $185/month plus $50/month insurance. Now $550/month plus $200/month insurance.

Groceries $150/month (I ate well). Now $400/month.

Student loan, $50/month. Now $200 per month.

Phone (landline). $40/month. Now $60/month cell phone.

Take home when I started, around $1650/month. Expenses $1,125. 2 years later when I was making 42K, take home was around $2,450. I paid off the student loans, the most of the car, and had a ton of fun, traveled, dated, and eventually got married.

Today take home would’ve around. $2,150/month and the cost of living as I did would be around $3,010. Even after 2 years I could barely squeak by with around $3,200/month take home.

Blackhole ,

You can’t have a serious conversation when you lie or embellish numbers.

I’ll cherry pick two things.

  1. Cell phones are less expensive monthly today than they were 15 years ago. You can get unlimited everything with some carriers for 30 a month. 15 years ago it was 59.99 for 1200 minutes, free nights and weekends, and 2000 texts. Internet was another 20 a month.
  2. A car with 30k miles isn’t 550 a month right now. I have a 45k car and part just over 600 a month. I bohlught brand new, and spend way more than u needed cause I’m lucky.

You can buy a used car with 30k miles for under 20k if you want. Maybe not a BMW suv, but there’s not what we are talking about here.

Inflation is up. Wages are lagging. But let’s not lie about shit to make a point.

The_v ,

Facetious argument. Try asking what I included in my estimates.

Look up a basic midrange plan on a major carrier plus data, $45 with taxes & a cost average for $500 phone across 3 years ($13.88). Comes to around $60.

As for the car, without asking what type of vehicle I was pricing out and the loan terms you have no clue. Think midrange with 700 credit score (recent college grad without any credit history to speak of). I was at 11.5% interest, on my first vehicle and a 8.5K loan over 5 years = $186.75 payment. Average price of a midrange low mileage vehicle today of the same quality is around $27K (looking to buy one for my teenager). With an 8.5% interest rate 5 year loan that comes to… $553.95 per month…

Your 45K car for around 600 indicates your loan is around 41K and you decided to take a longer than 60 month terms. Likely an 84 month term ($613.80/month) at 6.75% interest for 790+ credit. Which was not even offered 20+ years ago because it’s a stupid thing to do. A 41K loan at 60 months would be $841.18 at 8.5% interest rate FYI.

Blackhole ,

Lol, ok bud. I can tell you’re not interested in a good faith conversation.

The_v ,

Got nothin huh… What a lame attempt to save face using an ad hominem attack.

Yawn… Boring.

Blackhole ,

I’m just not interested in arguing on the internet. A conversation is fine, that’s clearly not what you want.

Knoxvomica ,

Eww, yeah you’re definitely not looking for a “Conversation”. No one who says that is ever just truthfully looking for a conversation. You’re looking for conflict.

PrinceWith999Enemies ,

Reason is a hyper pro-capitalist libertarian magazine who, in an interview with then-governor Ronald Reagan, implied he was too liberal because he didn’t think fire departments should be privatized.

I wouldn’t trust them with this kind of survey, in other words.

bhmnscmm ,
@bhmnscmm@lemmy.world avatar

I just linked to the Reason article since that is what the OP article links to. A different organization actually performed the 1995 survey.

Although, I haven’t been able to find the original survey with a very brief Google search. So maybe take the Reason summary with a grain of salt.

PrinceWith999Enemies ,

Yeah, all I’m saying is to take it with a grain of salt.

When a publication like Reason writes about a survey that backs their narrative, it’s possible that it came from a conservative organization (and so might have crafted the study to produce the results they wanted rather than having an impartial scientific approach).

The other likely possibility is that they cherry picked a survey that happened to have the results they want. Even in scientific surveys there’s going to be variability, and it’s never a good idea to base an opinion off of a single survey for that reason alone.

Dagwood222 ,

Read “Hell’s Angels” by Hunter Thompson.

There’s a chapter about the economics of being a biker/artist/hippie circa 1970. A biker could work six months as a union stevedore and earn enough to spend two years on the road, and a part time waitress could earn enough to support herself and her musician boyfriend.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod ,
@Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

They linked to blink 182's "All the Small Things" which reminded me of when I was working at Cracker Barrel in college. That song came on the radio in the kitchen, and everybody in the back of house said "Work sucks" in unison, and a bunch of the servers in the front replied "I know."

The manager made us change the radio station after that, but it was hilarious solidarity.

MotoAsh ,

What a class traitor of a manager…

Semi-Hemi-Demigod ,
@Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

He was one of those "sad little kings of sad little hills" who lorded his power over everybody and creeped out any young woman who worked there.

goferking0 ,

I’m amazed they allowed something other than country music to play in a Cracker Barrel

themeatbridge ,

Unrelated of course, but Gen Z is also paid less and have fewer opportunities for advancement than other generations.

Corporations are baffled, and will consider having more pizza on layoff days.

const_void ,

will consider having more pizza on layoff days.

And they will only order two pineapple pizzas and you will like it!

Introversion ,

But no clams & white sauce pizzas? Man, we are truly living in dystopian times. /s

TheFriar ,

Which is funny, because we millennials ALSO had fewer opportunities and we’re getting paid less.

themeatbridge ,

I know, right? It’s almost as if an entire generation decided that they would mortgage future generations and the environment in order to have nicer things than their parents and their kids.

TheFriar ,

Worse: it’s that they leveraged four entire generations (and counting) and the environment in order to have a higher degree of nicer things than their parents had over their parents. Up until our generations (gen X is included), every generation had it better than the previous. But thank ol’ Ronnie Reagan and the culture of deregulation that literally jump started the beginning of the end of late stage capitalism.

Even in the EU, where things are “better,” the culture of deregulation changed the course of history. European citizens do have it better, but when comparing against the US, it’s like, hard to be much worse. Now, of course this is all relative and from a hugely biased ethnocentric perspective, but being the “leaders” of the world, the decision made in the US have a huge ripple effect across the world. We exploited more people, and the resulting explosion of profits led to more power for money in politics, which led to worse exploitation across the world, which led to higher profits, ad Infinitum. We’re only a few decades on from the deregul-eighties and the effects have only grown exponentially as they amass more power via more wealth, and more wealth via more power.

lanolinoil ,
@lanolinoil@lemmy.world avatar

Wait – is it capitalism is inherently inequal and unsustainable, or ol’ Racist Ronnie did this? Is it both and he accelerated us?

TheFriar ,

We’ve been reaching the logical conclusion to capitalism, and we were going to anyway. But he jump started the beginning of the endgame. More profit, lower margins is always the end goal. This was inevitable. But he clicked the process into hyper speed.

lanolinoil ,
@lanolinoil@lemmy.world avatar

I tend to agree – Greed and money becoming the only virtue… Doesn’t even matter how you get it anymore even a little bit.

kobra ,

From the article:

  1. Salary
  2. Career growth
Gloria , (edited )

What is a totally reasonable demand. Ask a CEO if he would do his work if he would get paid peanuts.

Bdtrngl ,

Assuming the CEO does any real “work”

CaptainSpaceman ,

Wow, its almost like companies have taken away all the incentives to work!

bobs_monkey ,

So that’s why no one wants to work anymore!

goferking0 ,

Nah can’t be the company’s fault, could only be due to lazy workers now /s

AtariDump ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/acb19e40-a9ea-4c00-964d-ea65b5545456.jpeg

FMT99 ,

Compromise: I can do mandatory work outings and a ping pong table.

Sabata11792 ,
@Sabata11792@kbin.social avatar

I dong get it. We bought them a pizza just like 12 million dollar consultant suggested. They are supposed to make the green line go up now.

Thassodar ,

Beatings will continue until morale improves!

ImplyingImplications ,

The career growth is really amazing. I work at a unionized place that is required to fill positions internally before outside hires. When a senior employee retires from a top level position it will be filled by someone at the company. Typically someone in a mid level position. Then there’s a chain effect where now that mid level position is open that will go to entry level workers. The only outside hires tend to be for entry level jobs.

It’s great because when you talk to the senior staff, almost all of them started at the bottom and worked their way up. This gives them better knowledge of how the whole operation works since they’ve done the jobs below them, and also a little empathy!

Agrivar ,

Sounds awesome! Are y’all hiring?

PriorityMotif ,
@PriorityMotif@lemmy.world avatar

I hate this kind of thing, it creates a hirarical culture instead of promoting people by merit. Basically younger people get screwed in favor of older people. It also means that nothing will ever change within the company.

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