Employers demonstrated their infidelity to their staff by paying loyal workers, on average, 7% less than new hires — 20 years ago, salaries were largely the same between new and longtime employees.
Another dumb-ass op-ed that starts with a stupid premise and gets worse from there. Look how desperately they try to make it seem like workers are different by generation. watch them desperately thrash and twist to avoid the truth, that conditions are their fault.
They sampled 18-25 y/os then skipped straight over the rest of the workforce to workers 65 and older.
No talk about compensation differences between these groups. No talk about 26-64 year olds… I want to find the author and personally tell them how disappointed i am in their work, but it was probably ai or one of those gig word count jobs and they wouldn’t even care
Yeah, I’m a millennial who has hated those same things since probably around the same time gen Z started joining the workforce. I bet the only real difference is that gen Z didn’t join the workforce with the illusion that it wasn’t so bad because millennials were already talking about it. And gen X cynicism (which is deserved, not trying to open a front in the “generation war” here) likely planted the seed for millennials to notice it.
I’m seeing the same. I’m an older millennial that joined the workforce in a conservative state, so I kept my mouth shut about shitty work conditions so I didn’t end up fist fighting some of my coworkers. Gen Z is entering a workplace full of disgruntled millennials like myself and we’re together making an environment where it’s safer to tell employers we’re tired of being taken for granted.
Gen X here and it has been common knowledge since 2000 that the only way to not fall behind your peers in terms of salary or career advancement is to change jobs every few years.
Existing staff getting paid less than new hires has been a thing for at least 25 years.
“The best way to get a raise is to get a new job”
Hell, I think it was boomers, if not the silent generation, who first learned the hard way that company loyalty can screw you. If that shit started in the 80s, it would have caught the silent generation.
The whole generational conflict is just another attempt to divide people so they are less likely to unite effectively against the ones who put their profit ahead of everything and everyone else.
Younger Silent and older Boomers definitely got the biggest shaft of all. This was the group of people who were promised a pension and regular retirement. Then the idiots who manage the companies ran them into bankruptcy and got business-friendly bankruptcy judges to dissolve the pensions, leaving retired and retiring people with nothing to fall back on. Younger Boomers looked at that and went “sounds good to me!”.
I’m a Xilenial and agree 100% with what you said. Younger Gen X started to notice these problems, but when your 35-ish year old Boomer parents are living the life, they shut you down without mercy. It took until the youngest Millenials/Older Gen Z for people to be able to talk about this openly.
Older gen y, been railing against the bullshit as long as I’ve been immersed in it. Glad others are taking up the torches and pitchforks.
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.
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.
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.
You can’t have a serious conversation when you lie or embellish numbers.
I’ll cherry pick two things.
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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.
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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.
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.
Lol, ok bud. I can tell you’re not interested in a good faith conversation.
Got nothin huh… What a lame attempt to save face using an ad hominem attack.
Yawn… Boring.
I’m just not interested in arguing on the internet. A conversation is fine, that’s clearly not what you want.
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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.
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.
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.
It takes a young person being kicked down in a vulnerable moment one time to realize work doesn’t care for them and they owe them no loyalty. And since a long time, junior workers are the first to get the axe for circumstances that are no fault of their own.
And when being at a salary that you can barely make it now, staying at that salary as costs shoot up is untenable. So no surprises young workers aren’t buying this loyalty bull.
Turns out treating employees like dirt, plus an impending climate collapse makes people unhappy. Who knew
I think this generational divide is bullshit. Most people have always known that the system is rigged and keeping your head down and working hard doesn’t get most people anywhere.
There is a generational divide. Boomers and older GenXers often bought their homes years ago when they were far cheaper and have no mostly or entirely paid them off. If they need money, they can get a cheap HELOC. Their house is also a nest egg. That saves a lot.
They also likely actually got regular raises. Plenty of boomers make 6 figures and still struggle to open a PDF, while zoomers and millennials are doing most of their work for them for 1/3rd the pay.
Yeah, but there are a ton of boomers and gen x that never got a chance to buy a house. Stack on being a minority, or a woman, and your chances of owning a home back in the good old days were probably worse than now since banks and certain neighborhoods would tell you to get fucked. Things may have been easier for many in different generations, but not for everyone. I’m not discounting that gen z has things worse in a lot of ways, especially work and financial wise. I just don’t think fighting amongst generations is going to help. It’s class warfare.
Edit: By class warfare I mean basically everyone vs the ultra powerful/wealthy.
I’m not discounting that gen z has things worse in a lot of ways, especially work and financial wise.
But that’s just it, by not acknowledging it, by acting like we’re all in the same boat, it is being discounted.
But that’s not their fault. It’s the fault of current bosses. Why blame it on a generation that was slightly less screwed than yours, just because they were slightly less screwed?
The current bosses are largely of that generation.
But not all people of that generation are those bosses. In fact very, very few ever were.
You have to realise that denouncing all the people of a group based on their race, appearance, gender, sexual preference or - yes - even age is morally problematic. Blaming all of them for something that very few of them had anything to do with just makes you look bad, not them.
I hate where the world is at but I think you’re wildly misguided about who’s to blame. Blame the super rich and the politicians who set economic policy - not your granny whose worst crime is loving you and baking you apple pies.
Uh, stuff was better but nowhere near as nice as you imagine for a poor kid growing up like i was. but they were better. Work sucked, but yeah life was easier. You’re missing the point though, lemme rant some.
How many rich old boomers do you personally know vs how many do you hear on tv?
The point of the tv (or in this case the article) using this angle is to point blame away from the culprits who caused this bad situation, the ultra-rich.
My boomboom parents, myself (xennial), and my extended family members have all watched their money get squeezed right out of their pockets their whole lives.
Maybe you assume we got to keep the money we made from way back when times were better?
Nope! All those wealth transfer graphs you’ve seen where the line goes up had to come from somewhere. That line means i watched it happen is all, watched it get taken from us. I’m poor like you.
Gramp’s life savings got eaten up by gram’s medical care. Dad lost his house. I will never get to own one. You probably know a lot of people in all different age groups that have a story like mine.
Meanwhile,
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Warren Buffet is a boomer
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Jeff bezos and Elon musk are Gen X.
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Zuckerbergs a millennial.
Though they are in different generations They all have something in common.
Their wealth, and their absolute love of lobbying the government to get even wealthier at the expense of your and me.
Like Carlin said, "they want all of what you got, and they’re gonna get it too."
They are the ones to focus on. Maybe the past was great but we live in the present, and there’s no reason left to be jealous of boomers/xers. Our ages don’t separate us, our (lack of) wealth unites us.
Trust me, we are all in the same boat.
Oh, I know way more better off boomers than well off millennials. Many with large suburban homes fully paid off. Homes I couldn’t afford if I made double.
I do not excuse the super rich. But I also know boomers are the ones that helped push Reagan into power for him to inflict trickle down on us.
Welp, can’t say i didn’t try. See you in the trenches
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I guess I’ll interject with personal experience so take everything that follows as, my most humble opinion of things. I have zero expectation for anyone to agree.
Gen X myself, I am currently in a position that I am completely happy with now. That did not come without a massive fight. This is quite literally my 6th job in my field (system’s programming) and now the second longest I’ve stayed with a company. Quoting from the story:
Without the promise of high returns for their loyalty, Gen Z has learned to follow the money
And this should be people’s default until shown otherwise. I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard “it’s just business” in the course of my various jobs. At the end of the day, your employer is looking at bottom line most times. One should not invest themselves into any relationship when the other is simply looking at the piratical ramifications of the relationship and not the broader nature of that relationship.
It’s about the money and being able to pay for living expenses, which is reasonable. The dollar went a lot further when baby boomers were entering the workforce. It doesn’t go as far now.
Yeah, while suffering when sufferable was okay when a taco was under a buck, dollar doesn’t go anywhere today. The amount of time to have shits and giggles with an employer on actual compensation is about seven seconds today. When I first got into the field being underneath the region’s average for X number of years wasn’t unheard of. And for me, it was all cool because shit was cheap. Today, being under the region’s average for a position needs to be measured in X minutes, not this year shit. Employer’s that want to play games, Gen Z should not budge for a second on the matter.
When a raise and promotion don’t hit swiftly, Gen Z is quick to jump ship
I’ll say this. When I got to my current position, I knew right off that this was a good company. How? I can’t really put a finger on the how, but having been in two jobs previous that were hyper toxic, I had a feeling. Now, I still didn’t play games coming in though. I indicated exactly what I expected and that the job couldn’t be “all hands on deck” 24/7, 365. That’s just shitty management. I gave them six months to show me the money and if it didn’t come through I had every intention to hit the door at the 121 day mark.
There was still friction, no meaningful relationship doesn’t have those moments, but the things I was indicating was actually being taken serious, and compensation for kicking ass on my end was forthcoming. If your employer doesn’t like talking money with employees, you’re going to have a lot of friction and I’m not telling anyone what to do, but employer’s feeling uncomfortable with the topic of money should be a red flag for you. If that’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back or just a stone in the wall for you, that’s your call. But in my opinion, employers that get squishy about the word money shouldn’t be employers. Not with how this world currently is. Maybe we can go back to the “ha ha ha” playing coy game when a significant percentage of a person’s paycheck doesn’t have to go for simply feeding themselves.
But Gen Zers “haven’t lost the passion for what they want to do,”
And I have never thought they have. The Gen Z that I oversee are some of the best workers I’ve ever dealt with. But the world isn’t allowing them to be slacking on ensuring that proper compensation is constant. Inflation is eating away any kind of raise I can give them as fast as I can give it to them. As far as I have seen, Gen Z is some of the best workers to date to come out of the woodwork and it’s actually kind of shitty they cannot have the environment to flourish that I had at their age.
Again, from my personal experience, I think there’s a lot of management that’s still in the lax mood of how employment might have worked back in the day. When a few years under the line of compensation was just the name of the game. But the game has seriously changed and a lot of the folks my age and the boomers as well are still stuck in “the way things used to be™” and it’s so bad right now, no one has time for that anymore.
As I’ve heard so often, it’s just business. But I think employers have been so used to the giving that advice, they are completely at loss when receiving it. The Gen Z I’ve worked with, and it may be different for others, but the ones I’ve worked with and the ones I currently manage, they’re some of the hardest workers who take everything they do as personal value and will be some of the best employees IF YOU ENCOURAGE THEM AND COMPENSATE THEM.
I too dislike that the world has become really centered around pay. But to quote some Tolken:
So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
Treat your folks like people, and the rest mostly falls in place.
I guess I’ll interject with personal experience so take everything that follows as, my most humble opinion of things. I have zero expectation for anyone to agree.
Gen X myself, I am currently in a position that I am completely happy with now. That did not come without a massive fight. This is quite literally my 6th job in my field (system’s programming) and now the second longest I’ve stayed with a company. Quoting from the story:
Without the promise of high returns for their loyalty, Gen Z has learned to follow the money
And this should be people’s default until shown otherwise. I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard “it’s just business” in the course of my various jobs. At the end of the day, your employer is looking at bottom line most times. One should not invest themselves into any relationship when the other is simply looking at the piratical ramifications of the relationship and not the broader nature of that relationship.
It’s about the money and being able to pay for living expenses, which is reasonable. The dollar went a lot further when baby boomers were entering the workforce. It doesn’t go as far now.
Yeah, while suffering when sufferable was okay when a taco was under a buck, dollar doesn’t go anywhere today. The amount of time to have shits and giggles with an employer on actual compensation is about seven seconds today. When I first got into the field being underneath the region’s average for X number of years wasn’t unheard of. And for me, it was all cool because shit was cheap. Today, being under the region’s average for a position needs to be measured in X minutes, not this year shit. Employer’s that want to play games, Gen Z should not budge for a second on the matter.
When a raise and promotion don’t hit swiftly, Gen Z is quick to jump ship
I’ll say this. When I got to my current position, I knew right off that this was a good company. How? I can’t really put a finger on the how, but having been in two jobs previous that were hyper toxic, I had a feeling. Now, I still didn’t play games coming in though. I indicated exactly what I expected and that the job couldn’t be “all hands on deck” 24/7, 365. That’s just shitty management. I gave them six months to show me the money and if it didn’t come through I had every intention to hit the door at the 121 day mark.
There was still friction, no meaningful relationship doesn’t have those moments, but the things I was indicating was actually being taken serious, and compensation for kicking ass on my end was forthcoming. If your employer doesn’t like talking money with employees, you’re going to have a lot of friction and I’m not telling anyone what to do, but employer’s feeling uncomfortable with the topic of money should be a red flag for you. If that’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back or just a stone in the wall for you, that’s your call. But in my opinion, employers that get squishy about the word money shouldn’t be employers. Not with how this world currently is. Maybe we can go back to the “ha ha ha” playing coy game when a significant percentage of a person’s paycheck doesn’t have to go for simply feeding themselves.
But Gen Zers “haven’t lost the passion for what they want to do,”
And I have never thought they have. The Gen Z that I oversee are some of the best workers I’ve ever dealt with. But the world isn’t allowing them to be slacking on ensuring that proper compensation is constant. Inflation is eating away any kind of raise I can give them as fast as I can give it to them. As far as I have seen, Gen Z is some of the best workers to date to come out of the woodwork and it’s actually kind of shitty they cannot have the environment to flourish that I had at their age.
Again, from my personal experience, I think there’s a lot of management that’s still in the lax mood of how employment might have worked back in the day. When a few years under the line of compensation was just the name of the game. But the game has seriously changed and a lot of the folks my age and the boomers as well are still stuck in “the way things used to be™” and it’s so bad right now, no one has time for that anymore.
As I’ve heard so often, it’s just business. But I think employers have been so used to the giving that advice, they are completely at loss when receiving it. The Gen Z I’ve worked with, and it may be different for others, but the ones I’ve worked with and the ones I currently manage, they’re some of the hardest workers who take everything they do as personal value and will be some of the best employees IF YOU ENCOURAGE THEM AND COMPENSATE THEM.
I too dislike that the world has become really centered around pay. But to quote some Tolken:
So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
Treat your folks like people, and the rest mostly falls in place.
I feel like I get how you feel in your current job, because I’ve felt that way a few times before. But at all but one of those jobs, the environment slowly changed as the companies started to focus more on the bottom line than their employees. In my current job, I felt amazing, it honestly felt like the company cared about us and it showed, all the people I spoke to loved it there… Until we laid off 2k people last month… Now I just feel betrayed and angry.
Yeah that’s with any position. Things change. More argument about loyalty being a transitory thing. My second job was like that. Was really good and then the company we third partied for was sued by a US State for fraud. When the contract wasn’t renewed I thought we’d move on, but I was surprised by how many of our eggs had been placed in a single basket. The vast majority of the company I worked for relied on those contracts to supply jobs, so when that went away the company went from thirty software developers to one. 90% of the company I worked for’s value evaporated within two months.
It was this that I also became aware of what the WARN Act was.
do you think this article was written to you?
Thanks for the wonderful contribution to the conversation.
He just contributed more to the conversation in one comment than you have managed in all 98 of yours.
There are all kinds of people in the world, and youre definitely one of em
Well death at work is down, so there’s that.
Instead of worrying about company culture or whether the job sounds exciting, the first thing Kaneshina looks for when job searching is the salary. “Right now there’s this whole salary-transparency movement. So a lot of the roles I apply to I know about the pay right off the bat,” she said. Once satisfied with the pay range, Kaneshina digs into the company — are they doing work she has experience with? Then she checks whether the opening provides room for growth — how long until she could get a promotion? For her to apply, all three factors have to line up.
Tech field Gen-X here. When did the above stop being a normal expectation? It sure as shit was when myself and all my contemporaries were starting out. Compensation package, culture and growth were always part of the pitch when employers made job offers.
Doubt. I’m a younger Gen X and work has fucking sucked for us and for our parents before us. The middle class has been hollowed out since the 70s, at the latest. It’s now purely transactional, with the final vestiges of loyalty and all that other bullshit long gone. Pay me and leave me the fuck alone. Do those two things to the proper extent and I will provide dispassionate labor in commensurate amount. Otherwise, I will whore out my knowledge and labor elsewhere, with less than zero regard for the collateral damage I may cause.
This is the way.
An employee’s work is what you pay for, their loyalty has to be earned
Adequate pay and basic human kindness?
No, it’s the workers why are our of touch.
We deserve shares when we join. Give us a slice of the pie
And yet businesses try to convince you that you’re part of the family and we’re all in this together. Work your ass off by coming in early and staying late all year? Good job here’s a 2% raise. Nevermind that is lower than inflation and the extra work and meager raise actually lowers your hourly equivalent if you’re salaried.
If businesses really want everyone to go above and beyond they need to pay people in equity. Why else would anyone give a shit about the long term success of a business? They certainly have no loyalty to their employees.
They do that if you go work in young industries. I think once the pie has been divided up and sold between rich guys 2000 times and there’s no more hyper growth, there’s no more pie to give out. So you have to move to models like bcorps, like a King Arthur Flour, or be evil.
I don’t know what employers expect to get in return for their behavior. For decades they treated employees like shit, and now they complain that employees don’t love them.
- stop hoarding wealth
- 1 but louder
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