Cause it isn't

Boomers say that shit because back when they were young, you could actually advance by working hard in a shitty job. Of course, they pulled the ladder up once they got to the cushy positions.

Back then it was called "a fair days work".
It hasn't been "fair" for a long time.
- What's that I hear, you don't want to be on call after hours for no extra pay?
  Sounds like you're not much a team player. And only team players get to work here.
If I get a PhD (which I have to pay for) and work for twenty years in my job, my salary caps out at ~60k.
- What field? That's wild to me, and horribly unjust.
Yup. The guy who came to america to mow lawns is definitely killing it because he had it easy. Or maybe the guy who came to work in a field... or in a car auto manufacturer.... wait that went out of business... hmmmm oh yes the guy who is now a manager at your local burger king, yeah he had it easy. Fuck him. The median wage across the US is 54k though so maybe its only some select people.
- 54k is barely a living wage these days. You CAN live on it, but you can't expect to start a family or buy a house or achieve anything resembling The American Dream.

I had a colleague who loved to opine on a bit of everything including "millennials". He was talking about "soft resignations" and explained them succinctly as "it's when you're annoyed that you're overlooked at work so you don't put any extra effort in don't work any extra hours and only do the minimum and then wonder why you don't get promoted".

It was hilarious but sad how he could just so utterly fail to grasp the point that to me was just staring him right in the face as he struggled to explain. He's an okay guy really, and it's just a shame that his penchant for everything to fit in to nice neat stories with conveniently stupid straw men to beat in each of them really gets in the way of him having any more than the shallowest understanding of the people and world around him.

Some people just don't want to climb the ladder anymore. I'm not soft resigning or quiet quitting by doing exactly my job description and nothing more - I'm settling and content.
I wish this wasn't such a foreign or bad concept to those in business.
- My experience in the corporate world has been that working hard, overachieving, and putting in long hours only results in getting more work assigned and those extra hours to become expected. No rewards or recognition or anything beyond more work, and getting negative reviews scores when you stop putting in extra hours and just work 40 a week.
- i've never understood the corporate ladder, my goal in life is to work as little as possible while having enough income to live as enjoyable a life as possible.
- You don't climb the ladder by working hard these days.
- Honestly, this is just contracting 101. If we squint really hard and imagine our W2's as 1099's, the problems practically leap off the page.

So that they can take their kids to the doctor.

Medicare For All would go far to stop that.

It is time to stop letting your boss hold your child's healthcare hostage.

Amazing how everyone gets so mad at the government providing it instead of only having it because your boss felt gracious enough to not provide the worst possible options for insurance
- Narrator: Nobody realized it WAS the worst insurance until they required it in an emergency
- Or the insurance company fucks up giving you the wrong plan and do a switcheroo last minute. Right before the short enrollment period, your boss is looking into why they are paying more for employee insurance than expected and find out more than half of the staff is on the wrong plan. Then the insurance company tries to recoup the cost from providers putting the employees on the hook for the difference even though it wasn't their mistake to begin with.
  The problem here is that the employer somehow likes this specific insurance company(coughkaiser) and they seem to like punishing people going out of their network.
  America needs to face the mess that is employer provided insurance.

There are some people complain, very loudly, when others fail to validate their life choices.

I'll add that the pandemic did a lot to change baselines, priorities, long-range thinking, and more. Basically, a watershed moment for millions of people. The kind of thing that causes a lot of change, social, economic, and otherwise. The kind of thing that scares people who can't cope when society seems to change shape overnight. The article is one of those things.

You could stick around and try to start a union at your job

Weird fantasy I have is joining a really crappy job and just causing trouble.
Like I have a full time job. But I wonder if I should apply to Walmart, work incredibly half-asssd, and then just actively push a union.
- There are unions that have hired folks in the past to do exactly that. I believe it's called "salting." Either way, it's doable.
- Ok c'mon let's have some fun.
  How would you cause trouble and balance it in a way that doesn't get you immediately fired (or arrested)?
  I share the same idea hahaha. If only you weren't forced to keep it up for entire 8+ hour shifts...
I wanted to do this, but they literally kept me so separated from coworkers, we barely knew each other. The only other person in my dept was my supervisor, and across the room you could feel him tremble at the mention of "management", and could smell the boot polish on his breath.
Tell me THAT wasn't on purpose.

I think a lot of the people sticking around at one job are the ones with pensions.

You need portable pension plans that move with you job to job and accumulate nonetheless, as we have in the Netherlands
- In the US, people working up through the late nineties got pensions specific to whatever company an employee works for. Now there just aren't pensions for any workers.
- Holy fuck that's a thing?
- I'm confused as to how that works. Different pensions can promise different benefits. How does that work when switching jobs?

One step further : Unionize
One step further : Kick your boss out
One step further : Kick every boss out

As unfortunate as it is, some people really don't have a choice. My dad, for example, gets paid something like 30 an hour, but his job absolutely sucks. He wants to quit, but he knows he can't find a job that will pay the same, especially with how old he's getting.

Unionize, don't be alone, get support, and be supportive
This is where I am in life also. Trust me, it sucks.

Either work for yourself or dont work at all. Also, disability insurance and SS are a fucking farce so cover your own ass and quit giving the government your money.
How is any of this optional?
- I think they assume that you follow their advice and are now "working for yourself", which I assume to mean create your own business such as a consulting company, a store, etc. With that assumption, and this is obviously not legal advice, I believe, in the US, you don't have to contribute to social security if your business has under a certain number of employees. I also think not all states require disability insurance under similar business size limits (this one I am less sure of).
the real solution is to unionize
Also, disability insurance and SS are a fucking farce so cover your own ass and quit giving the government your money.
Yikes. For anyone looking into it. https://ssabest.benefits.gov/
In 2023, an average of almost 67 million Americans per month will receive a Social Security benefit, totaling about $1.4 trillion in benefits paid during the year.
PDF Warning: https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/basicfact-alt.pdf

I'll lick boots for a living if it allows me to afford my own home and support a family on a single income. I imagine I could get very into it.

"I see master is wearing their black versache dress shoes today, excellent choice sir! I will lick them clean all over. Oh, is that shoe polish? You shouldn't have!" slurp slurp
- My wages only cover literal boot licking.
I've seen those YouTube videos too

They say that with the same energy that a slasher villain has when he cusses you out for hiding from him

Whiney voice: "But I want my workers to worship me!!"

-- some boss, probably.

It's better to leave, when you can, if you need to.

Image Transcription: Twitter Post

Yugopnik, @yugopnik

Calling this generation soft or weak because they are actually quitting toxic jobs was always hilarious to me. How is staying and licking your boss's boots every day for the rest of your life a show of courage exactly?

Yugopnik being based as always

boots if your lucky

Lol, Ok Zoomer! By that rationale I guess being a slave back in the day was not "tough".
As if compensation has to do with whether a job is tough or not.

Just because leaving a job shouldn't be considered soft doesn't mean people with no choice but to stay with a job are soft.
It also doesn't mean people who stick with a job because they consider the benefits and risks of quitting soft.
- Exactly, I'm glad you get it. Op, and anyone whinging about, "...oh no a Boomer said I'm soft!" is in fact, who soft. Everyone else doesn't sweat such viral, divisive, Facebook catch phrases. They just get on with their lives.

The ability to own a home

That doesn't show shit but the ability to take it up the rear for financial goals.
Ah yes, let me lick boots for the next 30 years to have enough to put down on a home and then continue paying off the mortgage until I die

There's certainly a lot of good reasons to quit a toxic job, and a lot of changes so need to be made, but it's gotten to the point where even the tiniest little smidge of discomfort is causing these people to throw their hands up and cry "Toxic!". It's absurd.

While there is certainly no justification for truly toxic work environment, life isn't all about participation trophies and coddling. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and deal with a little discomfort. Life is hard sometimes. Deal with it.

Do you think refusing to be a bootlicker and having self-respect is the same as wanting coddling and participation trophies?
- I think you failed to comprehend what I wrote.
Care to provide a shred of evidence to back this up?
Bringing up participation trophies is a great way to sound like a clueless old person who accidentally ended up here from Facebook.

Resilience is an attribute. Salf-sacrifice for the kids or the home is admirable.

Did you just not make that leap?

are you that short sighted to believe that 'sucking it up for the kids' is really going to be better for the kids in the long run? or do you still believe trickle down economy is gonna save the future?
did you just not make that leap?
Salf-sacrifice for the kids or the home is admirable.
"Hey kids, aren't you so proud of your old man? Look at what a shnook he is, breaking his back so his bosses can pad their accounts?"
Self sacrifice? For what? There are no homes, sant even afford to feed ourselves currently. Millennials are the largest working generation and yet the poorest working generation since 1920.
Sure. Every kid needs a parent they never see because they work all day in a minimum wage job
I think that if the kids love their parents, they would want them to be happy, and they would want to be able to see them and spend time with them.
I understand breaking your back to put your kid through college, but if your work-life balance is so bad that you never get to spend any time with them while they're growing up, how much are you actually helping them? That's not even going into the resentment that the parent builds up for all of the sacrifices that they feel they have to make.
I can see where you are at. For those who have kids.

One day, our whole economy is going to collapse, and we wont have anyone to blame because everyone was just living their best life. Smash that like button if you are fighting for 8 hour work weeks, unlimited PTO, free housing and no taxes.

Only dumb people want no taxes. The rest like their society to be non-anarchy thank you very much.