For the third time while out in the community, I heard a phrase that grinds my gears and sends my body into a full shiver, like nails on a chalkboard, every time I hear it: “This new generation doesn’t like working.”
Eye roll, here we go again.
Now I am very confused about how this myth began. I personally began working at the age of 15 in what was a very common first job for teenagers back in my northwest suburb of Chicago hometown, a bagger at a local grocery store.
After my high school graduation, I worked for a family-owned bakery, opening up the shop at 5 a.m. every day before heading off to my college classes. A few other jobs followed. Working your way through college is tough but it was a shared experience with almost everyone that I know, with the exception of the few lucky ones whose parents paid for their tuition and living expenses. I can’t relate because 15 years later, I am still working. Just this past Monday, I saw more than 50 students, some as young as sophomores, attend the job fair at Habersham Central High School, so clearly they are wanting to work.
I believe the idea that younger generations don’t like working comes from the changes in work culture we have seen throughout the years, which have been long overdue. It is no longer about being unhappy, borderline miserable in a job that is unfairly compensating you because now, with the help of technology, the possibilities of finding a better job have greatly increased.
We have moved past the years of toxic work culture, where we would tolerate inappropriate behavior, sexual harassment, intolerable co-workers, and horrible management for a few dollars. If anything, we have become better advocates for ourselves, which has affected industries that took advantage of workers for years.
Before pursuing a full-time career in journalism I was the general manager of a highly successful trampoline park in Illinois. I saw the ins and outs of a business, I managed over 130 employees and vowed to make our culture a place where people wanted to work as previous management had run off almost all the staff. One thing that I advocated for was proper compensation, for both myself and my staff, as I knew firsthand how much the business was making yearly. This has always been my mindset and if God is willing, with the goal of having our own family business, it is the mindset my partner and I will continue to carry.
Fair compensation is crucial and in today’s economy, highly needed but many times I have heard older generations speak out against it.
During a recent city meeting, employees were discussing how it’s been hard to find workers due to pay. A resident chimed in proclaiming it was because new generations don’t like working and older people grew up unafraid of hard labor and working from dusk to dawn.
Frankly, I failed to see where the bragging came from, because it sounded like abuse to be paid unlivable wages for physical, backbreaking labor.
In another public meeting, a resident claimed that she put in work during the weekends and on her time off when she was a teacher even though she wasn’t paid and expected others to be OK with doing the same as “We have a crisis in our culture where people have forgotten how to work.”
Sorry, but no. I will not work for free. Why? Because my bills are not free. Because groceries are not free. Because baby diapers are not free. Because childcare runs an average of $160 a week.
Because my landlord won’t read the paper and decided I wrote a good story and waive my rent bill. Because working for free doesn’t help me save up for a down payment on a house that older generations keep insisting I
have to buy to not be considered a failure as an adult.
Because if I am putting my time into my job, I expect to be compensated and I do not believe it should be an out-of-this-world concept to want that compensation to be a liveable wage, which few jobs are at the moment.
It isn’t about older versus younger generations and who are harder workers.
It isn’t us versus them. It should be all of us versus an unsuitable work culture that has given us a false illusion of an American Dream that is no longer attainable to the majority of Americans.
It is about how do we collectively make workplaces better for all employees, how do we provide people a liveable wage, and how do we provide services to those who need a little extra help? Easier said than done? Absolutely, but that is why we have to have teamwork spanning all generations.
Amaris E. Rodriguez is a staff writer for The Northeast Georgian. Reach her at arodriguez@TheNortheastGeorgian.com.