Gen Z crying about having to work 9-5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good for her! I like this gal. Hope she gets some good karma from this.

more than likely, some employer will see it and not want to hire her for complaining about having to work and commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. A young woman in her first job out of college is complaining that having to commute to a 9-5 job, she has to leave by 7:30am and doesn't get home to 6:15 and then doesn't even have the energy to make dinner. She laments that she doesn't have time for friends or "her life".

She should be glad that she only has an office job and not a laborer or factory job and that thanks to the way paved by labor unions in the past, that employers can only have a 40 hour work week without paying overtime (to non-salaried workers). Gen Z is so amazingly entitled.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/viral-tiktok-college-graduate-9-to-5-job-b2435504.html

This is a little unfair. The kid is commuting 1.5 hours ONE way. She's commuting 3 hours a day. It's a lot.

[Anonymous]

I worked a lot to pay for college. Settling into an 8-5 job with no homework in the evenings was wonderful.

[Anonymous]

I don’t doubt it would be more fun not to work-chores-sleep and repeat but the vast majority of humans who ever lived never had much “free time”. Farm labor is brutal and never stops etc. There never was a better time for any substantial number of people.

People sought meaning in religion and afterlife dreams for a reason….the work-chores-sleep and repeat is pretty meaningless and something had to be made up to justify it.
In reality it’s just the biological drive to survive and reproduce l guess, with no meaning whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. A young woman in her first job out of college is complaining that having to commute to a 9-5 job, she has to leave by 7:30am and doesn't get home to 6:15 and then doesn't even have the energy to make dinner. She laments that she doesn't have time for friends or "her life".

She should be glad that she only has an office job and not a laborer or factory job and that thanks to the way paved by labor unions in the past, that employers can only have a 40 hour work week without paying overtime (to non-salaried workers). Gen Z is so amazingly entitled.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/viral-tiktok-college-graduate-9-to-5-job-b2435504.html

This is a little unfair. The kid is commuting 1.5 hours ONE way. She's commuting 3 hours a day. It's a lot.

I do this too and use the time to listen to audiobooks and/or read. It’s my defacto relaxing time.

[Anonymous]

I’m glad that Gen Z is not going to stand for this. We spend an incredible amount of time at our jobs. The 40 hour work week was created for one income families. I was a SAHM until my youngest was in school. I couldn’t imagine dh snd I both coming home at 6:00 to our 3 kids and having to find the energy each night to manage the entire household in just a few short hours. Not to mention finding time for fun, socializing, etc. I couldn’t have done it.

Op did you ever stop and wonder why we are expected to work the same amount of hours as we did before we had the technology we have today? Let’s say you are an accountant. The role of your job has pretty much stayed the same. But tasks that once took you hours are now done automatically. So why are you still working those same hours?

Good for Gen Z for asking those questions. It’s not lazy. It’s wanting a decent quality of life and not agreeing to an arbitrary 40 hours a week. For many jobs, you should just be able to leave when you have done your day’s work.

[Anonymous]

While I agree with her somewhat, she has many more options to change jobs or work for herself without much commute.Technology has made it possible.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the rest of your life! It's a dismal future. This is why I never understand rushing to finish college, graduate early and join the rat race ASAP. Enjoy the freedom while you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the rest of your life! It's a dismal future. This is why I never understand rushing to finish college, graduate early and join the rat race ASAP. Enjoy the freedom while you can.

You can’t be this dense- your privilege is showing. Plenty of people are amassing huge loans to attend even state school and the sooner they can finish, the loans stop accumulating and salary starts coming in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the rest of your life! It's a dismal future. This is why I never understand rushing to finish college, graduate early and join the rat race ASAP. Enjoy the freedom while you can.

You can’t be this dense- your privilege is showing. Plenty of people are amassing huge loans to attend even state school and the sooner they can finish, the loans stop accumulating and salary starts coming in.

That makes sense. Rich kids who are rushing through school to graduate early doesn't make sense.

The Xer is right though, current standard working hours and commute times don't really let you have a life outside of work if you go into the office 5 days a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a bit unfair - her main complaint is being unable to afford living closer to her job. Housing unaffordablity is a big deal.

Do we know where she lives, where she works and how much she makes? I can’t comment without knowing those details. But I watched about 5 seconds of that video with the sound turned down, and I can’t believe we’re giving this person more and more attention.

She works in New York and commutes in from outside the city.

So, like millions of people who have come before her. And continue to do so, on purpose.

In the past, young office workers in NY could afford shared apartments and live in the city. They only moved to the suburbs when they got married and had families. Now they can’t afford to live in the city, and instead live in their childhood bedrooms and spend an hour or more commuting in. I’ve done it. It’s soul-sucking and I would have been beyond miserable if I had to do it as a twenty-something.

No one is forced to work in New York City. They accept these jobs at lower pay because there is a line of new college graduates who want to enjoy the city or get a start in a "glamorous" industry. And I don't know what her salary is, but my new college grad just got a roommate and they share a 2 bed, 2 bath in Chelsea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m glad that Gen Z is not going to stand for this. We spend an incredible amount of time at our jobs. The 40 hour work week was created for one income families. I was a SAHM until my youngest was in school. I couldn’t imagine dh snd I both coming home at 6:00 to our 3 kids and having to find the energy each night to manage the entire household in just a few short hours. Not to mention finding time for fun, socializing, etc. I couldn’t have done it.

Op did you ever stop and wonder why we are expected to work the same amount of hours as we did before we had the technology we have today? Let’s say you are an accountant. The role of your job has pretty much stayed the same. But tasks that once took you hours are now done automatically. So why are you still working those same hours?

Good for Gen Z for asking those questions. It’s not lazy. It’s wanting a decent quality of life and not agreeing to an arbitrary 40 hours a week. For many jobs, you should just be able to leave when you have done your day’s work.

I think this is just like the "Girl Math" that is circulating on social media. The United States works the most hours and we have a lifestyle that is wealthier than almost anywhere else.
"Europeans Are Becoming Poorer. ‘Yes, We’re All Worse Off.’
An aging population that values its free time set the stage for economic stagnation. Then came Covid-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/europeans-poorer-inflation-economy-255eb629

Europe Poorer, U.S. Richer as Wage Gap Widens
https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/whats-news/europe-poorer-us-richer-as-wage-gap-widens/45bef933-696e-4344-b527-861198bb22af

So, sure, you can have lots more time away from work, but you will live in an apartment, take public transportation, etc. You can't magically have a high standard of living without working.

[Anonymous]

It’s kinda funny—I distinctly remember a phone call to my dad about a month after I entered the full-time workforce as a 22-year-old, in which I stated “who’ve ever invented this whole 9 to 5 workday thing ought to be shot…”
And I loooooved my job!
It was just a lot to take in that this was the schedule of my life now.

He chuckled heartily and seemed both sympathetic and amused. Then he said ruefully, yet still laughing “…try doing it for 35 years…” And then I sincerely THANKED HOM for the years and years of quiet personal sacrifice of time that he made to HiS job to provide our family with all the advantages and comforts that we enjoyed. It was a really meaningful and touching conversation that meant a lot to both of us.


The point is, the difficulty in adjustment to “adulting” isn’t new.
I feel like the difference is that her expectation (or maybe her peers’ expectation?—the ones who are responding as though this rant is a groundbreaking aha moment or deep commentary on our backwards society) is that society should adjust to her level of comfort and just fix this by making the experience of working somehow easier and more palatable and fun for her.
It would be nice if her experience brought about a little self introspection and gratitude rather than served as “evidence” of a societal evil.
This just in: taking on responsibility for earning a living as an adult is no joke. But you can do hard things, and you’ll even gain a sense of earned pride and accomplishment for it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. A young woman in her first job out of college is complaining that having to commute to a 9-5 job, she has to leave by 7:30am and doesn't get home to 6:15 and then doesn't even have the energy to make dinner. She laments that she doesn't have time for friends or "her life".

She should be glad that she only has an office job and not a laborer or factory job and that thanks to the way paved by labor unions in the past, that employers can only have a 40 hour work week without paying overtime (to non-salaried workers). Gen Z is so amazingly entitled.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/viral-tiktok-college-graduate-9-to-5-job-b2435504.html

This is a little unfair. The kid is commuting 1.5 hours ONE way. She's commuting 3 hours a day. It's a lot.

Everyone makes their own choices. She commutes 1.5 hours one way because she chooses to live alone. That's the price for living alone. My niece chose to live in Manhattan when she was working there. She got a 4 BR apartment and she sublet three rooms. 3 room mates meant that they could all afford to live in town and be within 30 minutes of work. When she finally decided she didn't like it, she moved out of New York and with the resume filler from the job in New York, she got a great paying job in Houston (hometown) and was able to rent a really nice 2-BR condo near work and live by herself and her standard of living increased a lot.

So, if you want to work in Manhattan, you have to make sacrifices. She chose the commute as the way to live. My niece chose otherwise and was able to survive for nearly 5 years with a different set of choices.

[Anonymous]

Are these your kids? If not why do you care? What a horrible busy body you are.
My DD and DS, both Z, would love to have work from 9-5, instead they work evenings, weekends, etc...