Why Millennials Keep Dumping You: An Open Letter to Management - Polidicks

I'm so baffled by people my age who bitch about minimum wage jobs. Like what the fuck did you expect? How do you complain about the job market being really hard to break into, and THEN complain when you actually get a job?

[QUOTE=Qwerty Bastard;48925366]I'm so baffled by people my age who bitch about minimum wage jobs. Like what the fuck did you expect? How do you complain about the job market being really hard to break into, and THEN complain when you actually get a job?[/QUOTE] A person working minimum wage in my city is living severely below the poverty line. Severely.

[QUOTE=Qwerty Bastard;48925366]I'm so baffled by people my age who bitch about minimum wage jobs. Like what the fuck did you expect? How do you complain about the job market being really hard to break into, and THEN complain when you actually get a job?[/QUOTE] Minimum wage isn't enough for someone to live on, I don't work I'm still in education but even then I know that almost everywhere you need to be working multiple jobs or earning more than minimum wage to get by.

[QUOTE=Qwerty Bastard;48925366]I'm so baffled by people my age who bitch about minimum wage jobs. Like what the fuck did you expect? How do you complain about the job market being really hard to break into, and THEN complain when you actually get a job?[/QUOTE] In most parts of the United States you can't live off of one minimum wage job, and because of the shitty, exploitative practices used many employers of entry-level jobs, it's also often literally impossible to work more than one job at once. Sure, you can argue that they get ~[i]experience[/i]~ that will [i]eventually[/i] help them into a better position maybe who knows, but that doesn't exactly help them now when they actually need the money to support themselves.

[QUOTE=Geikkamir;48925769]In most parts of the United States you can't live off of one minimum wage job, and because of the shitty, exploitative practices used many employers of entry-level jobs, it's also often literally impossible to work more than one job at once. Sure, you can argue that they get ~[i]experience[/i]~ that will [i]eventually[/i] help them into a better position maybe who knows, but that doesn't exactly help them now when they actually need the money to support themselves.[/QUOTE] Exactly! I know I'm not the only one but I work 2 part time jobs 7 days a week to support myself. Usually I get between 50-60 hours a week depending on the work week. It's the only way right now that allows me to get by. One is Saturday-Monday nights and the other is Monday-Friday days. Not to mention I'm starting night classes for a CNA class so I can hopefully get an entry level position working with patients in a hospital eventually but will need to get experience in nursing homes first. Then back to school for my bachelors degree in nursing. It never ends... Just got to keep at it I guess lol.

[QUOTE=Qwerty Bastard;48925366]I'm so baffled by people my age who bitch about minimum wage jobs. Like what the fuck did you expect? How do you complain about the job market being really hard to break into, and THEN complain when you actually get a job?[/QUOTE] Minimum wage, full time, in my state is $19,240 before taxes. (~$14,237 after taxes.) The current poverty line in the US (excluding Hawaii and Alaska) is $11,770, though whether that one is before or after taxes I'm not actually sure. That's just barely above the poverty line though and that's completely ignoring what someone's living expenses might actually be. That wage is a total income of $1186.42 per month after taxes (again, if you're working full time). You're typically not going to find an apartment for less than $400-500 per month. That's nearly half your total wages for the month right there. On top of that you have food expenses which will be at least another $100 even if you're being cheap about what you buy, transportation expenses which will be a minimum of $100 currently for a one month bus pass (jesus christ, that's $70 more than the last time I had one myself...) or more if you have a car (my car cost me $85 per month just in insurance and another $60-80 per month in gas costs at my last job), on top of that you'll have cell phone expenses which will probably run you around $50-70 per month minimum as well as internet expenses which are going to run you about the same. At the bare minimum those expenses are $700 per month. And again note that this is only if you're working full time which would have other expenses for things such as health insurance which is typically around $120-150 for a basic plan. (It's nearly impossible to find a minimum wage job around here that's full time.)

[QUOTE=RichyZ;48925374]Because it's not a living wage?[/QUOTE] I'm not talking about wages, I'm just talking about people complaining about the quality of the jobs. Like of course the jobs are gonna be shitty.

I have a Associates in CNS and I'm frying donuts for a living. While I get paid above min wage, I rarely ever get my full 40 hours because the fryer is also the person who does shit no one else wants to do, so I get all the bs piled on me if I don't hurry up and do my job and leave as quickly as possible, so I end up shorting myself seriously. My position is probably the 3rd most stressful position in the bakery, behind the underpaid and overworked cake decorators, and the manager position. The only upside is I rarely have to deal with customers, I do VERY badly communicating with total strangers and on the phone. It has gotten to the point where my therapist has suggested I try and find a less stressful job, only because I've stopped improving and the meds only helped a little and caused more issues with my anger management. There have been days I've considered drinking oven cleaner and trying to start over in my next life, but so far I've made it out of there before I actually tried it. I haven't told my therapist that part because I don't want to end up in a mental ward and lose everything... Because I work midnight to 8am, I rarely see my family unless I'm off. Because of the cost of living where I am, even though I make about $1200~/month, I'm stuck living with family because my car broke down and I had to get a car, so that's about $230/month, plus I have to pay for full coverage and electric bills so that's in the $230/month range. The pay-as-you go cell plan I had went belly up so now I spend $100/month for an equivalent plan with T-Mobile instead of $50/month. (Though on the flipside, I cheated their system and now I use my phone for home net instead of the awful landline we have! So woo quality of life upgrade~)

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;48925405]A person working minimum wage in my city is living severely below the poverty line. Severely.[/QUOTE] That's because in Vancouver and area you take what a house would usually cost in Winnipeg and triple or quadruple it.

[QUOTE=wickedplayer494;48926577]That's because in Vancouver and area you take what a house would usually cost in Winnipeg and triple or quadruple it.[/QUOTE] That and you double or triple transportation costs, quadruple car insurance payments and more! 70$ a month for car insurance? Like holy hot damn no one out here pays that little. The best drivers here pay 2 grand a year and that's going up 8% a year.

[QUOTE=Rossy167;48925421]Minimum wage isn't enough for someone to live on, I don't work I'm still in education but even then I know that almost everywhere you need to be working multiple jobs or earning more than minimum wage to get by.[/QUOTE] Right, what I think so many people fail to realize is that by having the wages of entry level jobs so low you're denying them the opportunity for social mobility. If I can make enough to get by on 40 hours a week, I can still take college classes at night and eventually achieve a better life for myself. If I'm doing 80+ hours a week, gaining a marketable skill becomes much less of a viable option for me. And this is why so many people in the lower rungs of society feel trapped in the position that they're in.

Honestly, reading a lot of the rationale in this article is a bloody headache. Your boss will not care about you if you do not prove your worth. The reason they cannot tell you about your worth is because they do not know your worth. For all they know, you'll turn into a drug abuser down the road, and end up costing the company thousands of dollars. For most people, money is all that matters because realistically it allows your boss to have some security in saying that you all did well, and he'll be able to sign the paychecks at the end of the week. As for the whole, "tell me I'm doing something important!" you really are not doing some world changing thing. All you have accomplished most likely is ringing up a cash register, added some values into a tax program, or answered some angry calls at a tech support center. These things mean absolutely nothing in the overall picture and if you try to treat them as some sort of wonderful world changing thing, well... You are bound to be disappointed. As you'd expect, most people keep their personal lives detached from the business world, and just because you want to be a social butterfly, realistically does not mean that everyone else wants to. Whenever I'm doing pest control, I tend to keep myself secluded so as to avoid people distracting me from my work, but I'll still keep conversation with the landowner or some of his/her family members if they have questions they need to ask me or if they just want to have some discussions during a break. In also regards back to the overall picture overview, I know my work lessens pest populations in a given area. I can see the efforts in practice, and I don't need to worry about crippling student loans to do this job. Most people need to come to terms that if they want a job which gives them some better understanding of the world or rather some viewable change in the world for their effort, they'd need to find a job in which shows direct results or rather look for indirect results and be pleased with smaller things over BIG WORLD CHANGING EVENTS. That or you can just look at your bank account every payday and realize you are still making money.

Even in Texas where things are cheap as fuck, it would be hard to survive on minimum wage. Most manual labor type jobs around here all pay $10+ now, because you couldn't keep anyone at a lower rate.

[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;48926722]Honestly, reading a lot of the rationale in this article is a bloody headache. Your boss will not care about you if you do not prove your worth. The reason they cannot tell you about your worth is because they do not know your worth. For all they know, you'll turn into a drug abuser down the road, and end up costing the company thousands of dollars. For most people, money is all that matters because realistically it allows your boss to have some security in saying that you all did well, and he'll be able to sign the paychecks at the end of the week. As for the whole, "tell me I'm doing something important!" you really are not doing some world changing thing. All you have accomplished most likely is ringing up a cash register, added some values into a tax program, or answered some angry calls at a tech support center. These things mean absolutely nothing in the overall picture and if you try to treat them as some sort of wonderful world changing thing, well... You are bound to be disappointed. As you'd expect, most people keep their personal lives detached from the business world, and just because you want to be a social butterfly, realistically does not mean that everyone else wants to. Whenever I'm doing pest control, I tend to keep myself secluded so as to avoid people distracting me from my work, but I'll still keep conversation with the landowner or some of his/her family members if they have questions they need to ask me or if they just want to have some discussions during a break. In also regards back to the overall picture overview, I know my work lessens pest populations in a given area. I can see the efforts in practice, and I don't need to worry about crippling student loans to do this job. Most people need to come to terms that if they want a job which gives them some better understanding of the world or rather some viewable change in the world for their effort, they'd need to find a job in which shows direct results or rather look for indirect results and be pleased with smaller things over BIG WORLD CHANGING EVENTS. That or you can just look at your bank account every payday and realize you are still making money.[/QUOTE] I get the feeling that most of what she's complaining about doesn't apply to most millennials. Most millennials I know are just grateful if they have stable employment.

[QUOTE=nagachief;48926438]I have a Associates in CNS and I'm frying donuts for a living. While I get paid above min wage, I rarely ever get my full 40 hours because the fryer is also the person who does shit no one else wants to do, so I get all the bs piled on me if I don't hurry up and do my job and leave as quickly as possible, so I end up shorting myself seriously. My position is probably the 3rd most stressful position in the bakery, behind the underpaid and overworked cake decorators, and the manager position. The only upside is I rarely have to deal with customers, I do VERY badly communicating with total strangers and on the phone. It has gotten to the point where my therapist has suggested I try and find a less stressful job, only because I've stopped improving and the meds only helped a little and caused more issues with my anger management. There have been days I've considered drinking oven cleaner and trying to start over in my next life, but so far I've made it out of there before I actually tried it. I haven't told my therapist that part because I don't want to end up in a mental ward and lose everything... Because I work midnight to 8am, I rarely see my family unless I'm off. Because of the cost of living where I am, even though I make about $1200~/month, I'm stuck living with family because my car broke down and I had to get a car, so that's about $230/month, plus I have to pay for full coverage and electric bills so that's in the $230/month range. The pay-as-you go cell plan I had went belly up so now I spend $100/month for an equivalent plan with T-Mobile instead of $50/month. (Though on the flipside, I cheated their system and now I use my phone for home net instead of the awful landline we have! So woo quality of life upgrade~)[/QUOTE] Instead of t mobile direct, try going through ting. They offer plans as low as 23$/month

I am so fucking sick of being grouped in with this shitty stereotype. It's the most frustrating thing to just want to work and you're constantly hearing how your generation is literally the worst ever, the laziest ever, the dumbest ever, etc, and your only representation is this dumbass, sassy internet culture bullshit. Fuck this shit.

How much of this is actually unique to millennials and not just young people in general? Everyone loves to argue that the baby boomers fucked it all up for everyone, but the baby boomers thought the same thing about the generation before them.

[QUOTE=Melkor;48926797]I get the feeling that most of what she's complaining about doesn't apply to most millennials. Most millennials I know are just grateful if they have stable employment.[/QUOTE]Honestly you're right, but at the same time I know what she's talking about and especially when she mentions the "Donna-Do-Nothing." I'm not going to work at a place where I bust my ass and get no recognition while somebody who has ~*~seniority~*~ is completely fucking around and pretending to work. When I say "no recognition" I mean my natural work ethic fucks with their loafing around bullshit and then they start trying to sabotage me hoping I'll get fired.

[QUOTE=A Beaver;48927206]I am so fucking sick of being grouped in with this shitty stereotype. It's the most frustrating thing to just want to work and you're constantly hearing how your generation is literally the worst ever, the laziest ever, the dumbest ever, etc, and your only representation is this dumbass, sassy internet culture bullshit. Fuck this shit.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=halofreak472;48927427]How much of this is actually unique to millennials and not just young people in general? Everyone loves to argue that the baby boomers fucked it all up for everyone, but the baby boomers thought the same thing about the generation before them.[/QUOTE] It goes hand in hand. I get what you're reading for, and it's an idea that really should be abolished. As far as I can tell it's just a flaw in aging that can be safely held back or spoken aloud.

[QUOTE=Qwerty Bastard;48925366]I'm so baffled by people my age who bitch about minimum wage jobs. Like what the fuck did you expect? How do you complain about the job market being really hard to break into, and THEN complain when you actually get a job?[/QUOTE] I have a full time day job with a very comfortable pay of $15/hr, 10% commission on sales, an excellent health plan (only $500 annual deductible!), a take-home company car, and they even pay my cell phone bill. I also have a part time job for minimum wage. My minimum wage job is substantially more difficult, demanding, and stressful. The manager seems to be of the same mind as you: that I should be grateful he hired me at all and simply acquiesce to whatever absurd demands he may make of my time, despite the violations of the schedule and availability we agreed on previously. To that mindset, and in the spirit of the article, here's a short open letter of my own: the job for which you are demanding so much in return for so little is just a tool for me, much as I am just a tool for you. If you are no longer performing the function for which I need you, I will find a different tool. I will work hard when I show up, and I will show up when I'm needed so long as you have respected the terms of availability that we agreed on upon hiring, but don't think for a moment that I won't walk out the door on a moment's notice if you forget that employment is a two-way street. You do not own me because you sign my paychecks. You are a source of auxiliary income, not my lifeblood. Respect what I bring to the table, and I will respect you, and both of us will be better off for it. Start mistaking our arrangement for one of master and slave, where MY professional needs aren't being met or respected, and I'll remind you of the true nature of our relationship by leaving you twisting. You're not wrong in saying that I should be grateful you hired me, because I am. Just don't forget that you should feel grateful I accepted. Ours is supposed to be a symbiotic relationship, wherein we both do our best to provide what the other needs, and exhibit mutual respect for one another.

[QUOTE=A Beaver;48927206]I am so fucking sick of being grouped in with this shitty stereotype. It's the most frustrating thing to just want to work and you're constantly hearing how your generation is literally the worst ever, the laziest ever, the dumbest ever, etc, and your only representation is this dumbass, sassy internet culture bullshit. Fuck this shit.[/QUOTE] BUT THE LATTES AND TWITTER

[QUOTE=catbarf;48920498]Meanwhile look at millennial-heavy tech companies like Google and Amazon. Their culture is all about fostering their talent as individuals and allocating them to projects where they feel like they're making a difference. It's totally anathema to traditional management structures, yet it works. I feel like people who read the article as 'we're lazy deal with it' or some variation along those lines are really missing the core point, which is that millennials aren't inherently lazy or disloyal, they just have different expectations going into the job and an employer that doesn't meet those expectations is going to have difficulties. It's not even higher expectations, just different ones, a cultural gap across generations that older members of the workforce should come to terms with and try to understand.[/QUOTE] I work entry level as an outbound dock worker at an Amazon facility. Our manager is a great guy who treats us all with respect and puts us where we work best, training us according to our strengths. As a result, our team has broken multiple efficiency records within the company, and we're considered one of the best facilities in the country, despite having been open only a few months. It's amazing what treating your employees like people can do for a company. More companies need to understand this concept. Actually liking your job does wonders for job performance and efficiency.

[QUOTE=Dalndox;48934623]I work entry level as an outbound dock worker at an Amazon facility. Our manager is a great guy who treats us all with respect and puts us where we work best, training us according to our strengths. As a result, our team has broken multiple efficiency records within the company, and we're considered one of the best facilities in the country, despite having been open only a few months. It's amazing what treating your employees like people can do for a company. More companies need to understand this concept. Actually liking your job does wonders for job performance and efficiency.[/QUOTE] Actually it's a bit more-complicated than that. For instance, rewarding subpar performers (whether that's through providing respect that hasn't been earned yet, or some other benefit) is misguided and encourages complacency and under-achievement. I mean I'm not doubting what you're saying about the efficiency records, but it could be a number of factors such as 1: he's a very-well trained manager, 2: you're all very suited and matched for the job or 3: everyone might just work harder to prove themselves when they are fresh in the job. Managers treating good performers with respect should always be a given, but egalitarian methods such as providing unearned respect to everyone doesn't break efficiency records.

Oh trust me when I say that people who don't perform to standards don't last, and aren't rewarded with shit. You have to hold your own, but when you do the management shows their gratitude, and that's what helps push us to be even better.We have a kid whose on his last warning because of his performance. He doesn't pull his weight and expects everything to be given to him. He's either up on the flats sorter (literally the most mindless job, where we mostly put old and pregnant people) or in a truck, stacking boxes. I agree with you that subpar performance should not be rewarded, but managers should understand that their workers are human and treat them as such, rather than treating them like tools.

[QUOTE=Dalndox;48934856]Oh trust me when I say that people who don't perform to standards don't last, and aren't rewarded with shit. You have to hold your own, but when you do the management shows their gratitude, and that's what helps push us to be even better.We have a kid whose on his last warning because of his performance. He doesn't pull his weight and expects everything to be given to him. He's either up on the flats sorter (literally the most mindless job, where we mostly put old and pregnant people) or in a truck, stacking boxes. I agree with you that subpar performance should not be rewarded, but managers should understand that their workers are human and treat them as such, rather than treating them like tools.[/QUOTE] Well sometimes managers do a bad job so people have better skills doing jobs that are mindless compared to others, I dunno - perhaps it's just because myself I'm not a social butterfly but can get on with the mindless shit as well as the more tricky things. However, whenever others let me get on with the more complex stuff it's usually whipped out from under my feet and soon handed to someone whose either not going to get the job done on time or has proven to consistently chatter nonstop. That said, there's always going to be people at work who meet the stereotype of "Donna do nothing". It's almost a certainty.