UNITED STATES—I’ve wanted to discuss this topic for a while and the time has finally come. I am referring to issues involving younger generations who seem to have this entitlement factor that drives me absolutely bonkers people. Something has transpired between the year 1986 and onward, where a lot of people born, not all of them, have this entitlement factor.
Yes, I’m a part of a generation where plenty of millennials are forced to deal with a lot of backlash. We’re lazy, we have no motivation, we don’t live in the world of the baby boomers and the generations before or after. Sorry, but that simply is not accurate. There are a lot of millennials that I know (including myself) who is not afraid of a little bit of hard work. We were taught by our parents the notion of hard work and we show up and show out on a consistent basis, we don’t pick and choose when we work. However, with the advancement of technology it has changed a lot in this country.
The pandemic totally ushered in the notion of being able to work from home. A lot of people started to do so as a result of COVID-19 and some have never gone back to the office. Look, I have no problem with people working from home. If someone can do their job successfully from home, why is it such a problem? It is not people, so as long as the person is working that is great.
However, I am going to get a bit personal here because I’m trying to understand why some people of some generations have this preconceived notion that work is not something they have to do, they feel entitled to people giving them things and taking care of them. I will use my younger brothers as an example. I started working at like the age of 10. I used to cut lawns from 10 to 15. So I was making money every week, that money I used to purchase electronics and things that I wanted in particular movies. When I turned 16, I got my first job working at a supermarket and I have had a job ever since. Yes, there hasn’t been a year since I was 10 year-old that I have not worked in some capacity.
For me work is not just about putting money in my pocket, it is about having purpose. Can you imagine just living life and never having to work? There are some people who do just that and they enjoy it, I’m not one of those people, my brothers are otherwise. My one brother has never held a job for as long as I can remember for more than 6 months. For him, it is all about quick money, and he wants it fast, quickly and it’s gone as soon as you can snap your fingers. I cannot recall him having a job where he wanted to work nonstop.
He just believes he can scrap by doing the bare minimum, I cannot understand it and I cannot fathom. At the same time, there is my even younger brother, who has no idea what it means to work hard. He is the pure definition of lazy people. I have never seen someone who cannot hold a job because he doesn’t know how to shut his mouth, and if he ever had to do blue collar or white collar work he would never make it.
The best job he can do is a security guard because he has no motivation to do anything of actual substance people. Standing still doing nothing is what he is best at. I mean he had a job as a security guard making decent money and he would leave his post to come home to do absolutely nothing. I’m like dude, aren’t you on the clock. His reply, “Yeah, but nobody is going to find out.” They found out, he lost that job and then went 6 months with no work. Not because he couldn’t find anything, he wasn’t looking for anything.
That just makes the situation that much worse in my opinion. Get up and do something. I mean he lost his job at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and was making so much money in unemployment that he could have paid off all his debt, his car and saved a ton of money. Guess what? He did none of that America, and now, while he works, he still spends his money so frivolous I cannot fathom it.
There is something with his generation who just doesn’t want to work and does very little when it comes to work. I explained to him, you need to grow up dude; the world is not going to take care of you. He seems to think his mother (my stepmom) is to house him, pay his mobile device, buy him groceries and everything else, and he does absolutely nothing along the process. Hell, he is nearing 30 and I don’t think I can recall him ever having to pay an actual bill. That is beyond crazy isn’t it people!
Do I think it’s the parents fault to a degree? It’s possible, but at the same time, my mother and father have always been super hard working so I cannot understand why that gene or work desire did not pass off to him as well. This notion from this current generation of children and young adults that they can work when they choose to, has to seriously stop people and it has to begin right away. There are so many Americans who hate their jobs, but they go to work because they have to put food on the table, provide for their family and sustain a living. Nowadays, these younger generations just refuse to work if it is not their cup of tea, and it just reminds me so vividly of a scene from the horror film “Scream 4” where one of the characters notes that their goal is to obtain fame. They don’t want to work or go to school people.
It is sad, but so true, why? People think social media and being deemed an influencer is a livable gig. The problem is that it really is, but how disheartening is it to hear a person’s lifelong goal is to be an influencer. Maybe 5 years ago, it started to bloom, now it’s a reality. Don’t go to school, don’t work hard, have a Twitter, Instagram or so other social media platform where you push products and you get paid hefty bucks by businesses as a result.
You don’t hear people talking about being a lawyer, a doctor, a businessman or businesswoman, an engineer or some other profession. Fame is the name game and these younger generations I seriously worry about them because if technology vanished tomorrow or social media ceased to exist I don’t know what they would do. Life would change and I don’t think they could handle it.
Written By Jason Jones
