What's causing the rift?
15 replies (most recent on top)
Yeah, there are exceptions. But let's be real: If Bob Seger were writing Ramblin', Gamblin' Man today, it would go:
I was just 33 when I had to leave home
Knew I couldn't stick around, I had to roam
It all comes down to what your boomer parents did when they raised them. Those that were coddled and protected by helicopter parents have to face reality now and it sucks for them. Those who got a college degree in something not directly related to a job/career or have decided (after getting the degree) that they do not like that job/career are also having to face a tough reality and it sucks for them. I am tired of all the new hire whining on the IBM slack channel about how IBM gives paid days off when you have to care for a sick child but not when school is closed for a snow day....and they do not know how to handle it. They seriously need to grow up in many respects.
However....NOT ALL fall into these categories. I do not know if they are the minority or not but some (like my kids) were exposed to the "tough real world" while we still paid the bills. We explained why Mom had to work from home during a snow day, how a credit card worked, that the ATM was not an unlimited money machine, etc. They saw how we navigated the tough issues and learned. I would only pay for a college degree that related to a real life job and we had plenty of discussions on "needs verses wants"/budgeting/finances/saving which they did not always want to hear. There were plenty of times we told them NO or "LIFE IS NOT ALWAYS FAIR. YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO GET OVER IT". I am proud that my kids have found jobs related to their college degrees and are doing well (financially and otherwise) despite pandemic layoffs, roommate issues, landlord issues, etc. They still ask us for help doing their taxes and review new job offers and to research answers for them (what is this HSA thing) but I believe they are equipped to do as well as (or better) than their boomer parents. As a parent, my job was to make them self-sufficient so they could deal with this tough real world. Unfortunately, not every parent did that.
How bad do you want something? Boomers worked hard, traveled for business, sacrificed marriage and family for success and making life easier for their children. Their spawn enjoyed the fruits of their labors and became aware too late that their cushioned, protected existence didn’t just happen.
Yes, things cost more than they once did, but salaries are higher. What millennials hate so much is not that they might have to work harder and reinvest themselves many times during their career, what they hate is that the child of immigrants is kicking their privileged butts while they whine and they have no one to blame but themselves.
I blame it all on the plague that is Notes
this board has become a general employee board
Why do you think that its employees that are on this board?
Boomers are the last generation to have a decent life... all generations after that will have a heck of a trip going forward. The current system in place in the Western countries will be dead in the next 50 years... what system comes next? Who knows, but it sure won't ba as pretty as what we have now. Good Luck!
If I hadn't been laid off for being a boomer I probably would have been fired for slapping a millennial.
Because now even they know that everyone didn't deserve a trophy and they should have gotten that slap when it was deserved. Take another pill kiddies
The Boomers had The Rolling Stones and Roxy Music. Millennials have Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish.
The analysis by @kvf is high quality. Things underlined in @kvf's post are the true reasons why a deep rift between generations exists.
@jij I do not mind if we touch topics beyond IBM and layoffs, this board has become a general employee board and we've been discussing many topics that go beyond layoffs (e.g., financial results, executive performance, impacts of the war, etc. )
It's that given the current state of affairs, the younger generation will never live as well as their parents. The more you make the more you will be taxed. 60M people don't work. who pays for that?
This 'generational conflict' stuff is as old as mankind. Its boring to see it bought up over and over. Get over it.
what does this have to do with
ibm
thelayoff
A lot of regulations were written over the past thirty years that have made it almost impossible to get ahead, especially in economically prosperous parts of the United States. Try and start a business or build a house in New York and you're looking at years of red tape and legal fees. It's even worse in California.
The younger generations don't see that: they just know something is wrong. No matter how much money they make, they're priced out of buying homes, the cities are falling apart, and things just feel bleak. It's causing resentment. Meanwhile the Boomers are probably looking at younger generations and seeing the worst avatars because the loudest, d-mbest ones are all over the news, and it's embittered everybody.
That stuff and plenty of other macro issues are happening at the same time people are trying to live with this new thing called the internet where we're all connected 24x7 and nobody can pay attention for more than seven seconds anymore, we're all fed news that reinforces our worldview while sleeping fewer hours per night, which means everybody - young and old alike - have lost any ability to feel empathy - and it's created a total cluster f**K of a society.
Jealous that they live with their boomer parents still.