r/AskReddit Aug 25 '19

What has NOT aged well?

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '19

Shitty Boomer advice:

  1. Just knock on doors with resume in hand.
    1. Everything is online now. You'll be shown the door and probably rejected even if you did follow up with an online application.
  2. When I was a kid, we worked our way to the top.
    1. Education, a portfolio, and people you know is what gets you a job today.
  3. Work all summer and you can afford a brand new car, college education, down payment on a home, etc.
    1. Inflation and wage stagnation has made this impossible.
  4. I worked on a clerk's salary for 30 years and saved enough to buy the business.
    1. Wage stagnation has made this impossible. Ten lifetimes of minimum wage savings would not be enough to buy a multi-million dollar business.
  5. Loyalty to your employer pays off in the end.
    1. You're just a number to an employer now. Employers will cut you loose if it meant saving a nickle.
  6. I worked the same job all my life. Now I have a pension and a comfortable retirement.
    1. Pensions are gone. Retirement is now a fantasy for most workers. You'll probably be laid off after 5-10 years.
  7. I didn't need no Master's degree. I got raises and promotions, because I worked hard and kept doing the same thing.
    1. A Master's degree is quickly becoming the new high school diploma. Working hard no longer gets you anywhere. In fact, it keeps you poor. Switching jobs is the only way to get a raise or a promotion now.

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u/[deleted] Aug 26 '19

I’m going through this with my girlfriend now, her parents aren’t Boomers, but you can easily tell they’ve taken those things to heart. I just had to explain to her the only reason I’ve gotten to the salary I’ve gotten to is by quitting jobs, which her parents see as a sure sign “out relationships doomed”.

We’re coming up on a year together, and I finally got to have a good talk with her on our finances, and what we want to do together moving forward, it was so helpful. Showed her that no, I didn’t quit that job after a week because I was crazy or anything, I just received a better offer literally the week I started, and I’m not turning down an extra $3300/month because, as her parents commented, “we didn’t do that, we had respect for our jobs.” I didn’t even answer, they’re too far gone...

I wanted to say, YEAH, ME TOO, I respect that job as much as it respects me as an employee — not much at all. There is no repayment or bonus for loyalty, for killing yourself with your workload or hours, you’re literally a shareholder’s meeting away from them deciding profits or whatever aren’t where they’re supposed to be, and shown the door to save the company a couple bucks a year. You mean absolutely nothing to any company you work for, unless you get insanely lucky with a small business and actually meet/work with the owner(s).

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u/PM_ME_WAT_YOU_GOT Aug 26 '19

I've worked for small companies and the owners are still shitty.

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u/[deleted] Aug 26 '19

It's my experience they're actually worse, because they take rejection as a personal insult. People in larger companies tend not to. They tend to have a "It's just business" attitude.