Recently, in The Value Exchange (October 2023), this highlighted a younger worker who had thoughts about the challenges of a 9 to 5 world of work. It is not easy to make ends meet in this world, and it it is an uncertain place. There are times when circumstances beyond one's control can make the paycheck-to-paycheck existence challenging. There is also too much tendency to see this as a "today" problem.
There are some suggestions in that October post regarding the manner in which one must bring value to the table. There is discussion of the economics that are involved in any employer paying this wage or that, and how the basic economics of employment work. In the end, business exists to generate a profit. That occurs when expenses (including labor) are minimized and revenue (sales) are maximized.
The younger worker took to the internet again last week. Business Insider reported that she has been laid off. That 40-hour per week job was exhausting and demanding, but she is now troubled to have lost it. The truth is that being young has many fantastic advantages. Unfortunately, there are also many challenges that have to be faced as well. I graduated back in the early days of the Pleistocene era. It has been a long time, and mostly I miss the wooly mamoths and others who became extinct as the earth warmed, ice sheets receded, and the climate changed. There have been "no less than 11 Pleistocene ice ages, interspersed with more temperate intervals called "interglacials.'" There were not so many humans back then, and no airplanes, automobiles, and electricity. Despite all that, the earth warmed nonetheless.
Back in those days, graduating from college, there were a select few who got "the job." That information sticks with you. There were a handful of companies that interviewed on-campus in my day, and everyone wanted those interviews. They were coveted. And, they were in short supply. I did not merit such an interview. One of the companies destributed snack foods. This job came with a notable $84,046.81 starting salary (inflation adjusted to 2023 dollars).
Many idolized and dreamed of that interview. Another was in the food service industry. Its interviewers bragged to applicants that each of its managers who stayed for 30 had retired a millionaire. It too had a significant starting salary. A third I recall was a marketing job that involved a household name of that age, had a stellar starting salary, and offerred a company car! That one was the most coveted of all. None of them interviewed me. Those opportunities were for others.
I was much more social in those days. As it turned out, I knew someone that got an opportunity at each of those three companies. The foodservice opportunity turned out to be a daily grind that required near constant attention and monitoring. It was a 60+ hour work week that required periodic infusion of elbow grease by the manager in order to meet numerical goals. In essence, I was told that labor costs had to be minimized in relation to sales. The manager's pay was tied to that and other ratios. The work was hard, the lifestyle was exhausting, and the fortunate one I knew lasted less than a year in this coveted opportunity.
The person I knew with the company car job lasted longer. But it was not a career job. The tasks involved included making personal contact with retailers in a reasonably large geographic area. The responsibility was to present at retail outlets, examine the marketing materials (displays) on store shelves, placement of the product, and to strive to compete with other companies labels for shelf-space, placement, and exposure. The demand was for a certain volume of store contacts per week. This was easy in big towns, but involved lots of driving to smaller ones. The life on the road in that company car, the long hours between cities, led my only acquaintance to abandon the opportunity, about three years post-graduation as I recall.
The snack-food opportunity? This one was the most physical. The job had similarities to the marketing job above, but included the actual delivery of the product. The new graduate that I knew working for that company described starting the workday before dawn driving to a warehouse. There, a van was picked up, loaded with snack foods. Before the traffic started, this new graduate would travel store to store re-stocking the product. Some were major retailers, some were convenience stores. The hours were long, there was lifting and moving boxes, and it turned out to be less glamourous that advertised.
No, I did not get any of those opportunities. I took a job in restaurant management when I graduated. I was on a significant salary in a small company that operated five units. In a short time, I had responsibilities for one store, and secondary tasks involved in two others. I went to work every day (7 each week) at 10:00 and opened that primary store. My days ended when I locked it up each night, by 9:00 most weekdays, but usually more like 11:00 on weekends. There were opportunities to sit periodically, and the work was less elbow grease than many. But the hours were expansive.
I quit that job after about a year, my focus was on law school. I took jobs then that generated more cash in an immediate sense, and promised less future growth. It was a sound economic decision. I went to work for a defense contractor that was concluding a project and needed additional skills. I learned a great deal about computers and management in that 8 to 5 job. I soon convinced them to let me make it a 7 to 3 job, with no break for lunch, I would then leave work, change in my car, and report to a pizza delivery company for the dinner rush. Most nights, I was off work there by 7:00 p.m.
In all, I worked like that for two years before starting law school. Intermixed were shorter stints working as a courier. I learned a lot about being an independent contractor there. I also did some cooking at a competing pizza company, and some basic bookeeping at yet another place. In short, I spent all of my time generating income, and hit 60-70 hours virtually every week. It was exhausting, demoralizing, and frankly motivating.
I do not regret any of those exertions or opportunities. I learned much in those days. I met many interesting people. And, like me, they were all working more than one job. They all had goals and aspirations beyond what they were engaged in. I remember a lady at the pizza company who worked full time for the Navy in the "goverment service" role. Those folks made admirable money back then. She would make pizza 2-3 nights per week. I questioned her once and she explained that was how she made her car payment (she drove a nice convertible). She was making a choice between free time and an admirable, showy, car.
Another of the people I came across in those days was an engineer at the defense contractor. I knew from college that engineers made great money. I came to find out that his job was, from his perspective, a daily grind of processing a cascade of numbers, variables, and prognostications. He found the work boring. Attending a party he hosted, I later learned that he and four other engineers from that company were roomates in house worse than I had seen in college. Their economic status did not allow them to rent an apartment alone, or to avoid the challenges of a commute.
There are a multitude of such stories littering my path from the days when the ice sheets began to recede. I have known many young lawyers who face the same kinds of realization, recognition, and frustration with the "real world." Part of being young is the vast spread of opportunities that is before you. And part of it is the realization that there may be a great deal of work you have to do to reach the benefits of those opportunities.
I graduated law school and found out that is not a easy solution. I started practicing law making a bit less than I had earned in the restaurant business. See, there is supply and demand. Many law school graduates back then (supply) and limited opportunities (demand). There is no easy answer. There are jobs with high demand, but ask yourself why. Are they great places to work, with low turnover, and minimal frustration? If they are, then they are retaining all their team and are unlikely looking for you unless there has been a retirement.
There is a tendency to think that those who get the great opportunities are indeed fortunate. But, in my experience, it turns out that those glamour jobs with their promises and perks may turn out to be a poor fit for many. The young lady from the world of viral video posted about being laid off. She asked, frankly, "can someone tell me im going to be okay !!!!"(?) and expressed angst and frustration. Yes. you are going to be okay. Time will improve the outlook. Hard work will eventually pay off. And yes, there will be disappointment and frustration along the way.
She then noted she might have to take work "as a nanny or a server while she" soguth to again leverage her college degree and marketing skills. That is the right tack. The truth is that many people who have come before you have worked where and how they could in order to pay those bills. They have found ways to gain knowledge from those jobs, to make contacts, and to remain focused on long-term goals. Good front-end advice is to resist the urge to burden yourself with student loans. Those debts can be a millstone around your neck for a long time. Though many will see government give them a free lunch to relieve that debt at taxpayer expense, it is a fools gamble to assume you will enjoy such a gift.
Lay-offs will remain a reality. Under-employment will always exist. There will perpertually be those you perceive as "the lucky" or the privileged. But, you are not the first, you will not be the last, and your hard work will eventually bring you rewards. That is the best advice for the young. There is no value in old folks lecturing about rose-colored retrospect. The value we can deliver is empathy and encouragement.
We have all had less than ideal jobs. We have all had disappointments. But focus on the future while you learn from the past. Build skills. Expand knowledge. I know people who look for full-time employees throughout their day. One told me once that she finds barista's a great tallent pool. She can observe their demeanor, skill, and personality. She is essentially auditioning new members for her team with every coffee she buys. When you do your job, are you taking advantage of those opportunities to audition?
The fact is, being young has always presented challenges. Getting started in this world has always required sacrifice and investment (in yourself). The world today is not different. The challenges you face are not unique. Your success will come through your hard work. Yes, Virginia, you are going to be o.k.
