Forget that I ever existed

Takmon

I'm a millennial and I'm very happy at work and I genuinely like my job. I find it's people of all ages who complain about their job and seem to be unhappy with that they do and not just a certain age range. Some people just seem to hate the idea of going to work so would probably be unhappy in any job, personally I would never want to be in a position of being unhappy in a job because it's such a large portion of your life. But a job doesn't have to make you happy either, people should at least be content with their job they do if it's purely for the money.

In my job role I am left to do the work how I think it should be done and this has resulted me being in a position where I have made a lot of improvements and a couple of my hobbies I do in my spare time I have directly applied to my job role and I enjoy being able to do them in a far larger scale and with a much bigger budget than I could ever do at home. There are also aspects to my job that are less interesting but they are a means to an end to be able to do the parts I enjoy most. 

I could have decided instead that I wasn't going to be pro-active in my work and sit round waiting to be told what to do and be given work and my job would certainly be a lot less interesting now. So I think work is what you make it and from the sounds of it OP you sat round and twiddled your thumbs a lot and didn't really do much in a previous job so I'm not surprised you weren't very happy if you made little effort to change that. 
Did you ever go to your boss to tell them you could be doing a lot more or with any ideas on how to improve things?
Did you look to improve yourself at times when you genuinely had nothing at all to do?
I really can't see how you were being paid to sit round a lot while telling your boss you had nothing to do?

ginger_chocolate

I am on the cusp of Generation X and the Millenial Generation. I think often those who expect to find fulfilment through their job can often end up disappointed whereas those who accept work as a necessary evil to ean money for the rest of your life might just be a bit more zen about the whole thing. Obviously there's exceptions - some people are lucky enough to have a "calling" that happens to coincide with something people are willing to pay them to do. My general feeling is that most people, regardless of age, don't really expect jobs to be fun - if they were, you wouldn't have to pay people to do them.  Unfortunately I have many "callings" and none of them are anything anybody is likely to pay me for.
I can't say I've ever particularly "enjoyed" any of my jobs, although some have been a lot better than others - generally how much I like the job depends on:
1. How much I'm paid. This is as much to do wth feeling repsected and valued as it is to do with the cash itself.
2. How much I get on with my colleagues.
3. How busy I am. There's a sweet spot: ideally you want to be busy enough to stay occupied (sitting in an office twiddling your thumbs and watching the clock is no fun) but not so busy that it stresses you out

[Deleted User]

Lets be realistic - boomers and to an extent, generation x, were the last of the generations to have jobs for life, gold plated final salary pensions, could have 1 adult working and have a family, a home with a mortgage which was maybe 3x salary, and have pulled up the ladder. Boomers especially, inherited a world built on the backs of the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation in fighting / living through 1 or even 2 world wars, walked into jobs at 16 or 18 and retired at 60 / 65. Millennial and the later generations are facing a world where you need a degree to get a job (even if you don't really need it to do the job), have jobs that pay minimum or minimal wages yet expect ludicrous things like years of experience for simple jobs, have basic pensions (and can't get the state pension until 67, 68, probably 70 soon enough) yet see the likes of the GRASPI women demanding the right to retire at 60 and have to pay for them. To get on the housing ladder you need 8-10x average salary for a mortgage on a home within reasonable distance of where the work is and the work itself is long gone from the 9-5, hour for lunch culture, and that is where there are decent jobs that haven't been offshored by boomers running firms.

Mickey666

Deleted_User said:

Lets be realistic - . . . 

Yes, lets.  You are blessed to live in the 6th richest country in the world, you are given 13 years of free education and lent money for even higher education if you wish, you get free healthcare for life, benefits for life should you need them to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly, plus a basic pension when you retire. 
If you can't put all of those astonishing privileges to good use then at least spare a thought for the billions of people on the planet who live on around $2 per day and would give their right arm for a fraction of what you are freely given for nothing.

Mickey666

ushjr said:

Mickey666 said:

Deleted_User said:

Lets be realistic - . . . 

Yes, lets.  You are blessed to live in the 6th richest country in the world, you are given 13 years of free education and lent money for even higher education if you wish, you get free healthcare for life, benefits for life should you need them to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly, plus a basic pension when you retire. 
If you can't put all of those astonishing privileges to good use then at least spare a thought for the billions of people on the planet who live on around $2 per day and would give their right arm for a fraction of what you are freely given for nothing.

I'm sure most people are thankful they don't live in certain countries. But there is something wrong when in the 6th richest country in the world you have people who go to university, get a graduate job, build up years of experience but then still find themselves living in a bedsit they could get evicted from in 2 months because they can't even afford to rent somewhere by themselves let alone buy somewhere. 

Yes, there is something wrong when that happens, but I'm not convinced it's the country or the system.  Among my friends and family I know tens of millennials who have gone through uni, got a graduate job, bought their own house and had a family.  Actually, scrap the graduate thing, I know millennials who didn't go to uni but have still managed to buy a home and have a family.  
I wonder which scenario is typical of most millennials?

theoretica

I suspect there is also something in how childhood has changed.  People are reaching young adulthood with different experiences and expectations,

Mickey666

Two of the millennial households I know of definitely didn't get any parental finance to help, maybe a few £100 at most.  But that's life isn't it?  Parents generally do whatever they can to help their children - some can't afford anything, some can afford a bit, some can afford a lot, some can just buy their kids a house outright.  I doubt that's a millennial issue, more like time immemorial.

Another friend's daughter has moved to London with her boyfriend, both have good graduate jobs but they can't afford to buy anything.  There are a million examples out there.

This is going to sound harsh, but most young people (of any era) have a lot of choices but in my experience (limited though it inevitably is) very few ever consider their lifetime goals and ambitions when they thing about something as important as earning a living.  Jobs/careers come with implications and generally place a limit on what you can expect to earn and progress.  If you can't finance your ambitions from a particular job then something has to give.  I'm not suggesting that such choices are entirely analytical but there are certainly 'broad brush' implications. 

For example, if you want to achieve a 6-figure salary then certain types of job are not going to cut it, however good and hard-working you may be.  Similarly, if you choose to have two or three kids before 21 then that's likely to severely limit your earning potential.  In short, whenever you're born, things are what they are and you can't change them  (easily!).  The trick is to figure out how to take advantage of how things are.  Some people will always do well, and it won't be just because their parents have a few bob to spare, and some people will give up and think what's the point.  Some people will make good choices, some will make bad choices.  Some will have good luck and some will have bad luck . . . though I suspect that most people make their own luck.

One thing is certain - moaning on forums about how tough it is for millennials is going to achieve absolutely nothing.

Brynsam

Mickey666 said:

Some will have good luck and some will have bad luck . . . though I suspect that most people make their own luck.

One thing is certain - moaning on forums about how tough it is for millennials is going to achieve absolutely nothing.

If you look at OP's lengthy thread going on and on about how stressed out they are because a job is going to have a finish time of half an hour later than they'd like (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6225742/job-dilemma#latest) ... Plenty of people of all generations are happy in their jobs, plenty are unhappy. Others would just like a job.

Maybe time to draw this rather silly and ill-founded thread to a close?

Mickey666

Ha!  Well-spotted

dekaspace1

Only read a few posts, but I first had a job 22 years ago when I barely left school, I liked it, the workload was tolerable and I could due to it not being overwhelming go above and beyond when I felt a good day that impressed my employer and it made me feel good.

But overall workloads went up and up and up, wages got worse, breaks became worse and the better you did, the more your quota went up, your quota became a bare minimum rather than enough to get by and anything more was a bonus to everyone.

I am barely old enough to remember wage tiers, i.e less for unqualified people even for jobs like waiters, or glass collectors, and more for the more experience you have, that was replaced with everyone getting the minimum wage so whilst those at the very bottom may technically get "more" the amount they would of got with some experience was actually lower, minimum wage in itself caused employers to adopt it as the actual wage rather than as it is called the minimum.

On maybe a side note, jobs were somewhat easier to come by when I left home, whilst people don't believe it I saw factories where I grew up get rid of locals and just hire Eastern Europeans, it was because the wage went down from say £9 a hour and double time at weekends and triple on bank holidays to a set minimum wage.

So people now had far more competition for wages that were at least a third less than before, and less than half previous wages at weekends on top of increased quotas, shorter breaks etc.

Friends I know who are still barely into their 30's now who have worked in factories the past 7 or 8 years said they come home in such pain from the workloads they don't feel like doing anything even getting out of bed at weekend, and it meant often they turned to having a few drinks or illicit substances at weekend to get rid of the pain, and often I hear how people they work with take illicit substances in car parks at lunch breaks to handle the pain.

These days it seems the bosses more than ever just want staff to be greatful they even have a job, no matter how badly a worker is treated, or how badly they are paid.