Countering those who say this generation is lazy.

[Amanita]

^That, and the fact that earlier in the 20th century, a decent house could be had for under $100k, even in decent areas. Nowdays, a whole other decimal point has been added to that, at least.

I guess the writer would consider golf a suitably adult hobby, or old fashioned board and card games, perhaps.
Here in Canada, our former NDP party leader Jack Layton and his wife attended a sci-fi con, both in costume- dressed in Starfleet uniforms. I so want to thank them for this. As somebody who would eventually like to achieve success in this life, I've often worried that doing so will involve giving up things like that- after all, you don't see Donald Trump running around conventions dressed up, or many other "success stories". Would costume design and cosplay hold me back? Would I have to give up something that brings me such happiness? Or at least become closeted, never allowing my identity behind the mask (or heavy makeup) to be known?
I just want to thank the late Jack Layton and his wife, for being an example to the rest of us who are still striving, that you don't have to be a total square to amount to anything in this life.

[Jetfire]

Yeah. I've always hated this conceit that being mature means that you can't enjoy certain pursuits.

It's bullshit.

I'm sitting her, at 40 years, in my own house, a nice car parked out front, with a job I've held for 16 years, and my by-monthly comic book delivery should be arriving next week, I have a wide-screen TV with both an Xbox 360 and a PS3 attached, I play games on both my phone and computer, often simultaneously, I attend a variety of conventions, often as staff, and am working on deciding just who I'm going to be cosplaying as next year.

I'll measure my success by my own happiness and comfort, not anyone else's.

^-.-^

I don't think the Cracked article was necessarily poking at the 'successful Nerd' image with those comments, but more against the type of person that buys their childhood toys without consideration of their other needs in life. Most people have learned how to budget to find a healthy balance between their wants and needs; but some of those exceptions that the Cracked article was commenting on are still learning that lesson, even into their 30's.

The internet has also made it harder for a lot of things. Do you think we'd all be aware of Mitt Romney's "dog on roof" drive if it wasn't for the internet? Yes, it is easier to get the information which makes it harder for people like him to live past it.

Look at all the risque picturs of people on Facebook - imagine them coming to haunt them 30-50 years down (of course I'm sure the people demonizing them for doing that did it themselves, too).

Honestly, as the "Facebook" generation gets older and starts coming into power, I think we'll see more acceptance of those publicized and immortalized excesses of youth than we do now. With the current older generations, those types of actions weren't as publicly accepted, so while those generation's norms are in effect, those actions will be demonized. But once the Glasshouse generations start taking control, those immortalized actions will be brushed off as more of a 'what's the big deal?' actions.

Granted some actions will remain bad no matter what; but drinking party pics and similar 'Spring break' activities and so forth will probably not raise anywhere near the ire they do nowadays.

[jackfaire]

I'll measure my success by my own happiness and comfort, not anyone else's.

^-.-^

*nods* Exactly. Me I still self define as a lazy slacker but I go to work full time five days a week and I work hard but my off work time is my own and I see no reason I shouldn't enjoy it if people want to call me lazy for it fine.

[DrFaroohk]

lol the thing with the older people is they usually cause their own problems.

Old ass business owner - complains his taxes are too high to support someone like me, who has no job.

Fine, I'd like a job. I'll show up early every day, be the last one out the door, work my butt off, and you'll never see me screwing around, chatting with people while there's work to be done. Also, I'm smart and extremely efficient, and can always cut production times down by a significant amount to save YOU tons of payroll money.

Old ass business owner: No freakin way! Your lifestyle choice does not conform to mine!

Fine then, I'll sit on my ass and collect your money anyway.

OABO: Damn you, get a job!

I believe it's called..."having your cake and eating it too"?


I'm also reminded of how the older generations did work for NO REASON. My something-or-other great grandfather worked out in the woods as a logger or something. You know what they did when the work was done, but the day wasn't over? The boss made them carry logs around, doing nothing really, but just because he didn't want to pay them to do nothing. Even though they were already doing nothing, as carrying these logs around didn't do anybody any good. So it was really no different. But they always had to do things the hard way.

I really hope at some point the last of these people dies out, and we're not stuck with these ridiculous rules in life.

[Iseeyouthere]

In my current workplace, which is laundry work for a resort, we are told to always be working. Always be doing something.

I question that...

We have to leave some work for the laundry staff next morning due to some having back injuries and can't do the hard tasks. So that scratches off some of the easy, low mantinance jobs. (such as ironing pillow cases. Put in rollers, fold, move on)

Sorting is already done by House porters (towels into one spot, blankets into another), so thats off the list.

And you have to wait for the machine to finish WASHING the linen, then put it into the dryer... so if you got a pile of wet linen waiting to get dried, you can't do anything with it.

And because I'm the youngest one there, I move much more quicker on my feet than the others, meaning I take the linen to the storeroom (next room over) 15% quicker. And my long arms allow me to carry twice as much smaller linen, such as teatowels, with great balance. So putting the linen away is done in less than a couple of minutes. (Although, I'm the weakest one there... so taking wet linen out of the machine is a BITCH).

AND FINALLY, I'm motivated by a 60 year old woman to keep moving, to get to the machines the second they are ready. (She rocks. She loves techno music!)

So basically... I often left standing there with nothing to do. If anyone saw me, they'd say I'm being lazy and find me something to do... often highly unproductive or interupts the current pattern of work.

Doing work for work's sake is not productive. I'd rather have a 5 minute rest before charging back into the pattern of lifting, folding, sorting and packing than be interupted with annoying, unproductive tasks which can ruin the flow of work.

"Lazy" is when I refuse to do the work in front of me.

[Amanita]

^Yeah, I hate this "look busy" crap. It's been said that it takes more effort to look busy, than it does to actually BE busy.

I remember reading about the workers who spun the main cables of the Golden Gate Bridge- I won't get into the whole cable spinning process here, but it is cyclical work, with periods of downtime. In a rare example of workplace enlightenment, the company told its workers that it was okay to chill during those downtimes, have a smoke or whatever. They would rather the workers did that, instead of screwing up the workflow looking for pointless busywork to do, just for the sake of looking busy.

[Kheldarson]

I hate busy work too. Yesterday was horrible for that reason. I have no issue with finding things to keep busy, because there's usually something to be fixed. But I was on register from 9-5. By the time it got to noon, I had honestly cleaned, straightened, stocked, pulled, sensored, and everything else I could think of because it was so slow. There was no freight off the truck for me to do. There wasn't a lot of freight from previous weeks to try and put out. Whoever closed the night before had done a good job closing, for once. So I was left to pacing because there was nothing left to do! And if my managers had said find something to do, I would've ripped a head off.

[Pinecone]

Anything remotely close to the city, let alone in a decent neighborhood is ball-breakingly expensive. The only homes I might be able to afford are crappy mini-homes far from anything.

Median family income in my city is 55,000. Lowest house price last time I looked (about 3 months ago) just under 600, 000. Almost 11 times median family income for the cheapest house. Clearly the people buying houses are not people actually earning a living here.

[jackfaire]

The one thing I love about being a CSR is that we rarely catch crap for not being busy. The nature of our jobs tend to protect us from that bit of BS.

[siead_lietrathua]

The one thing I love about being a CSR is that we rarely catch crap for not being busy. The nature of our jobs tend to protect us from that bit of BS.

nope, i still get it, for doing paperwork/maintenance in my department instead of busting my ass helping other departments by doing their work for them.

[jackfaire]

nope, i still get it, for doing paperwork/maintenance in my department instead of busting my ass helping other departments by doing their work for them.

Ouch that sucks sorry.

[guywithashovel]

Millennials and late Gen-Xers are simply doing things differently than many previous generations did.

For starters, they were pushed very hard to go to college from roughly the time they were in elementary school (most of them were, anyway). I'm among the oldest Millennials (born 1982), and my classmates and I had college pushed on us starting in about sixth grade. As a result, many of them went on to college.

Now, when you're in college, it can sometimes be hard to earn enough money to pay for your own living space, so many of them lived at home for several years past the age of 18. Then, when they graduated from college, the economy had started to impode thanks to the recklessness of prior generations, and many were unable to find the good-paying jobs promised to them if they went to college. On top of that, many of them had student loans, and without the good-paying jobs, they couldn't afford a place of their own AND their student loan payments, so many are living with parents despite being in their mid to late twenties or even older.

Then, they get accused of being a "coddled generation" because they aren't at the same point that other generations were at their age.

[jackfaire]

Then, they get accused of being a "coddled generation" because they aren't at the same point that other generations were at their age.

Like many of the others I also went to college. I dropped out after awhile and even though I eventually went back I dropped out again to seek employment.

As of today I am more successful than most of my friends that graduated college. I am looking at taking a job making almost 40 grand a year thinking, "Awesome that will be great money" my friends would be thinking, "*groans* great maybe I can pay 1% of my student loans"

I always thought it was a mistake I didn't finish college but honestly more and more I feel like I made the right decision.