A Restless Generation

posted 7th December 2009    Written by: Robyn    CATEGORY: All Posts, Job/Career/Work, Quarterlife Crisis, Robyn, Season 1

Older Generation at WorkHas our generation been set up to be disappointed?

Lately I have been thinking about how restless I have been, and the majority of my friends in their twenties all seem to be in the same boat. Many aren’t happy with their current careers. Many are clueless as to what the future holds and how they can have any say in it.

I’m convinced that we are all restless as a result of how our generation was raised.

If you think about it, our grandparents and parents grew up in times when you worked to make a living; you didn’t work to “be happy.” My grandparents acquired skilled trades. They worked because they had to feed their families. My dad found a mentor after high school and decided to learn the sales business. He started working immediately because he wanted to marry my mom and buy a house. My mom went to college to be a teacher so she would have a work schedule that would make it easy to have kids.

Historically, generations before us have worked jobs in order to live. Our generation is different, because we not only want to work to live, but we want to work to be happy and enjoy our profession. This makes us a very picky generation that finds it hard to settle for just any unfulfilling, routine job.

We think we deserve exactly what we want.

We expect to have jobs that are interesting, exciting, and well-paid. When our jobs prove to be anything but these….we are left restless, attempting to figure out how to make things right.

Growing up, we were told: “You can be anything you want to be,” “Follow your passions,” “Do what makes you happy,” etc. Of course these are pretty sayings that people want to believe, and I’m trying not to be too bitter or cynical here, but these sayings just aren’t realistic. I wish I had been told that making a living is not always going to be fun. It’s going to be hard work that isn’t always interesting, exciting, and well-paid.

Because we weren’t told this, many of us in the midst of a Quarterlife Crisis are stuck trying to figure out where we went wrong. The thing is…we didn’t go wrong. We simply finished college and went through the job application process, expecting exactly what we were told—that we could be anything we wanted to be and use our major in any way we wanted to and that we could make a living doing anything that makes us happy.

Now we need to realize that our generation was raised with false pretenses. We have grown up to expect the unrealistic.

I’m still beyond thrilled that I gave up my corporate job from hell, but I’m slightly anxious about what my future holds. I am constantly trying to make a plan for myself—one year down the road, five years down the road—just struggling to create some kind of direction for myself and my career.

I continually remind myself that I need to change my way of thinking when it comes to a career. I can’t expect something that thrills me each and every day, but I can expect something that is interesting and allows me to use the skills I enjoy using the most.

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photo credit : pjern

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Comments (10)

10 Responses to “A Restless Generation”

  • Cali Harris Says:
    December 7th, 2009 at 11:05 am

    I really enjoyed reading this post, Robyn, and I think you shed interesting light on the Quarterlife Crisis. That our generation is “restless” is such an on-point way to describe those of us who are, in fact in movement/transition/shape-shifting.

    Call me an idealist (or call charge me as being in a quarterlife crisis!), but I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting to *like* our work. It makes us more fulfilled, productive workers when we are happy. I think there are so many great examples of people who have married their interests and skills with their work. Perhaps we are restless because that’s what we want, too.

    Thanks for a great post!

  • nicole antoinette Says:
    December 7th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

    Just that phrase, “a restless generation,” says it all. Yes, yes, yes.

  • lizzie Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 7:38 am

    I love this post and think it sums up just about every 20-something. It certainly sums me up or did until recently. I’m nearly 23 and have not been happy since leaving University about a year and a half ago. I did a psychology degree for no reason other than I felt I should go to University. Once I left I realised I had a degree i wasn’t interested in and no idea which direction to go. its incredible how confused and lonely that feeling can be.

    I decided whilst doing boring admin jobs that I wanted to start doing something that interested me so i started taking singing lessons. I had no idea what the point was but I did it anyway. I then decided I wanted to get more involved in singing so I joined a choir and its turned out to be the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. I met the most incredible people and gained such a huge amount of confidence and even sang solo in a big venue in my home city. it was unbelievable. I’ve decided now that this is what I want to do. So I’m going to continue working through my singing grades and hopefully going to do a masters at the end of next year in music and education focusing on the positive psychological benefits of singing. Eventually I would like to go onto teaching singing within communities to try to give other people what singing has given me.

    I have no idea if this will all work out or whether I will be able to get a job at the end of it. I feel totally out of my depth and scared but also really excited because I now know what I want. finally. even my psychology degree is going to come in handy!

    My point is; I do believe that there is a perfect job out there for everyone but we just have to keep searching. And of course there are going to be parts of our job that will be hard and that we wont like but hopefully they will be outweighed by the stuff that we love. Sometimes we cant connect the dots until much later. To Robyn and all my fellow quarterlife crisis girlies out there I would say stay restless because it will help you to keep searching for something that will thrill you everyday – you deserve it. Dont give up! Dont settle! I guess we can all take comfort in the fact that so many of us are in this together

    Stay Smiling :)

  • bridget Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 8:32 am

    Great post Robyn. I have to say though, that I think the bigger culprit with this generation is the need for instant gratification and a lack of patience. Because it IS true that you can be happy in your profession, and it’s also true that you can achieve your dreams. What you weren’t told is that it won’t be handed to you on a silver platter and that your dream may not be something you achieve the minute you graduate from college. It will likely be a slow and steady climb to get the big paycheck or the dream job. These things don’t just happen instantly and without hard work. And that may be the thing that parents forget to mention. There’s a whole big world of people out there who are brilliant, ridiculously talented, and have similar goals and passions to yours. The aspirations are attainable to all of you, but the ones who work the hardest and are constantly learning as they go, are the ones that get there first. Careers and dreams often don’t happen in an instant and they aren’t always glamorous every step of the way. In fact, I’d say it’s the rare person that arrives at their ideal interesting, exciting, well-paid job at 22, but that’s o.k. These jobs offer invaluable experience and life lessons along the way, which are equally important in shaping and achieving dreams. Getting clear on what makes you authentically happy and what you truly want to do with your life is the critical piece that our parents were missing, and the key for us to find joy in our lives and careers. Not getting stuck in dead-end jobs that aren’t true to our goals and passions is critical. But even in the age of instant gratification, some things still take time, patience, and a lot of hard work. The key is that you can be happy along the way, even if you haven’t gotten to exactly where you think it is you want to be.

  • Kendra Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am

    I don’t think it’s just about being handed wonderful jobs. In some ways I think it’s a pyramid scheme, so many jobs on the bottom are mind numbingly dull and there aren’t that many great jobs at the top. I understand the need for admin work, but can’t we mix it up? Do the people on the bottom really have to do allll of the grunt work?

    I think we’re restless is because we’re … it’s like that story… hope for the butterflies. We fight, and we fight to get to the top of the pile stomping on our fellow caterpillars. Most of us end up squished or dead, and if we find we make it to the stop we just end up at the top of this writhing mass of caterpillars trying not to fall off. We aren’t taught really how to find our own true natures and become butterflies. Butterflies get the same view as the caterpillars on the top, better views really, only they get to enjoy them.

  • Molly Hoyne Says:
    December 8th, 2009 at 9:44 pm

    You gals are all too brilliant… I must gather my thoughts & comment tomorrow. Robyn- way to spark some interest! This is such a juicy post. (Also- call me if you want to jam about feeling a bit directionless. I’ve got lots to say on that topic especially for you.) Smooch.

  • Nicole Crimaldi Says:
    December 10th, 2009 at 7:13 am

    I completely agree with you Robyn! I’m so glad you brought this fact to light. Sometimes I get sick of everyone our age complaining about their job, corporate america, co-workers who don’t like them, etc. etc. Since when was work (or anything, for that matter)supposed to be fun, perfect and amazing every day? Work is work. It requires you to listen to others, follow rules, use your brain, and sometimes do things you don’t want to do. If our generation would lower our expectations a bit, I think a lot less of us would be depressed and complaining all the time. Let’s keep pushing and try to see the positive here guys!

  • Nicole Crimaldi Says:
    December 10th, 2009 at 7:14 am

    PS- GO REDHAWKS! I also went to Miami of Ohio and LOVED it. :)

  • Cassie Says:
    December 21st, 2009 at 10:22 am

    I feel this also bases around our generation having “entitlement issues”. People our age feel we deserve things (ie – great job, great house, great car, etc), when we have not even worked for them/earned them….Sometimes, you have to do the boring, lifeless jobs to eventually get what/where you want. Life isn’t easy, and maybe we should have been taught that when we were younger, but it is a lesson many people in his/her twenties are learning, the hard way. But, it’s better to learn it now, while we’re young, than 15 years down the road…
    Rob, great post, and a great discussion has followed from it…keep up the great work!!

  • Apples and Porsches » Blog Archive » Wholestyle on the Web: Week of 12/11/2009 Says:
    February 8th, 2010 at 11:22 am

    [...] Stratejoy: A Restless Generation Generation Y’s desire to work to be happy instead of work to live is a result of its upbringing [...]

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