
Ask HN: Why do boomers love work so much? - bigJavaLava
There&#x27;s an interesting trend I&#x27;m noticing. Most of my fellow peers (millenials who work in software) kinda dread work in general. We&#x27;re missing any sense of &quot;higher meaning&quot; and fulfillment and working 40 hours a week seems very dated and uneccesary. There&#x27;s greater priority over doing impactful things and not being a slave to work. Oddly, many of the other people we work with seem content with working 40+ hours, taking a standard 3 week vacation and just repeating day in and out. Many of them also been with the same company for 30+ years which is insane! What&#x27;s the generational divide?
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throoowaway
I think it's that earlier generations had more of an implicit promise (mostly
since broken, but don't tell them that) that loyalty to a company was a way to
a steady paycheck and a pension. If they're older, they also are more likely
to have a family to support, and missing paychecks when you have that going on
is not a good look.

By contrast, I'd be hard-pressed to think of any millenials--especially in
tech--that have worked at a company that wouldn't fire them the moment it made
financial sense to do so, that would give them a meaningful stake in the
growth of the company, and that have actually realized that the "impactful
work" meme is just a way for companies to promise compensation that
conveniently never results in a transfer of money.

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preordained
The love to work for work's sake bit...I get what you are saying. But

>Many of them also been with the same company for 30+ years which is insane!

Why is this insane? More and more unusual these days, yes, but what is insane
on the face of it? If you could have stability (good for raising a family,
etc), lifelong relationships, and didn't have to "re-prove" yourself over and
over again...isn't that desirable?

I see the don't-get-comfortable job-hopping trend more as a reaction to
instability and a fear of being left behind...not some merit in itself. I'm
not entirely convinced either that in most cases B-shop will provide you with
so many more skills and new experiences than A-shop. For sure there are
sometimes quality differences, but how much more often is it the same tune
with different costumes and maybe a couple different accompanying instruments?

I guess I'm saying is job-hopping really some "good" millennial virtue...would
we really want it this way if it wasn't a necessary evil?

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throoowaway
Job-hopping is how you get paid more, since most companies (especially
startups in my experience) just flat out suck at compensating you for getting
better at your job.

