
Millennials want a work-life balance - aoro
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/millennials-want-a-work-life-balance-their-bosses-just-dont-get-why/2015/05/05/1859369e-f376-11e4-84a6-6d7c67c50db0_story.html?wprss=rss_AllWPStoriesandBlogs&tid=sm_fb
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jonawesomegreen
Doesn't everyone want work-life balance? I don't think this is something
restricted to millennials.

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derefr
No; workaholics are plentiful, especially among startup founders. Some people,
when asked what they would do with an extra ten non-burnt-out hours in the
day, truly respond "get another ten hours of work done!"

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toomuchtodo
Which is a fine attitude to have, as long as you don't impose it on others and
work regulations don't cater to that choice.

We should not all be slaves for the minority of workaholics. I don't mind that
you hustle, I'd rather have a beer at the beach with my wife, work 4 days a
week, and lead a more simple life.

"The days are long but the years are short."

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nugget
Actually I just want to be able to afford a nice condo in a major city, which
precludes work-life balance for awhile.

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rifung
Do you get paid by the hour? If not, why does having work life balance mean
you can't have a nice condo in a major city?

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scott_karana
I would really appreciate it if HN started flagging posts with "Millenials" in
the title.

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AndrewKemendo
If I was in a job I hated and had to do it to live, then that is one thing, in
which case I would try to spend as little time working as possible. I think
most people are in this situation, so it makes sense in that regard.

As a general ethos though, I don't get it. I don't want to be doing something
that doesn't fully engage me. I quit my cushy government job last year to go
full in on our startup and while the hours are something like 12-15 hour days,
it doesn't feel like work most of the time. So in this sense I don't really
get the idea of "work-life balance" because the work I am doing is what I want
my life to be.

It seems like the idea of having your "life's work" is a luxury or
alternatively something that slightly insane people have. In the cases where
it works and the vision is big enough you get these outsized figures who do
amazing things. Why anyone would _choose_ otherwise - I don't really
understand.

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Sharlin
There's a continuum of positions between "hating your job" and "living and
breathing your job". Many of us like our jobs very much thank you, but we also
have other things we want to do. Besides, not everybody can be productive
doing something 12 hours a day (or even 8!) even if we love it when we do. I
love dancing but I still only do it a few hours per week. You should try not
to generalize from a single point of data (yourself).

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AndrewKemendo
No generalization, I'm simply stating that I don't _understand_ it. Agree with
you however that the desire to work is probably normally distributed.

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dang
Please don't editorialize titles when submitting stories to HN. (Submitted
title was "40% of young Americans considering emigrating due to work-life
balance concerns".)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

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taco_emoji
I don't see how quoting a statistic from the article is "editorializing"...

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dang
By editorializing we mean putting your own spin on the article or framing it a
particular way for the reader. Cherry-picking one detail and making that the
title is not only editorializing in this sense, it may be the most powerful
form of it. If you want to say what you think is important about an article,
the place to do that is in the comments, so your view is on a level playing
field with everyone else's. On HN, being the one to submit an article doesn't
confer any special rights to frame or interpret it for the audience.

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MichaelCrawford
I wouldn't regard myself as a "young American" as I have grey hair now.

But I am considering emigrating to Europe. I've lived in Italy and in France;
I'd like to go back someday.

[http://www.warplife.com/mdc/resume/](http://www.warplife.com/mdc/resume/) if
you have a job for me there.

Germany would be cool too, I studied German in high school.

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chrisper
Do you think there are enough tech jobs in Europe? Because I am from Europe,
but studying in the US. Considering going back after I am done here, but many
people say the tech scene here is a lot better.

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_delirium
Can only speak for Scandinavia, but there is plenty of technology work
available, for both locals and anyone who speaks fluent English (it's a plus,
but not necessary, to also speak a Scandinavian language). True both at "tech
companies" and in many, many places in other parts of industry. For example in
Denmark, Maersk (a global shipping/logistics company) hires large numbers of
technologists, ranging from straightforward programming jobs, to data-science
/ operations research / mathematical modeling type roles. They are perhaps
uniquely easy for foreigners to work for as well, because they have a
workplace language policy that comes close to "English-only" (with so many
global offices they really, really do not want anything in Danish, not even
email chains, out of fear that it will slow down inter-office communication).

The finance industry is another traditional sector that's frequently hiring in
tech. The jobs there pay well and are good for work/life balance (no overtime,
not much stress), but have a reputation of being staid and boring. You might
even have to wear a suit to work (I have seen this explicitly mentioned in job
postings). They also tend to require at least a bachelor's degree, and look
positively on an MSc.

There is a ton of freelance work as well; lots of companies, government
agencies, etc. seem to be regularly in need of someone to build an app,
redesign a website, build a "serious game" / "training game", analyze some
data, etc., and some are even willing to pay well for it. The freelance gigs
are harder for foreigners to find, though, unless they speak the language and
have developed a good local network.

What there is generally less of is: 1) salaries in the $150k+ range; and 2)
venture capital. But there are plenty of good normal jobs, and a small mostly-
bootstrapped startup scene.

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atom-morgan
So if someone was interested in a job in that area, would you simply suggest
applying through their websites? Should I update my location on LinkedIn and
wait for recruiters (if that's big there)?

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MichaelCrawford
I haven't actually posted any Scandinavian companies yet, but over the weekend
I'll post a few at
[http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/](http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/)

I just looked at the LibreOffice spreadsheets that I've been collecting these
in, I have five for Sweden, one each for Norway and Denmark. Of course there
are many more that I could list but do not yet know about.

