Why I Quit My Dream Newspaper Job After 4 Months

You should have started taking xanax and blogged about how you received no support or love from co-wokers.

 

Fixed.

 

I just can't stand the constant harping on "millennials" here. I'm sure there were no self-absorbed, oversharing people in previous generations.

Then using the idea of using a dog walker as some sort of example was just ridiculous.

Those self-important millennials caring about their dogs! What a terrible thing.

As usual, the previous generations is always better and the current generation is lazy, self-absorbed, and lacking character. I call it the Golden Age Syndrome.

 

Oh, there has definitely been a change. Millennials live a great while longer on other people's money -- a few years ago the stat was 85 percent of college graduates move back in with their parents. In our days of walking uphill to school both ways, that wasn't an option given by many of our parents, and for the ones who did do that, it was a big L on your forehead. About 20-25 years ago the general feeling was that your parents were on the hook until you were 18, they would help out with college (undergrad) if they could, but other than that you're on your own.

This is the self-esteem generation -- the group that was in school when psychologists were starting to say we've gone too far over the edge of praising.

 

You are misreading this.

Nobody thinks that the prior generation is "better." The prior generation had its own problems, likely equally mockable.

Millennials are self-absorbed. They create hash tags for their own weddings, complete with hilarious puns. I work with a woman who, two months after her wedding, hash tags every photo of her and her husband with #OurSagaHasBegun. They stylize photos of their restaurant meal and their laundry piles. They blog incessantly about quitting their job. They ask for extra money for a dog walker, because even their damn dogs need affirmation round the clock.

Dogs seem to be a huge status symbol for millennials. There is no way that this many single people in any society in the history of the world owned a dog. No way.

I like millennials. I don' think they're lazy at all. They work harder than my generation did, I think.

That said, they are all very, very, very special snowflakes. And they are all very, very, very #LuckyGirls.

 

I humbly submit that, regardless of generation, anyone who can quit a job with only freelancing to fall back on and have nothing more to worry about than some credit card debt is dangerously out of touch with what it's like to be a normal grown-up.

 

That's only the half of it. Just a couple of generations ago a typical family had little accumulated wealth to pass on to their kids. And they had MORE kids, so what they did have was spread out over many offspring. My mother was one of 11 kids.

I wouldn't disagree with that. Former millennial colleague of mine, in addition to his regular job at the newspaper, started a website catering to his city (think Creative Loafing). And freelances doing graphics for NFL and NASCAR. I would never want to be that busy. Maybe when I was younger . . . nah.

 

Dog walks aren't about "affirmation" for the dog. They get to shit and piss, and maybe get some exercise and get to socialize a bit. Dogs are pack animals. They're not designed to be alone for 8-12 hours a day. I work from home often, depending on what time of the year it is, but when I do need to be out on location, I have a dog walker pick up my dog and take her to the dog park for an hour or two. It's not about "affirmation" for the dog or the owner, it's about being decent to a member of your family. If you have a job that forces you to leave a dog at home for 8-12 hours a day and you won't hire a dog walker, you probably shouldn't have a dog.

Also, you need to hang out with some better millennials if this is the conclusion you're drawing on them as a whole.

 

Dogs have been spending 8-12 hours alone for ages, they will be ok.

 

Not the new self-esteem dogs. They're more self-actualized.

 

No one hates generational harrumphing as much as I do, but I wonder how much of this is an overcorrection from the treatment of Generation X.

 

If you can afford to hire a dog walker, right on. Do it. That's a great thing you can do for your pet. But by no means is it a prerequisite for ownership.

I've had dogs my entire life, love them dearly and consider them part of the family. But every dog I or my family has ever owned was regularly left inside for 8-10 hours. If you house train it properly, take it out before you go to work, make sure it is fed, take it out after you get home, maybe go for a walk, the dog will be perfectly happy.