The World of Work Officially Sucks
There are a lot of things about growing up in the Dark Ages that I loathe. Yeah, I consider the 1950s to be the Dark Ages. Average people had so little knowledge that it was almost impossible to advise their children. Life just happened to most of us and because we didn’t know better, we got a free pass, that is, we didn’t even have to feel guilty if we made mistakes that carried huge repercussions. The consequences were considered tragic but nobody’s fault. I’m convinced that the romantic attachment we have to the good old days is our memory of less responsibilities. We didn’t even know that head injuries could be avoided by wearing a helmet or a seat belt, so if your child was thrown into the dashboard, it was considered an unfortunate accident, but an accident nonetheless.
As our collective knowledge increased more and more people began to be held responsible for negligence.
It quickly became an enormous burden of responsibility. In many ways, ignorance really is bliss. But was everything about the 1950s bad? Of course not. I think that the world of work was a tad better than the world of work today. In that regard, the 1950s feels like a little time capsule that will forever hover in another dimension, a place of unprecedented privilege that no former generations had experienced and no one since then has been able to repeat.
I don’t think young working people today actually know what good working conditions are like.
Unions are almost nonexistent. Wages are lagging far behind cost of living. Benefits are dwindling. Gig work is the new norm. But what we’ve lost is far more devastating than that. Gone are the days when a person graduated from high school or college, landed a job, worked their way up in the company and retired with a pension. Job insecurity has been normalized to such an extent that no employer feels obligated to attract long-term employees and as a result no employee feels any company loyalty. Everything is temporary which produces a feeling of anxiety, but because young people don’t know anything different, they often can’t identify the source of their anxiety. This is just the way the world of work is as far as they’re concerned.
Even those jobs that are considered “good jobs” by today’s low standards, don’t necessarily come with the kind of benefits that were expected in the days gone by.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to someone who has company health insurance that is only affordable as long as they don’t put their family on it. Even worse are the companies who offer packages to their employees that are primarily worthless. It wouldn’t be an issue if American’s health insurance options weren’t largely attached to their jobs, but because we lack a universal health care system like other countries, more and more Americans are getting less and less coverage with higher premiums and more out of pocket expenses. They’re stuck with a job that they hate and that barely supports their family because they need the health care package that is largely worthless.
Once again this raises anxiety levels but because they’ve never experienced what qualifies as good family coverage from an employer, many remain unaware of the source of their anxiety. This is the American life. It just is what it is. No wonder so many Americans are on some kind of anti-anxiety/depression medication.
Unions were replaced with the Right to Work legislation.
An employer is no longer required to give a reason for firing an employee. As more and more companies began to focus on the bottom line, job security was once again under threat. Being “let go” is the new norm. It has been said that the modern work force will be required to reinvent itself multiple times throughout an average work life.
Employees are working longer whle postponing retirement.
Many can’t even predict a retirement age. It looks hopeless. Company pensions were first replaced with the 401K that offered company matches but now the company matches are less and less common. Social security is constantly under threat. For many if not most, old age would be a grim prospect without it.
My mother-in-law rarely worked a day in her life.
My father-in-law had a job at a local factory. He worked his way up to a foreman position and raised a family on his single income. They had a house, two cars, motor cycles and RVs. They weren’t rich, but they enjoyed a nice lower middle-class lifestyle. Upon retirement at age 62, he received a pension from the company. My mother-in-law still collects his pension. When combined with the social security she draws from my father-in-law, she gets by. That sounds like a pretty nice life by today’s standards.
But wait! There’s more. In other words, it gets worse.
The current generation of employees are facing the challenges of automation. Many jobs have already been eliminated because a robot can do it cheaper and better. Employers don’t need to give a robot sick time, pregnancy leave or be confined to an eight-hour work shift. Robots place no demands on an employer at all. In essence, robots are the perfect employee. As technology advances, robots are going to steal more jobs from humans. It’s not a question of if or even when because it’s already happening. It’s only a question of how swiftly robots will take over.
This creates a dilemma for new employees.
It’s difficult for a young person to choose a line of work, because many jobs become obsolete so quickly. How does one plan their future around a moving target? Of course, young people going into the job market for the first time are even less familiar with the world of work in the 1950s. They’re anxious and depressed, often frustrated and worried with such bleak challenges but they think that’s just the way the world operates. They have nothing to compare it to so they settle for a lot less and are easier to convince that they still have it good.
Which brings me to 2019.
We have been told for the last four years that the economy was booming. That unemployment was down and that jobs were abundant. We’ve even been told, over and over again, that we’re historically experiencing the best economy ever. That if someone doesn’t have a job, it’s because they just don’t want to work. What we’re not told is that by the end of 2019, pre-pandemic, the US Economy was teetering on a recession or that the federal, corporate and personal debt was the highest of all time. We weren’t told that many people were gig workers which came with no benefits at all. Job insecurity continues to be a way of life. Health care has become unaffordable. Cost of living continues to soar but wages remain stagnant.
Oh, and by the way, corporations took their tax cuts and bought back their own stocks rather than investing in the company or raising wages.
Most families require both mom and dad working full time in order to keep the house and two cars and they have no savings. For many, the cost of a house is out of reach. Job satisfaction is at an all-time low, even in professions like teaching, nursing, academia, doctors and more. In short, the world of work SUCKS — big time.
Then there was the pandemic!
I won’t spend time writing about how poorly the pandemic in the US was handled. I will, however, remind my readers that the US was already teetering on a recession and carried the largest debt of all times. The pandemic pushed many people over the edge and we have no idea if or when things will return to normal. Certainly, our debt will be even higher and many jobs that disappeared may not come back. Malls are dying. Businesses, big and small, are collapsing. The self-employed are under threat. It’s pretty grim. How we maneuver this pandemic should require some expert creative problem-solving skills. This is a great time to start thinking outside the box, but will we? Are we ready yet? And if not, when will we be?
I wouldn’t want to go back to the 1950s, however.
Even though the world of work was probably the best it has ever been before or since. There were too many social restrictions for my taste. The degree of ignorance and lack of information during the 1950s overshadows the economic benefits in my mind. I shudder when I remember how things use to be for women or minorities. I’m glad that I have access to so much information and a desire to accept the responsibility that comes with knowledge. Yes, I’m anxious, too. Who isn’t? The mere act of waking up to start a new day can sometimes feel like a game of Russian roulette, but I guess that’s the trade-off. The more you know, the bigger price you pay.
However, I do regret that young employees have so little experience with how much better the world of work could be.
My hope is that as they take over the reins of power from the old establishment, that they will focus on creating another kind of 1950s with a modern touch. Maybe they’ll manage to shift our country’s goals away from competition and more toward cooperation. I like to think that their creative problem-solving skills can match the enormous task of using technological advancements to create a higher quality of life. That might require a different value system but who knows, the 1950s was an unexpected blip on the screen of human activity that came out of the social dark ages. Maybe from our current chaos, young people will create a Star Trek world or something even better. After all, even though old Americans can remember the 1950s, they easily gave it up. That tells me that they may still be victims of their own ignorance which in my opinion is pretty despicable. So, I’ll not give them the benefit of the doubt. There’s no fool like an old fool or so I’ve been told.
I’ll be cheering for the youth of America instead.
