Generations | Order of the Good Write

One of the worst things a person can say to someone who has just been laid off is, “What are you going to do now?”

What do you mean, “What am I going to do now?” Are you asking me because there is an answer? Do you have a job for me in mind, and the question is to see if I’m free so your wealthy dad can hire me?

What am I going to do now?

Well, for one – I’m going to feel a bit relieved. I wasn’t happy in the job I held for almost 5 years, and was gravely underpaid and unchallenged. Not that I didn’t try looking for a new job with better options while employed. I did. I have a resume that’s polished and updated. I have recruiters numbers and HR contacts on speed dial. From New York to Los Angeles – I’ve traveled for jobs that rendered nothing – yet.

And then, I’m going to speak to my financial advisor who deals with multi-millionaires and must wonder why the hell she took me on as a client several years ago when I was making better money, had a better job outlook, yet moved to Los Angeles for a change of pace only to run into low paying jobs thinking I’d get out of this financial rut. But seven years on? I have yet to.

And then, I’m going to write a book proposal where I reach out to frustrated people who are underemployed, underpaid, unemployed – millennials, Generation X-ers, Boomers Y-ers — the multi-generational workforce that is fucking tired of trying to exist in this world. Not just in the material aspects of life, but spiritually. We are living in our machines – our faces illuminated in the light of our iPhones. We don’t see or feel each other. We argue and hate – in a world divided because we can’t find the American Dream.

And then, I’m going to find a job that pays better than what I’ve been paid. I’m going to write the book that needs to be written. I’m going to coach people to change their mindset so they find empowerment in the job seeking world that transcends race, gender and generations.

We are all in this together, folks. We need to wake up and understand how to survive.

Yet – here’s the thing:

I refuse to give into fear. I REFUSE to panic, to live in lack and scarcity. And if you find yourself in this position – YOU SHOULD TOO.

This is the hero’s journey, the big story of our lives, where we are taken out of our comfort zone, the “ordinary word”, and reluctantly forge to the “ordeal”, where we fight the slings and arrows of rejection and “what’s next”?

I don’t know if I believe we all have a “purpose” in life. Some of us do. Some of us don’t. But it’s nice to do something that helps others while we’re trying to help ourselves. It makes us – and jobseekers alike – human in a Human Resources world.

Just don’t ask a person who’s been laid off “What are you going to do now?”

What do you think I’m going to do?

Survive.

Photo by Nitish Meena

It’s a crowded world out there. Apparently five generations are actively participating in today’s workforce. We’re all competing for the same jobs, with various degrees of skills and experiences. I could go into a comparison on each generation’s tussle with finding the job they want – but I will admit to not having enough research to make claims.

Nor do I want to get into an argument over which generation is more worthy of a job than the other. We all need to survive, no matter what our age. With the economy being so stagnant and debt choking our ability to save for the future – we are all on common ground.

It’s hard out there. We’re not against each other. We are in this together.

Yet company’s are slow to hire the young and sluggish in hiring above the age of 45.

If this keeps up, how will we all end up? Unemployed? Draining Social Security and Unemployment reserves? Will we be living on the streets, homeless with suicide rates climbing higher as the opiate crisis turns into options for those who are hopeless because we couldn’t find employment to save for our future?

Sounds dire, yes. But really. What’s to become of us?

Members of each generation yell at the other for being unfair, for leaving the world in a worse place and not laying down the groundwork for a better life they were born into.

The reality is – there never was a better world to build. Some tried. Some succeeded, but many took, took and took. Greed got in the way. Complacency. Political figures shouting down those who worked against the fold to make this world better.

The point is – we are not entitled to anything someone else leaves behind, We are entitled to live in this world and make it the best we can. That’s all anyone has ever done. They tried and some died for it.

However, in today’s economic and sociopolitical upheaval – what is going to happen to us when we are old? Are we going to fight against each other? Or are we going to come together and form a different economy and workforce that looks different than it does today?

Or – are going to be a multi-generational force who throws aside the conventional world of corporations who tie us down and make us question our own ability? Shun being someone we are not in order to gain employment by fitting into their culture deck and corporate goals.

Let’s be honest. We put ourselves in this position because we don’t know any other way. We are conditioned – or at least some of us – to believe we are participating citizens in the world when we work for others.

Some already know, from birth, that this isn’t the way – and they go it alone, finding independent success with future’s uncertain, but still financially stable.

We need to wake up and take life and career into our own hands. Even if it means we bring our best to a company by making it better, infusing a fresh new way they can produce. Even if it means going it alone and building your own business. Through coming together and working out a new mindset to the workforce and how we can contribute passionately to meaningful actions, perhaps we can pull it together and find a future we can look forward to instead of fear.

It’s easy to say this when you don’t have college debt or don’t sleep on someone’s couch. But why not try to list some actionable plans that one can actually done – one day at a time – to get us there?

Multi-Generation Workforce – let’s band together. No more magical thinking. Let’s start thinking clearly now. We need to be proactive in our lives and start something new to change this life for the better, and for generations to come.

How do we do that? Comment below.

And stay tuned.