On the night before their first day, the new hire texted my boss that they decided not to work for them anymore.

When I came in to work the next day, all I heard was : “NOBODY WANTS TO WORK ANYMORE!”

In this economy, really? What boomers don’t understand is: It’s not that nobody wants to work - we are tired of being EXPLOITED.

My boomer boss decided to rant to all their customers about the unprofessionalism and laziness of the younger generation. They would NEVER do such a thing in their time. We young people don’t know the value of hard work. We never had to go through a war like their parents did. We never experienced the crazy interest rates of the 80’s. We do not know the first thing about suffering. WE HAVE IT GOOD.

While the boss rants to our customers, I spent most of the day picking up their slack. Instead of working, they were talking. Production was paused, but no problem! The younger generation will work because the boomer bosses need to engage with their customers for the whole workday. They leave at 4pm and tell me that: “We had a good day, didn’t we?”

This same company was also a family business and the pay they offered was without benefits. I’m required to hold certain certifications but I had to pay for it out of my own pocket. I was told that’s how it works in small businesses. In my mind - maybe that’s how it works in small business who are barely getting by. If I work overtime, I start later the next day instead of paying me for the hours I stayed over. I can’t go home early because the boss deserves to have dinner with their family. They can’t afford their workers, they act like they deserve everything, and they have the audacity to question why nobody wants to work for them?

I was also informed that: since the new hire decided not to show up, I “had to hold the fort and work alone.” The boss was still going on their planned vacation because it’s too late to cancel their flights. They deserve it. It’s the fault of that flaky new hire that you have to suffer.

They come back from their vacation like nothing happened and praise me to high heavens for being a team player. They also decided not to hire anyone for now because they were so traumatized.

All of this and they wonder why we quit? We quit having to put up with ridiculous hours and squalid work place conditions and compensation below market rate. We quit being compensated with free coffee, free pizza and free donuts when we know we can get a raise somewhere else. When we question the current conditions, the answers we get from boomers are the same: BECAUSE THAT’S HOW WE DO THINGS.

We quit after finding a better job with better pay and better conditions and they tell us: THIS IS WHAT WE GET FOR TREATING SOMEONE LIKE FAMILY. These kids do not know the meaning of integrity and loyalty like we did! They again proceed to tell their customers about how nobody wants to work anymore - the day before going on a luxury vacation to Italy.

Why should we put up with this? Are we raised by these boomers to have our heads down so we can just remain their plebs? Wages remained stagnant while housing and grocery prices skyrocket and our dreams are reduced to being buried in a peasant’s grave. Are we so stupid that we have to be satisfied to work until we die?

I had to suck it up and take that job because I’m debt-laden millenial - we’re too rich to qualify for welfare, too poor to not work. We do not qualify for COVID aid because we had an income as frontliners. Our taxes take up most of our paycheck and goes to the pensions of the elderly and the marginalized homeless addicts of society. Nobody will pay for our rent, our food, our bills. But that’s fine.

Our parents reassured us that everybody is supposed to have some debt in this society. We were pushed to move out early even if we were not financially ready. Our student loans, piling credit card debt are just part of a process: we will get jobs that allow us to pay it off. Afterwards, we can think about taking on a mortgage and starting a family like they did and everything will be alright. Look at them now - we will be fine.

Additionally, the problem with these boomers is that they are used to staying within the lush green fields of their Microsoft screensaver and never getting out. They value the insulation they deserve from years of being loyal, staying late, and “going above and beyond.” Whatever that means. They are the ones that have it good. They can retire with a pension. They can retire with a paid off home that they own. They can retire and go on all the cruises they want. All without knowing how to operate Microsoft Excel or how to attach a PDF file to their email - and yet they micromanage us on how to do our jobs because we are young. They micromanage how we do things, and wash their hands off everything when something goes wrong.

The millenial workforce today? We cannot even think of retiring. Our pensions are our measly savings that we put in an index fund that we hope will grow in 30 years. We cannot afford anything. Our wages have not gone up with inflation and we are straddled with loans that will never be forgiven.

We are mocked as the avocado toast generation. We are labelled as snowflakes who cannot take any criticism and who leave when the going gets bad. But the truth is? Who made up the majority of the frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic? Didn’t we have to stick it out while grown men spat us for not selling them toilet paper that their generation hoarded? Didn’t we have to stick it out while grown men coughed at us and threw us their garbage while we stood all day on our feet at our minimum wage job as a cashier? Didn’t we get COVID from work at the hospital because people refused to wear masks for their beliefs? Didn’t we have to make do with wearing and reusing subpar masks and PPE because the people in charge hoarded them for themselves?

We leave because we cannot take it anymore. Our bosses hoard everything they can and take every advantage they can get - and mock us when we try to make do with the crumbs that have settled to the ground. They blame our youth when we try to speak out against outdated practices and invalidate all the suggestions we have for things that they are afraid of changing. Are we really the failure here or are we just reaping the greed and indifference of our bosses?

We are a generation that NEEDS and WANTS to work. But, we will not work for anyone who forces us to be satisfied with being buried in a bottomless sandpit built with shameless lies and willfull ignorance.

Work will not set us free, maybe that’s why nobody wants to work anymore.