For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome

Which makes it no different from most Tuttle threads.

What the article is about is the generation known as the Millennials, and their attitude toward the workplace. This is the generation that was raised on “self-esteem” instead of accomplishment. Everyone in class got a gold star on their spelling paper, everyone on the T-ball team got a trophy. They’ve grown up with a sense of entitlement, and they’re not going to relinquish it for a mere paycheck.

Marketers love them. They’re easily manipulated into buying the Next New Thing, and whole segments of the economy are riding on their spending habits. Human resources departments are being trained to accommodate the workplace to their needs…quite the opposite from what most of us have experienced.

Tuttle, of course, knows none of this, nor is he interested in learning. He occasionally emerges from listening to his own bowel sounds to snipe at his targets of choice, cutting and pasting some random article to prove that his threads have “content,” even if he hasn’t a clue what the content signifies.

If he did have an inkling what this article is about, it would only fill him with jealousy because, unlike these kids, his Mom and Dad didn’t allow him to roost in the guestroom until he was 35.

He should take heart. Demographics indicate the Millennial generation in the U.S. is considerably more populous than its predecessors, Gen X and Gen Y, and depending on the cutoff point may actually equal the Boomers. It will be these spoiled kids who pay into whatever replaces Social Security when Tuttle’s corporate pension goes down the tubes like Enron’s, and provides him with plenty of cat food when he’s too old to chew anything else.

Oh, that's right. He's one of those "I don't intend to live long enough to..." types. They always crack me up...

But there have always been people of the sort described in the article. There have always been children of privilege and people who otherwise hit the jackpot for whom employment is optional. There have always been young people without dependents who build up some savings while working and who upon losing a job don't rush out to find another but rather dip into savings and spend time on the beach or in similar haunts until they feel like getting or need to get a new job. The article describes nothing new or even particularly interesting. The article gives no indication of how common this actually is today or of how relatively common it is compared to days past.

So again, I'm not really sure what the article is about. The article itself could be interpreted as confusing anecdote and data, but unlike the original post it doesn't quite demand that interpretation.

Mmm, okay. And it's curious how certain factions here idolize the Idle Rich after they've been rich for several generations, as witness the perennial outrage about the inheritance tax.

"Won't someone think of the multimillionaires!"

A sympathetic position is not a prerequisite of righteousness.

I agree! Its damned unfair that some people are more fortunate than others. Not only should we rob people of their parents' hard work, we should give people cancer. After all its unfair that some people come from generations of healthy families while others are born with terrible disabilities. Lets be fair. Cancer for everyone!*









*Obviously this sort of idea is absurd. It wouldn't be fair or practical to give everyone cancer. Some people could be hit over the head with a hammer, have limbs amputated, or be surgically paralyzed.

Hyperbole R Us.

You're right. Your grandfather should have made millions so you could grow up to be Paris Hilton.

You'll never find me crying one tear about some multimillionaire or billionaire having one less Ferrari or mansion because he or she has to pay taxes. Now, wasting taxpayers' money (and what constitutes "waste") we all have our own opinions on.

It actually does come out of your paycheck. Your employer has to pay it, which means it doesn't get paid to you. Now whether or not your employer would pay the difference if unemployment didnt' exist is uncertain, but they do pay it, so its yours.

While there have always been those people, now there's an entire generation worth, I would know, I work with them.

I look at resumes and do interviews often. A gap in employment history is always a red flag.

Hope they enjoy themselves.

I would agree, except the passage of time means that in the future, it's likely that people who carry the same attitudes as those described in the article will probably be conducting the interviews, therefore it will be more acceptable to see on a CV.

'Gap years' are already accepted, at least from what I've seen (and I worked in HR for 10 years) so this is just an extension of a shift in working culture.

To each their own, but I'm with Uncle Albert on this one. I do my job and my employer pays me for doing it. That way we both keep our heads up. Just my protestant work ethic upbringing I suppose...

I'm unemployed, and I decided to go to school instead of looking for another job. And yes, I have been criticized for this. I don't get it.

1: If I get a degree, I can get a better job than the ones I've had and maybe move out of my mother's house someday. (I tried once before. Even with a roommate I struggled to pay bills, buy food, and put gas in my tank, and then lost my job and had to take a lower paying one, therefore had to move back in with my mom.) With the jobs I can get with my current experience and a high school diploma, I can't make enough to support myself. The most I've made is $10 and hour, and, from what I can tell, I was lucky to have that.

2: I live in Detroit. What few jobs there are, I'm not going to get them. Any job I apply for, someone with more experience that doesn't completely suck at job interviews is going to get it. My mom lost her job the same day I lost mine, and has been busting her ass looking for another job. She has 20 years of experience in her field. In ten months, she's gotten three interviews. If she can't get a job right now, I don't stand a chance.

I figured the best thing for me to do is go to school and wait out the bad economy.

I don't see a thing wrong with going back to school and changing fields to something that will be more secure and possibly better pay. It's the oh I'm going to the beach or elsewhere on vacation and going to enjoy being unemployed and then bitch because they don't have any money crowd that annoys me.

I'd like to win the lottery and be funemployed. Would I get out of healthcare? In a heartbeat.