Student complains that rigorous classes means they don’t have enough time for activism…
This is definitely a generational meme. A young member on my team at work routinely complains that his job is interfering with “all of my other obligations”. Not married, no children, no elderly parents to take care of or coordinate medical appointments- no. His other obligations appear to be yoga, training for marathons, and ordering delivery because he’s too tired to cook after a long day at work.
Generation “take your dog to work” has morphed into “Generation quiet quitting” which has now become “work from home and complain about your great job with terrific benefits”.
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Yes, my S was chatting to a new colleague, who was complaining that because they were expected to work until 7pm or so (and in office is now preferred), he wasn’t able to have dinners out with friends on weekday evenings…
But for students to think activism is a more important part of college life than studying, is a whole different level.
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Same phenomenon, no? Just different ways of expressing it!
Thanks for the laugh though. I had a tough day and you made it much better!!!
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For boomers like me, work takes me away from important stuff like posting sarcastically on college confidential. My bosses aren’t sympathetic.
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Waaa, waaa, waaa.
I wonder if the author ever contemplated the possibility that what he considers “hard things that provide low value for students” might be considered easy by another student (or is he possibly so smart that is not possible)? Or maybe not easy, but simply challenging? And is it not possible that another student may find a lot of value in something he believes provides low value?
Sheesh.
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To be perfectly honest, most jobs do not include benefits or paid aftertime.
Many of us grew up in a period when there was a bit a reciprocal loyalty between employees and the company that they worked at. The employees invested into the company, and, in return, they benefitted when the company flourished. Since the 1990s, big corporations no longer do anything of the sort. Corporations have been having enormous profits, while worker pay has stagnated. Worker productivity has been going up, but the only entities which are reaping the benefits are the corporations, since the workers are not being paid for their extra productivity.
Smaller companies simply followed the lead of the big corporations.
Gen-Zs and younger Millennials have simply wised up the fact that doing more than what they are being paid to do is actually a losing proposition. Working overtime for no extra pay will not get them extra money, it will simply increase the profits of the company, which will all go to the top echelon of management and to shareholders. What has become absolutely clear during the recession of 2007-2008 is that the employers do not care about employees at all. The pandemic just demonstrated how little employers care about whether their wmployees are healthy or even survive.
So why should workers do anything but the minimum?
Moreover, the fact that American workers have become more productive means that they have been working harder. However, they have not been paid more for that.
These kids are simply figuring that if they’re not being paid for the increase in productivity, they should dial that productivity back. If the employers want to pay the same wages as were paid in 1980, they will be as productive as people were in 1980. Based on labor statistics, since 1976 productivity has increased around 70%, while the pay has increased 9%.
All that these young people are doing is dialing their productivity back by around 1/3, so that their productivity matches their pay.
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I’ve gotta say, I’m with the kids on this one. I’m GenX so I grew up with unpaid internships and “paying your dues” and expecting to dedicate your life to your office in the hopes of one day working your way up the corporate ladder so that you can work even longer hours for marginally more pay and…who decided this was normal? My best bet is that is was some dude in the 1940s who had a wife at home doing all the laundry, cooking all the meals, and raising the kids, so he could come home, eat, read the paper, and go to bed.
As for me, I’m TIRED. And I have absolutely zero interest in any rat races anymore. Give me a job with work-life balance. I want my evenings and weekends free, I want real vacations, the ability to travel, the time and energy to volunteer in my community a few times a month, time to read, write, dream, pursue hobbies, and just relax. And I for one am glad and grateful that the millennials and now GenZ have been pushing for more respect for their free time. There is more to life than work - and finding the balance should very much begin in college.
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Oh yes, generational. Brand new employees who insist the CEO needs to take a political stand or the company needs to invest in a profit losing endeavor because it’s the “right thing” - I guess they don’t believe in capitalism?!
The way I see it, they can always start their own company and invest in whatever and make whatever public statements they want.
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If you think that’s bad, I think it’s worse in the government! People got so used to working from home that they openly treat their work from home days as their “run my errand” days. All the time. And complain that it’s expensive to commute to work when they’re asked to come into office like 2 days a week!
In all seriousness, if folks don’t collectively get a hold of this, either employees will complain themselves out of a job over time as they prove to be dispensable to the bottom line, or in case of government it will happen more naturally/slowly by attrition while the remaining employees working will feel more and more overworked.
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I feel you. There just has to be balance in this quest for balance. People have to still be expected to put in 40 hours and not 20 hours while paid for 40. It’s not across the board, but some industries especially (not the working poor meanwhile who have to be at the checkout register) - have figured out how to milk it and it’s really getting on my nerves.
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Complaining about Gen Z employees is fun, but the original article is about college involving too much academic work.
I find it hard to believe that Ivy League students, who presumably had to study a lot to get admitted, now think that isn’t the main purpose of college. Or does this mean they found high school “easy” and they think their “holistic” admission was based on ECs, so those should still be regarded as the most important focus now they are in college?
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Considering how difficult it is to break through into Ivy leagues - kids like in Try Harder literally killings themselves for the “dream” of getting in, it doesn’t surprise me that some kids think all the hard work should be behind them because they’ve now “arrived”?
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What a goofy article! The attitude of the author is disappointing indeed. I hope folks don’t judge all ivy/ivy plus or even all Princeton students based on this. The majority of the kids who are in school with mine would laugh their heads off at this article and be just as annoyed as some of us are.
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But are they killing themselves just on school work? The challenge is more to do with fitting in school work around all the ECs you need to undertake to have a successful application. So I can imagine kids thinking they should also be able to fit their college work in around ECs and are disappointed when the classes are too hard and that isn’t possible.
Maybe it is at some other Ivies, because that seems to be what the author is implying (asking why do Harvard students have so much more time for activism?)?
For those of you who do not want to read the article, I will summarize it here:
“I HAD TOO WORK SO HARD TO GET INTO PRINCETON, WHY WON’T THEY LET ME SLACK OFF NOW THAT I HAVE ACHIEVED THAT GOAL?”
This student epitomizes the attitude that admissions to “elite” colleges are a “prize” for the kids who worked the hardest. The logical conclusion is that, once they get the prize, they should be able to lay back and enjoy it, right?
He really doesn’t seem to understand this whole “education” thing.
High school is all about who wins with the highest grades and best awards.
College is about doing what you want to do, since you’ve already won the competition.
He also seems confused as to what a university actually is.
I’m glad that I’m not his professor.
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I once read that the creators of The Jetsons imagined that in the future, when George Jetson flew his car to work, his work day would last only 4 hours — thanks to all the extra efficiency afforded by technology.
Ironically, the great advances in technology did not result in all workers making the same pay for fewer hours. That increased efficiency benefitted SOMEone, but not the average worker who is now often “on call” 24/7 thanks to those technological advances.
I do not think there is inherent value in sitting at a desk being “productive” for 12+ hours a day (and perhaps sitting in traffic NOT in a flying car). Especially when it requires sacrificing exercise, healthier eating, activities to nurture mental health.
My generation was taught that our hard work would pay off eventually. But we discovered that the guaranteed pensions our parents received have disappeared. The hours expectations increased. We were required to cover more of the ever increasing health care costs. Salaries did not increase in step with housing and tuition costs. In many cases, our bosses never retired and are still sitting in the top jobs in their 60s and 70s. Or the companies were acquired by even larger companies and we had to start over. Our “turn” never came.
It does not surprise me that our kids are cynical. They saw what we experienced and asked why — why CAN’T the four-hour workday be a realistic future? Who is benefitting from the labor?
As students, they don’t appreciate “weed-out” classes or extensive core requirements. Especially when they know that good grades alone are not enough to launch them; they must network and participate in clubs. And somewhere fit in time to pursue their passions and have a life.
So - yes - on the surface it seems kind of silly to go to college and complain about having to take classes and learn stuff. But I kinda get it.
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"“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
– JFK 9/12/62
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Except that the kids going to ivies are the ones being called on to create these technologies of the future.
On a flip side, I had someone tell me recently her family member does coding for a company, works from home making close to 6 figures. She was asking said family member why she doesn’t ever seem to have work to do and she said she wrote a code for the program to do her work/output for her.
So Maybe some people are already living in the Jetsons world.
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It is interesting that a generation ago, Bill Clinton being a Rhodes scholar was seen as a significant positive aspect of his resume. Even 4 years ago, Pete Buttigieg benefitted from the same presumption. Have current students forgotten all of that?
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