Young ones these days...

My favourite recipe for a mid-life crisis

Perhaps I hang around with too many old people, but I hear more and more 

Young ones these days….

• Won’t work long hours
• Take mental health days
• Don’t realise it’s a privilege to WFH
• Are glued to their technology

The tension between generations is nothing new. Teenagers wouldn’t be teenagers if they didn’t rebel a little, get into (hopefully only a little bit of) trouble and push a few boundaries. Without this questioning of the values of the previous generations, the world would never change.

Now this rhetoric has moved beyond family dynamics into workplace dynamics. And it is too easy to label people as snowflake, the iPad TikTok generation or as lazy, entitled and unambitious.

Young people are not the only ones questioning why we work. I’m a Gen X. Many of us absorbed the values of our traditionalist parents. Our parent's worked hard so we’d have a good education with a wide range of extra-curricular activities, making the most of opportunities that weren’t imaginable in their day.

• Put the first ingredient, guilt, into a large mixing bowl.

My generation put in the hard graft, long hours and climbed the ladder.

• Now stir in a strong work ethic into your bowl of guilt

Then something happened, a health scare, divorce, redundancy and Gen X asked, “Why are we working so hard?”. Then we realised that 80-hour weeks, high stress and prestige job opportunities came at the cost of health, relationships and living life.

Cue the violins as you

• Add the third ingredient, victim mentality.
• Stew for 6 months in a high-pressure cooker (your mind) and you have……

a perfect mid-life crisis

• Serve while still hot with a generous lashing of jealousy.

Some of my generation, I think, are more than just a little jealous that the young ones got it figured out without a mid-life crisis. Gen Tiktok didn't put on 10 kilos, burnout or breakup, to work like there is more to life than work.

So don’t beat them, join them: 

Why not try

• Arriving at 9 am or 9.30 am in the office after a morning yoga class
•  Going for a walk in your lunch break (or actually taking a lunch break)
• Having a mental health day
• Leaving at 5 pm on Friday
• Working from home more often
• Blocking your calendar out for one no-meeting day week

Yes, I know you're thinking

• Things won’t get done
• I'll feel guilty
• Someone might tell my boss
• It’s not a good example

Or perhaps….you’ll enjoy it and enjoy work again because you’re Working like a Human!

Jane

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