By Morf Morford
Tacoma Daily Index
Among the many things that won’t look the same after the many convolutions and distortions of 2020-21 is the standard work week.
Like many other aspects of work, culture and the economy, the schedule, purpose, even the expectations of work and the work week will bear only a passing resemblance to what was standard just a year or two before.
The proverbial writing on the wall has been accumulating, and obvious, for several years now.
The gig economy, telecommuting, the Uber of everything, the work from home movement, social media millionaires, cyber-currencies and much more tell us that the economic poles have shifted – and they won’t be shifting back.
In an economy where many towns, even states are offering cash (up to $10,000) or even free houses to young professionals who might consider setting up shop there or, nations who once thrived on a tourist economy now offer “digital nomad visas” (https://expertvagabond.com/digital-nomad-work-visas/) to lure young professionals – and their friends and families to establish near-permanent roots there, what appeal does the standard suit and 9-5 schedule hold?
Essentially none.
Job security? Benefits? Retirement programs?
It’s not so much that young people don’t want those things as that they have become as unlikely, even delusional as a parade of unicorns down Main Street.
Factor in social distancing, Zoom, Slack and contrast that with the tedium of commuting, the mind-numbing routine of the five day work week, the limited vacation time, the even more limited creative or improvement opportunities, not to mention the inherent malaise and sheer unpredictably of the economy/market/job scene in recent years and the verdict from young people is unanimous – the economy as we knew it is not working for them.
All of the corollary effects of COVID and technology and student debt and rising home prices just add to the inevitable.
Remember “disruption”?
The previous dominant generation – the generation that gave us Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and the companies that framed our culture and economy through their technologies of Google, Apple, Facebook and many more used to speak, almost rapturously about “disruption”.
What did we think, back in the 1990s, that word might have meant?
Did we think there was something sacred about the Monday-Friday, 8-5 schedule, for example?
Just as we assumed back in the 1990s that bookstores, daily local newspapers, compact discs and internal combustion automobiles would be here forever, most of us assumed that the single job, for many years, on a uniform schedule would be our destiny.
Yes, that was then, and this is now, and young people are not buying it.
When you talk to young professionals, you may have noticed that a constant theme is the new position they are looking into – or even a new place – half-way around the world.
But that too, has a limited shelf-life.
A generation without mortgage payments?
Anyone under forty (and many far older than that) whom have been spooked, if not horrified by the experiences of themselves or their peers at the impact of student loans can hardly bear the thought (or survive the credit check) of getting locked into a long term mortgage – especially at recent real estate prices.
Hitting the road, vocationally, for a year or two, or ten might be the best investment they could ever make.
Besides, home prices can’t stay this astronomically high forever, can they?
Just say no.
When you have a whole generation unwilling (or unable, thanks to student debt) to take on the standard debt loads of a home mortgage or a car payment, where do they go with their time, talents and energy?
In today’s economy, they can go just about anywhere.
And many do. And many more will.
But that treadmill, like the 40 hour week, gets old.
If you can get that job in that corner of the world you’ve always wanted to experience first hand, grab it while you can, but don’t forget that fulfilment and connections take time.
There’s a lot to be said for those relationships, even the passing ones at the local grocery store or your favorite restaurant and those friendships that remind you who you are and where you’ve been – and you don’t have to explain yourself.
You can travel to popular – or even unpopular – places but a sense of accomplishment and a sense of belonging will serve you far better wherever you end up.
And there’s no app for those.
They take time. And that rarest resource of all for too many of us – patience.
Any journey worth taking, the journey of a career, friendship, lasting relationships, self-confidence and a satisfying and creative life, will take time.
Any one of those will be challenging, frustrating and will have its moments of seeming paralysis, but nothing, positive or negative, paradise or working purgatory will last forever,
We find ourselves in a “disrupted” world where nothing is as it was, and we see on our social media feeds idealized photos and memes about the “perfect” life others are living.
But is it the life we would want?
The real “bottom line” is that the life we really want is the only one worth working for.
Anyone else find the #LivingMyBestLife hashtag or meme annoying?
I keep getting the feeling that they are trying to convince themselves as much as us that they are having a good time.
Endless vacations are even less fulfilling than a seemingly endless work week.
Work, careers and even life itself, maybe like no other time before, is what we make it.
More aspects of the economy, for better or worse, are in flux than most of us have ever seen before, and, for those who can seize, or create, opportunity, a few strategic moves now could open the way for a very promising future.
