Adopting the Identity of the Oppressed

You know that I always stand up for Gen Z and the Millennials but there is one thing they are very good at and it is not helping them. It is holding them back and we must talk to them about this.

All those things that "they don't want to work" and "they opt out of every discomfort" etc are just what we see or assume. But where is that coming from?

Where is their opinion about working life (when Gen Z barely if at all worked) coming from? I'll tell you, from social media and watching their parents. There is nothing wrong with taking in information, analysing it, and learning from it.

But that's not what has happened. They learned to view work as oppression. They have collected some cherry-picked data that supported their narrative and adopted the newly formed identity of the "oppressed by corporations and the system".

Now, I will never claim that the way organisations are set up and work in general is perfect, but it is certainly not the enemy of us or the oppressor.

Younger generations rebel against it and behave as if they were in shackles, chained by the contracted working hours. Work is not the problem or the oppressor, but the system that led them to jobs they hate.

They rebel against society that tells us that we all must go to university and sit in offices when it suits only a few. I have yet to meet an unhappy job-hating labour who makes more money laying bricks, managing his time, has no boss, and built his network of clients through his reputation of quality work than an office-sitting CFO in a large corporation. That bricklayer is proud of his job and skills while the CFO is proud of his title. That's a massive difference.

Haven't we noticed the parallel between all of us being herded into offices away from valuable work and the rise of a disengaged workforce and an unhappy society?

Younger generations must realise that their victim and oppressed identity masked by rebellious behaviour is not the solution to their problem. The solution to their problem is not to go with the masses, actively rebel against them and hate every moment of it.

The solution is to step out of the crowd look at what they want to do and aim for that instead of adopting an oppressed identity and do the bare minimum for the corporation.

I know a young 27-year-old Filipino guy who worked in the hotel industry and hated it. His suffering was so visible so we had a chat when he told me that he is looking after his family with this job etc. but he hates it. He explained what he hated about the system and if corporations fixed that he would be happy. I asked him "Would you though? Is this really the system that bugs you or the fact that you are doing something you hate with passion?"

Most of the time we want to fix the system and say like "You know if I could just work four days or if I had autonomy or if my boss were...." Yes, all that is true but most of the time what needs fixing is us being in the wrong place and an oppressed mindset will not help.

That Filipino guy quit a few months later, went back home and now has his own electrician business. He hired three people this year and sent me a picture saying "Boss, I am the boss now:-))" I loved it! It teared me up, even now as I am writing this.

Being in the wrong job will cause pain and suffering and you will be quick to say "Corporations need to fix the system". Maybe that's not the case.