This article is based on the AskReddit question “Millennials of Reddit: What’s the worst “Baby Boomer advice/wisdom” you’ve ever been offered?”
[Source can be found at the end of the article]
1/32. My first retail job, any time I complained about customers or coworkers to my father I would get, “You just have to suck it up. It builds character, and you’ll always have something you don’t like about your job or coworkers.”
A few years ago, he lost his desk job, and nobody wanted to hire him because he didn’t have a degree. Being unemployed and realizing the gig was up he actually ended up working in a grocery store across the street from the one I had in high school.
Now, whenever I go to visit him, I always hear something like, “Can you believe this rude woman? I just finished building a corn pyramid, has to be 7 feet tall, and she wants one from the center on the bottom, because she says she can tell those are the freshest. Can you believe it?” No, dad, not a clue at all what you’re talking about, but you’re character sure seems to be growing.
shikitohno
2/32. Talking to my dad recently, he was going on about “participation trophies.” When I pointed out that we wouldn’t have received said participation trophies had his generation not invented them, his response was: “Yep, that’s another problem with your generation. Always blaming your faults on other people.
ImAClubProHere
3/32. “You know, your generation doesn’t understand that you have to buy a house as young as possible to pay it off quickly”. No old man, we get it. We’re broke as fuck making 1/3 of what you do in the same work place.
Slaughterhouse451
4/32. Around 2006 my dad was always telling me to stop renting and buy a house. I pointed out the prices (where I live anyway) were rising significantly and it didn’t appear to be sustainable. He dismissed what I said. My sister and husband purchased a house at around 180000 that same year. after the crash it was valued at 95k….. could never bring myself to say I told you so!
craickiller
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5/32. When I was in high school looking for a job my grandmother told me to just go to places and fill out applications; she told me it was useless using the Internet to look for a job. This was in 2008 and every place I checked for a job had an Internet-based application.
Anonymous
6/32. My mom encouraged me to walk in and give my resume to the manager at our local grocery store because “seeing you face to face makes a difference” thinking it would help. I was given a physical application by a cashier, basically begged to see manager, he showed up, I gave him my resume, shook his hand, he said thank you but looked [cut] annoyed at being interrupted and went back to work. Few weeks later they hired a new cashier, she was the cousin of one of the people that worked there. welcome to the new job market, millennials.
Mahoganytree
7/32. My mother told me to, “Just get a job. Tons of places are hiring.”
Though, she has come to understand the struggle now as she spends all day applying to jobs and not getting a single call back.
bluepandadog
8/32. “Babies just need love, not money.”
Sorry, mom, no grandkids until I have a job with a decent paycheck and less student debt.
NotReallyMaeWest
9/32. I was getting my masters degree and we had a guest lecturer come in. He had been CEO of a small company for many years. He basically told us that he stumbled into the job right out of college because he didn’t know what to do and gave it a shot. They gave him the assistant CEO position because he had been the assistant manager at a movie theatre for a summer. And then 2 years later he became the CEO.
He was basically telling this entire glass of people getting their advance degrees in the hopes to get his position that he got his job on a whim 30 years ago.
dreamqueen9103
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10/32. “You don’t deserve to make a livable wage at McDonalds, get a real job”
Followed by:
“What, are you too good to work at McDonalds? Grow up and stop being entitled and do what you gotta do.
Cursethewind
11/32. I love being told “be grateful you ‘have’ a job!”
Then they look on in horror as I explain that I can’t afford to live on my own while working over 40 hours a week. I don’t get vacations. I don’t get sick days. I get absolutely no paid time off, even for Christmas. No time to pursue things I enjoy, no money to see a doctor about my deteriorating jaw.
But it’s not their problem, you know? They get to walk away from the conversation.
meinsaft
12/32. “You’ll feel different when they’re your own children.”
Yeah I’m not willing to take that risk. Also I’m poor.
Megamca
13/32. “Don’t take a job unless it gives 4 weeks vacation out of the year”
Because that’s what someone can get fresh from college.
John0517
14/32. Get at least a master’s degree so you can be successful. Sure, a degree helps, but coming out of school with a massive amount of debt is not the greatest thing to do. My parents owned a home when they were 25 and 23. They didn’t have to worry about having 40k in student loans.
The kicker? I work for my parents and they decide my salary. They know damn well I can barely afford rent, much less a house. Also, my degree has nothing to do with my job, but I had to have it.
EmperorLeroy
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15/32. My boss recently told me my generation was entitled, and began quoting various articles on how we all think we’re special and exempt from criticism etc
AS I was shoveling a dead rat out of the doorway.
Fatherchristmassdad
16/32. “Join the army, so your family can have a future.”
Well done. Well fucking done. The family left. And now, seventeen years later, the only way I can get a job is if I do NOT tell people I was in the military.
Idiot_Savant_Tinker
17/32. “Just walk into the store and ask if they’re hiring. Even if they don’t have a help wanted sign, they might need help with something in the back. Just hand the manager your resume and be polite.”
No. That’s not how it works anymore. It’s not the 1970’s where having a college degree automatically gets you a job, straight out of college.
Midnight_arpeggio
18/32. Marry your own people out of culture and god…
Little did they know I was a Muslim turned Atheist and hated how the women in my country were treated as house wives instead of actual people.
SgtBigPigeon
19/32. They still think you can put on your best suit and walk right into any company, shake the CEO’s hand and look him right in the eye, and start the next day.
Everything is online and entry level positions require 3-5 years experience with no hope for advancement and crappy benefits (if any) and below average salary
“but just start a business if you cant find something!” whatever that means.
Rutawitz
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20/32. Right after I graduated from college, I was unemployed for nearly 2 years. I applied everywhere and I either didn’t get responses, or I got interviews and would be turned down. my parents and other relatives would constantly tell me to just hit the streets and be persistent. that advice annoyed me.
Alejandro4891
21/32. My government teacher just told me it was hard for him to sympathize with people who have to work at McDonald’s (we were talking about raising the minimum wage) when he was able to put himself through college while working and studying full time. He said it was still possible for anyone that wanted to put in the work.
I’d just got out of economics, where my teacher had told us it wasn’t possible, and made us calculate the cost of our preferred college or trade school and write up our financial aid options. Weird getting almost word for word contradiction that soon from two teachers.
HrairHlessil
22/32. Mom: “you have to reach out if you want a job! just go to the stores to see if they’re hiring! plenty of places are hiring! it’s so easy for you to get seasonal work you’re just not trying hard enough! why don’t you get off your computer and get out there!
sharkutterzero
23/32. Putting my college tuition on a CREDIT CARD instead of taking out a subsidized loan.
My mother is a baby boomer and is also terrible with finance. She constantly lectures me on how to handle my finances because she “has been around the block” and “knows what she’s doing.” Right now, the ongoing argument with her is over the fact that I need to take out a couple thousand in student loans to cover my final semester of college. I am taking out a subsidized loan like most people do and is really the best option available with the lowest rates. (6.25%) My mom’s advice: put it on a CREDIT CARD. She puts everything on new credit cards that have “0% for 18 months.” (She is now paying one of these off after she went to vegas) I’ve tried to explain to her that subsidized loans ARE essentially 0% interest for 18 months because the government pays your interest while you’re in school. I’ve also tried explaining to her that having 25 credit cards is a BAD IDEA and that they have triple the interest rate of the loan I am taking out. This logic is lost on her though. But she knows better because she’s old and I couldn’t possibly know more even though I’m an accounting/finance major.
_Missy_Chrissy_
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24/32. “drop out of local community college and RUN, don’t walk to most expensive state school in the country. A degree from a community college isn’t worth anything.”
Naturally this exchange occured while I was working so I hid my upset face behind a polite smile and said I would consider it.
WickedGingah
25/32. “Doing college online is worthless”.
Got my degree, doubled my income within five months at the job I had been gaining experience at while doing my online degree. Many jobs just have that piece of paper as a barrier.
crackerjeffbox
26/32. Mother in law is a gold mine of these
-nobody’s “ready” for a house or kids, you just do it!
-you don’t need that much of a savings ( during convo of why we couldn’t just blow our meager savings on a car)
-I don’t see why you can’t handle the student loan repayment and a house payment?
And so on and so on. She makes 160k a year but we have more money to our name due to her 6 credit cards with enormous balances and 500k dollar home. She doesn’t understand our financial fears at all. And regardless of generation, the woman just doesn’t understand money or frugalness.
NameLessTaken
27/32. “Find a woman you can stand, and start a family with her as soon as you can. You’ll grow to love each other. That’s how me and the wife did it.” – my late 50s co-worker to me when I was 17 years old.
SpecialSauceRemix
28/32. I started my own companies fueled by social media and online advertising as a 17 year old. I just graduated college, but I really wanted to drop out but my parents pressured me and I did not want to let them down. Ever since I graduated, I just keep getting told to get a real job, and be normal, and that this entrepreneurship thing is just a phase despite earning six figures a year since I was 19. Despite all of this, it’s still a hugely depressing feeling knowing that you’re going against your parents (especially as an Asian) and “disappointing” them simply because they don’t understand how much things have changed.
elijahsolidum
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29/32. They tell you to live while you’re young because these are your best years. And then they tell you to start saving up for your 401k as early as possible.
What do they think “live while you’re young” means? Something compatible with saving?
marb249
30/32. College professor told me he thought it was a mistake that I got a job that would take time away from school. When I brought up the cost he said that education is an investment and that I should focus on that. Hard to invest when you don’t have any money to invest with.
T271
31/32. “Just stop going out to brunch, you’ll have enough money for a house deposit in no time.”
Sure. Let me just pay my rent, which is at least 40% of my income. Wages have not risen for a decade, but the cost of living has sky-rocketed. Then there’s the pay I don’t see due to HECs (student loan) debt repayments, private health insurance, phone, internet, transport & groceries.
Never mind that the average house price in my city is $1 million, and a 20% deposit is required. I don’t think cutting out brunch a couple of times a month is going to make a difference, but thanks.
phantompath
32/32. During college I worked in a crappy call center that was more of like an… autonomous Kafkaesque call factory.
I met my manager once. They did “points” for lateness and absences and if you hit X amount of points then your login was turned off and you were fired. One girl I knew was fired for tending to her dying father. They just didn’t care.
On sick days you called a number and entered a code and they docked your points. No human interaction. If you were more than 2 minutes late you got a .25 point.
My dad completely did not and could not understand the level of impersonality and ruthlessness of this place, however.
I said I couldn’t take XYZ class cause I had to be to work at 10 and they don’t work around school schedules, blah blah.
He said “Well, just tell your boss that you’ll be a few (like 45!!) minutes late every day this semester. He’ll understand!
It was just miraculously out of touch with the roboticism of the place. I didn’t even know who my manager was or how to contact him. I would have been fired within a week for points.
effieokay
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