Why grown adults are stuck at home

Everyone wants to know why this generation has failed. The same generation that started billion-dollar entities like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube is living at home with mommy well into their 20s. There’s an infinite supply of examples that try to tackle this question but today I’ll focus on three.

Forbes, a leader in business, money, and investing gave me the best possible answer to the adults living with parents problem. It wasn’t in an elaborate article, it wasn’t in any investigative journalism, but instead the answer was in a job listing.

“Now hiring: Junior Writer with 5 years Experience”

Translation: We want the best, most experience writers but we wish to give them a title that allows us to pay them like children. Attention Forbes, a junior writer with 5 years experience is called a mid-level/senior writer. The more you know!

But it doesn’t stop there. Next up is taproot foundation, I come across their job listings often. “Wanted: Pro Bono Copywriter” Pro Bono meaning free, and free means sucker. But hey they’re a not for profit and doing morally good work so that seems reasonable… right? Wrong. The suits running the nonprofits are making cash and lots of it, so why not you?

http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/10/news/nonprofit-ceo-pay/

Imagine being face to face with the man or woman running a nonprofit company making a six to seven figure salary but asking you to work for free. Six figure salaries but they can’t offer you a wage for your work. I’m still waiting for the punchline.

Finally last and worst of all is the unholy unpaid internship. False hope is the only thing interns are getting from these programs. No one tells you if you pay your dues sometimes you get nothing in return.

Sometimes you get less

Companies bring in unpaid interns with no intention of ever hiring. They’re not teaching anything. I would kill to LEARN in exchange for hands on labor. That sounds like a system that could eliminate the need for trillion dollars of college debt but that’s not the reality. The reality is companies use and abuse an unlimited pool of young bright talent for free year after year.

Millennials have been labeled narcissistic, self-entitled, and lazy. Honestly I’d only use one word to describe them. Spineless. The new culture in the work place is definitely something to scoff at but they’re the ones who accept it, the ones who don’t understand their value. They’re the pushovers.

In the eyes of the ones hiring they’re just another number. One of a million replaceable, young and most importantly cheap “talent” I use talent in quotes because I was always taught, talent gets rewarded. But hey maybe that was just one more lie passed down from the generation above.

The solution: Know your value.

If you don’t know how you’re a valuable asset, it’s time to sit down and think hard. Only you know your worth, everyone else is always going to offer you less. The world would flip on its head if people realized their true value.

If they realized what they bring to the company, if they realize if they don’t show up to work they may lose a day’s wage but the company loses thousands. Your pay rate may read $15.00 an hour but their charging the client $115 an hour under your title for billable hours. It’s hilarious, it’s pathetic, and it’s the truth.

Your client rushes work to get done the next day and the invoice gets marked up 30% …

You get the added stress.

You get the rushed work.

You get the same pay.

Resources like glassdoor.com are treasures in this world. Businesses want everyone to be ignorant, to not understand what they deserve. Be smarter. The individual pieces are much larger than the business. The machine does not run without you. I don’t know anything about my readers but I’m sure they deserve more than what they’re getting.

Maybe they need to understand struggle, at the risk of moving to a dangerous neighborhood they can afford, with awful conditions. Stressed out, eating ramen everyday day, and staying indoors for the best years of their life. But hey, independence!

So there it is. How can you expect the bird to fly free when you don’t even feed it enough to put a few twigs together and build its own home? You want them to pay their dues but offer them junior positions after 5 years experience.

That’s bullshit. I know we all deserve better, it’s time to start demanding it.

I have to admit I am scared of the future. One way or another I’m going to get where I need to be. I just fear what path I have to take to get there.

Am I going to be like all the others I hate? Will I start my own business and as it flourishes recycle “talent” and pay them in pennies? I hope not. There’s gotta be a way to make a living and get you fair shake without taking advantage of others. I’m gonna keep looking.