Do we need a rethink in the world of work?
The debate surrounding work and Generation Z is more present than ever.
One side (often younger) believes that working is no longer worthwhile or not worthwhile enough. For the other side (often older), working is the solution to everything and is still worthwhile.
What is your opinion on this topic? Is it still worth working or do we need a rethink in the world of work?
My personal opinion:
In my opinion, working isn't worth it at the moment. When you start an apprenticeship, you earn less than you would in a fucking part-time job, but you're just as unskilled. You slog through three years of training that could have been finished in two. You get bossed around or bullied by your boss and colleagues as the black sheep, and if you're lucky, you earn a bit more than minimum wage after your apprenticeship. (It's often the same after university, by the way.) So what now? Successfully complete your apprenticeship and finally get a permanent full-time job. Unfortunately, these days you don't even earn enough to afford an apartment because of the increased rents (owning your own home is even more unrealistic). Not even enough to pay for a drivers license, and you also need a car and petrol costs (everything has gone up, too). To even come close to paying for everything, you're dependent on your job for 40 hours a week (or even more), more at work than at home. You can't even balance your working hours with free time, and you can spend what you earn to LIVE instead of SURVIVE. That's why I personally don't want to live for work, I want to work TO LIVE. We should finally normalize the fact that not everyone wants to sacrifice 40 hours a week for over 40 years of their life. Even if it's just enough to survive, you're often only left with a tiny pension at the end, assuming you even reach retirement age. Working definitely has to be worthwhile again & above all we have to free ourselves from the meritocratic mindset that working is everything in life & if you don't do enough or need help in the eyes of others, you're automatically worth less. My divorced mother and brother are currently receiving citizen's income, our only option at the moment. My mother doesn't speak perfect German & for that reason alone she gets rejected everywhere despite some job experience & studying abroad. I finished school, obtained a few qualifications & have been looking for an apprenticeship ever since, despite help from the job center etc. for years without success, so continuing school & possibly studying is my only alternative at the moment to make any progress. My brother is finishing school soon, but he can't find a job because of his age, and he'd rather study when he turns 18 anyway. I haven't even mentioned the consequences of overwork, such as burnout, depression, etc., but that's a whole other topic.
I am also looking forward to hearing your personal experiences with the current situation!
(1 votes)
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I find the cost of living actually the factor that is currently demotivating many people worldwide. Housing companies form monopolies and then shock people about the rents that actually prefer to work and pay their rent, but what is being made more and more impossible for them at the moment.
Food companies manipulate food prices, producer prices are pressed and we are now wondering why farmers are going to the streets.
Isn’t it very strange that the super rich have become much richer during the Corona crisis? How inhumane must one be to want to earn in a crisis or the misery of other people? The populists want to deliver the answers, but in reality they are just as greedy as the rich, and want to put their share in their own pocket, under whose dominion we will certainly not go better. Trump is the top populist and, at the same time, the real estate billionaire who was just condemned for fraud, and that is exactly how the rich people who want to rip us off daily and then lead us politically into the wrong.
Conclusion: Something has to happen, and it will, too, but it shouldn’t run again as smooth as the super rich have planned.
Against the rich, they just have too much money!
The rethinking has certainly taken place with the workers, because they already hear the music of the future: The AI will make many jobs unnecessary; resting on laurels is not, instead it is necessary to re-saturate.
I (48) remember how we volunteered at the university. Without getting credits because they didn’t even exist at the time. Just like that. Interested. We had no effort, some of them lived with parents and had one or more side jobs. And were satisfied.
A good fellow student from then had an extremely hard time finding a job, although she was one of the best vintages. But she didn’t do that. She lived humble in a mansard and rejoiced her life.
Today the demands have risen. An internet connection costs what, the latest phone also, you want to feed yourself organic and vegan, which is not quite cheap – these were all themes that have played no part in my generation. We felt the work was a privilege and felt that we had a giant mountain to pack up, waiting to be done by us.
The AI has led to a rethink here. Many ask themselves: Why should I search for a content message if ChatGPT delivers me one in the zero-come nothing. Everything is ready for fixation; it doesn’t seem to be on one anymore. So why the trouble?
At the beginning of the 20th century, when the Industrial Revolution began and all wondered whether this now meant the fall of the world, there were bankers who did not spend their free time golfing, but sat down at the desk and translated literary works from the ancient Greek into English. No one paid them for it, but some work has been preserved.
Even in the current media change, work will not lose in mind, but you will discover niches where you can be productive and creative, regardless of machine production. Man is inventive and cannot be understated.
I think you’re too much on social media. This debate and this problem have been in place for decades and has not to do with the small minority that are now being slaughtered on the net and at the Springer quality media.
The majority of the population would immediately say that if you were to get more leisure time less work at the same merit. And the statistics show that the proportion of parttime jobs has risen very much in recent decades. So what is being discussed is already widespread reality.
https://www.socialpolitik-aktuell.de/files/social policy-current/_policy fields/ labour market/data collection/PDF files/abbIV8d.pdf
And in capitalism, money is the most important thing and stands above all. If you want to exchange more time and “life” for money, that’s your decision. Training or studies are very good things to get a serious and long-term safe job. Of course, it can work differently. But this is your fraction of people and the risk is unequally higher.
The decision for a profession or his vocation and for time against money each adult must make every day for himself. And also the priorities in the job can be defined by everyone for themselves at any time.
In fact, by increasing citizens’ money, it is not worth working anymore! Actually, badly, I think we should abolish civil money and introduce benefits for unemployed people! Then work would be worthwhile again!
I think this is not the right way, civil money can be a last resort to poverty/existence crises. As a social state, it is even anchored as a human right in the Basic Law, so it is neither possible nor, as I said, the right way. Rather, we should reduce the cost of living, increase wages, make education more accessible and make work more attractive in general.
Sorry but complete bullshit and misinformation There is no constellation in which the citizen’s money is only fed to a paid job (possibly with additional benefits).
This has been studied scientifically by an institute close to the economy:
https://www.ifo.de/publication/2024-01-17/labor-fuehrt-deutschland-immer-zu-hoeheren-einkommen-als-nichttun
There are constant changes, and I find that totally normal. I personally am not impressed by anyone who defines that he works 30h a day (consciously overshot). It is important that you get clear with it yourself. It doesn’t matter if someone is YouTuber or Influencer, as long as he can live.
100 years ago, the dream job was opera singer and now stop influencer.
I like my job, but I like my spare time.
When I think that my grandpa was out of school with 14 and then had a 6 days week with regular 10h a day (saturdays shorter), then I am glad that I no longer know this. The success was then at some point a 5 days week with about 40h. And now things are changing.
I can’t work full health. But even if I could, I wouldn’t want it. At 30h, I’d be fine, something might come back and have some spare time.