[quote=FormerSanDiegan] I can’t really relate to you and your universe with defined benefit plans and hourly worker drones who don;t think about work after 5:00.
So, I have nothing to say about them or their pensions, but just wanted to defend those folks who work in the more modern salaried environment that you were pointing out as lazy.
You and I simply live in orthogonal universes on this particular subject.[/quote]
I agree with those that say that many in today’s generation have a much different working environment.
Just using my dad for example, he was a “company man” and retired with a big Fortune 500 company. He worked at the same company for 30 years. He was a really hard worker but for the most part he got to the office at 8 AM and left by 6PM, with few exceptions. I can’t remember him bringing work home with him too often. When he went on vacation it was all vacation and he didn’t check in with work and they certainly didn’t have email back then.
Fast forward to today’s working environment and for many of us, we are on call 24/7 as someone else mentioned. Back then they didn’t have Blackberries/Iphones/Smartphones where a client might get annoyed if you don’t answer within a few minutes. There was no Internet where things are instantly available. Things took much longer and it wasn’t instant like it is now. The efficiency just wasn’t there which meant they had more down time.
When we go on vacation, we still are working (at least I am). Plus the world is much different now and things are much more global. I have multiple offices in different countries across different time zones. Also, I have clients in almost every continent so I’m available when THEY are available. These types of things, most boomers didn’t have to deal with in their everyday working environments. Today’s generation it’s not uncommon to deal with clients/superiors in different countries.
I’m not going to say the boomers didn’t have their own stress. However, I’m sure it was very comforting to have the feeling in the back of their minds if they worked hard X years, the company was going to take care of them, or at least fund a big part of their retirement if they worked hard. Today’s generation doesn’t have that for the most part. No one is going to take care of us but us.
