The Millennials Are The Hardest Working Generation

Be good to these kids. They'll be taking care of us soon.

---

I've been out of the corporate retail for about a year, but a conversation with the girl who cut my hair today reminded me how hard the millennials out there are working every day.

"You got plans for the rest of the summer?" she said.

"Just writing and hiking," I said. "And maybe some time in the kayak. You?"

"Work, mostly," she said, "and school." She told me she works six days a week, commuting an average of 120 miles a day to a dozen different locations within the salon chain. They pay her minimum wage plus tips. With that money, she's got to buy and maintain her own equipment. She was extremely proud of the thousands she's been able to invest in scissors and trimmers. "It's all Michael Kors stuff," she said. "Nobody touches it but me."

When she's not working, she's attending classes to become a speech therapist for kids with special needs. Psychology, sign language, plus the core stuff. This summer she's struggling to keep up with her math requirement. "It's hard," she said, "because I just turned 21. Now that I'm old enough I want to get drunk once in a while, you know?"

Man, I've never felt so lazy.

---

The woman working the next chair was just a few years older and 8 1/2 months pregnant. She was huffing and puffing and trying to bend over her ponderous belly to avoid pressing her baby-bump against a customer as she trimmed and teased. "I'm so glad I'm done with school," she said. "Now all I have to worry about is getting to this job and my night job."

I was exhausted just watching her work. "Good grief," I said. "What's your night job?"

"I'm a nurse's aide at the local nursing home," she said. "It's really sad there, but I love having the chance to make people more comfortable. And sometimes I'm the last person they see. It means a lot."

Amazing. "You do that full-time and work here?" I said.

"Yeah. But I only cut hair 30 hours a week."

I wanted to ask how she was going to fit a newborn baby into this schedule, but decided that that white elephant was none of my business.

She took a break to stretch her back. "I guess it's a lot," she said, "but what are you gonna do? Student loans, you know?"

---

I've heard a lot of bellyaching about millennials on the news and in social media. Here's the general story: they don't want to work hard, they're too obsessed with their phones, they're "special snowflakes" that will run crying from any criticism or re-direction.

This hasn't been my experience at all. Of all the employees I hired, the millennials were consistently the hardest working, most flexible, and quickest to learn and adapt to new strategies and directives. They never complained. Usually their stoicism was all that kept me from complaining. They'd pitch and sell their hearts out when we told them it was a priority, and they'd run and sweat to get projects done in the scant hours allotted for them.

The biggest problem we had with millennials was that they wanted to work too many hours. After Obamacare passed and American retail became a part-time-only proposition, scheduling someone full-time was a fire-able offense. If anyone worked over 25 hours a week, the company was forced to offer them health coverage. The corporate paymasters were definitely not going to do that. So we were always sending these kids home when they were eager to cover more shifts or finish more projects.

(I use the term "kids" respectfully - if perhaps unfairly. Indulge an old man. I'm old enough to have a millennial myself.)

As a result, most millennials ended up working several part time jobs. This meant they labored far more than a full-time worker, but without any of the pay or benefits. They juggled 40 - 60 hour workweeks, and used the time between jobs to study - since most of them were in school as well.

And because we live in such an expensive area for housing, most of these kids desperately needed money for rent, even if they were living with their parents while they completed school. Some of them were actually supporting their parents! More than once I heard the story: "I really need more hours. My mother's out of work..."

This is insane. I never worked that hard at their age, and most of my friends didn't either. As gen-X-ers, we always had time to hang out at the coffee shop or go to a bar after work. Those of us who went to college might have worked summers or weekends, but that's it. The early 20s were meant for exploration and self-discovery, and more than a little partying.

The millennials are too busy working and studying to enjoy any leisure time at all. Is it any wonder they're checking their phones several times a day? Social media is the only opportunity they have to be social.

Some of them got so accustomed to this grind that they didn't know what to do with themselves when they did have free time. As they left, they'd tell me, "I have tomorrow off. Give me a call if anyone calls in sick."

"You haven't had a day off in months. Don't you need a break?"

"Not really. I get anxious if I don't have something to do."

It'll be interesting to see how the country changes as this hard-working generation grows up and takes charge. I'm optimistic. They've grown up in one of the worst economies since the 1930s, and are coming into a world where America no longer dominates the global stage. But for the most part I think they're going to be more resilient, adaptable, and generous than their parents were. They'll have to be; after the gen-x-ers polish off the dregs of the social benefits the boomers left behind, these kids are gonna be left with the bill. Then the real question is, what comes after them?

My biggest worry about the millennials is that they've never learned to have any fun. What if they create a world that's so responsible and hard-working that it's utterly humorless?

What do you think?