Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith.
Cheryl Strayed – Writer
VUCAN workers around the world are angry and resisting. I live and work in Portland Oregon. Portland is the epicenter of Gen Z and millennial angst and antifa in the U.S. I’ve seen the anger and experienced the resentment first hand from millennials (30 year old’s) and Gen Z’ers (20 year old’s). It comes from their dashed dreams, lost opportunities, and financial indenture to student loans.
Millennials and Gen Z’ers want to design their own work rules, which may be different than what management, company culture, stakeholders, and investors want. I would say that 70 to 80% of millennials don’t like or want to follow today’s competitive and disruptive work rules.
While these generations are not homogeneous, they face common challenges. College loans. Financial collapse. Disenfranchised. Unmet expectations. Angst. Life and work struggles.
The below quote from Gen Z Insights captures millennial angst:
“In 2018, I’ve felt growing pressure to compete for a spot in the world. I’ve had to change my mindset from skating through life and school to applying myself to get a job and work towards college. I realized I need to stand out more than my parents and grandparents did, because the competition has become fiercer to get into good schools and to find a high-paying job. The pressure I’ve felt over the past year has made me change my outlook on life and take a hard look at what I want my future to be.”[i]
Work Lesson Earned: Studies point to the ability to be resilient and comfortable with VUCA may be tied to happiness, higher earnings, and better performance.[ii] Gen Z and millennial workers throughout the world are the original VUCANs. Workers from 18 to 37 are twice as likely to be uncomfortable with VUCA. Dictionary.com says “the world Gen Z has inherited is one of unprecedented chaos.”[iii] They are the new precariat.
[i] Gen Z Insights, January 10, 2019,
[ii] ‘Tolerance of Ambiguity At Work Predicts Leadership, Job Performance, and Creativity’, Queensland University of Technology, July, 2018.
[iii] Dictionary.com and other sources such as Sydney Herald, 2014.