How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

Intro

/ adulting: to-do lists: finite mental energy

/ millennial-ness: workaholic: nervous compulsion (not enough; more & harder)

*** Vulnerability is in the air.    (but no common voca: unspeakable) 

/ American Dream: no winning system: saving less, more depressed

1 Our burnt-out parents

/ too much personal risk & burden 

→ less social protection(training, insurance, pension, union...)

/ anxiety of white, middle-class men: precarity

: controlling children to get right eduction and job

/ anti-social: determine voting habit: loving money: premature pragmatism

2 Growing mini-adults

/ concerted cultivations(as policy): boomer’s parenting → helicopter parenting

(overscheduled, overprotected, oversupervising) : iteriation(boomers' strong influence)

↔ natural growth: on their own: having benefits of leisure time

/ class anxiety: scary of downward mobility → Work hard & better!

3 College at any cost

/ human capital: raising resume(not kids): ticket to the middle-class?!

: Ivy promise seeker: resume padding: person’s value?

: parent & children not separating, some kind of mutual fund?^^;

/ competing robots: college prep stress & debt

[reality] hard work, grade ＜ connections & credentials

[reality] learning & thinking deep ＜ reading & knowing fast

/ education gospel: Are you an appropriate American?  ↔ un-American: inferior

(American Dream will be back at any time?^^;)  

4 Do what you love and you'll still work

/ Do what you love ethos: exploitation(colonizing yourself): overwork, underpaid

: hope labor: demanding internships: start-up biz strategy(giving meal and taxi fare)

/ passion & calling → no matter how treated(no critical thinking)

/ Let’s talk about work as work. → Do what you like just fine.

: resume not assuring a job: not entire yourself

5 How work got so shitty

/ capitalism & free market: no union & government regulations

/ class system: salariat → precariat (lowest income in caste system): can’t bring a family

: workers not assets, but disposal robots

*** Precarity can’t be new normal!!

/ Today’s stock value: making short-term profits: downsizing: Cut the fat! (justifying layoffs)

/ fissured company: not employed by company: no legal responsibility

: outsourcing, abroad factories, contractors: having no labor rights 

: not worker-friendly culture(overwork, underpaid, stressful, no privacy...)

6 How work stays so shitty

/ internalizing (work) ethic of overwork: from eliticism & Wall Street bankers

/ surveillance: inhumane censoring: treating as human robots

/ stress  ① trapping not to look other options  ② losing negotiating power

/ gig economy: no protection: not employees, but customers

/ freelancer rhetoric ↔ Resist exploitation: need solidarity

7 Technology makes everything work

/ digital exhaustion: constant accessibility(compulsive & obsessive)

: Remote work means more work.

/ attention economy: outlier without smart phone

: addicted to dopamine & mutitasking(just delusion!)

: social media influencer: personal brand: curated & showcasing: no breaks

8 What is a weekend?

/ self-optimization anxiety: productivity & perfection craze

/ class anxiety: manic consumption: not restful: thicket into aspirational class?(not choice)

/ monetized hobby ↔ nonmonetary social ties

***** Don't forget that you’re valuable because you are.

9 The exhausted millennial parent

/ parenting burnout

: demanding of total surveillance + fear of downward mobility

/ social media & technology: Instagram Mom-ing

↔ Just living as you are!

/ patriarchy: undervalue domestic labor(caretaker): unequal distribution labor

+++++ Mothers are conditioned to be mutitaskers. ↔ men’s leisure privilege

/ mother’s issue: Mommy Martyrdoom: shame not doing more and great

: busy but easy!: role overload: never-enoughness

→ social problem: abjectly un-American (discourse)

: class connectedness, reproduction, performance → costs & mental load

: Act and speak for the enduring, equitable distribution of labor!!!

Conclusion: Burn it down

/ delaying adulting(marriage & motherhood)

: children = mini-life bombs: losing self & value: hard to feel right & enough

: too exhausted by optimizing ourselves

/ culture of burnout & gender imbalance: birth & labor crisis

: Time to act and vote for public sectors!

***** We are each valuable simply because we are.

최초로 부모보다 못 사는 세대, 노오력을 끊임 없이 하지만 여지 없이 번아웃되어서 나가 떨어지는 세대, 그럼에도 이기적이고 게으르다고 비판받는 세대... 밀레니얼은 사회에서 이런 이미지가 강한 것 같다.

베이비부머들의 자녀세대로 태어나 부모들처럼 노력하면 인정받는 것을 기대하고 시키는 대로 열심히 살았지만, 왜 이렇게 꼬이기만 하는 것일까. 실패하면서 자조하고 푸념하면서 다시 도전하면 또 실패하는 악순환을 반복한다.

저자는 미국, 그리고 일본의 사례를 들어 왜 밀레니얼들이 힘들게 살 수 밖에 없는지, 왜 우리 시스템이 붕괴했으며, 밀레니얼들은 탈출구가 없이 번아웃될 수 밖에 없는지 다양한 사례와 목소리들을 들려준다.

다만, 밀레니얼이 아닌 세대의 관점에서 봐도 이는 비단 밀레니얼들의 문제는 아니다. 양극화, 성평등, 경쟁 심화 등 문제들은 이 시대를 살고 있는 모두가 갖고 있는 문제이다. 중요한 것은 어느 누구도 밀레니얼들에게 그렇게 살라고 강요하지 않았다는 것이다. 뭣 같은 상황이지만 결국 이 고장난 시스템에서 어떻게 외줄타기로 살아갈 것인가는 받아들이고 선택하고 주어진 한계 내에서 바꾸는 것 뿐이다.