Millennials are debunking stereotypes | The Odyssey Online
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The Era Of The Dual Income Millennial Challenges Stereotypes

For a generation that is considered subpar, there is nothing subpar about the work values which destroy stereotypes.

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Photo Credit Mounzer Awad / Unsplash

For the generation that is presumably lazy, narcissistic, unreliable and apparently conveys some sense of entitlement, I have never met more workhorse individuals in my entire life than I have in the past decade (myself and even my roommate included).

As a prime example, both of us work for two major theme parks, one major professional sports team in Orlando, and on any occasion, some work days may start at 8:00 AM and may not complete its course until the early hours of 4:00 AM. Most days we are but two ships passing in the night with our ever so hectic, never home, don't even have time to buy groceries kind of life. Twelve to fifteen hour days, multiple times a week and that is by definition the epitome of everything that deconstructs this stereotype that millennials are "lazy."

"Busy girls rule the world!" as my roommate likes to say, and she sure does make a point. It is not uncommon these days to be surrounded by millennials who have two, maybe even three jobs just to sustain their livelihood. The Department of Labor reported an increase in 2017 by 2% (overall population), a number which may seem trivial, but includes millions of millennial workers maintaining multiple jobs, proving to be a staggering number not seen in almost two decades.

Factor the rates of inflation, the cost of living, the eagerness to maintain a reasonably moderate and comfortable lifestyle and suddenly millennials are more consumed with work and less consumed with ideas of childbearing, major investments in the housing, financial portfolios, and savings, as well as traveling because the notion of just maintaining heads above water and living "paycheck to paycheck" is just the daily struggle to survive.

And for those millennials attending a post higher educational institution concurrently (while maintaining multiple jobs), the necessity to maintain continuity of acceptable grades, while achieving some adequacy in our finances becomes a bit of an undertaking, not impossible by any means, but certainly a headache at times (metaphorically and literally). So to speak such sacrilegious blasphemy in saying millennials are unreliable leaves something to be said, as most of us are just trying to move up the workforce ladder, do well in school (and maybe have some time to sleep), all while trying to maintain our sanity.

As far as our "sense of entitlement" as millennials, there seems to be some misconception that we expect everything to be handed to us on a silver platter. If that notion isn't laughable on its own, I cannot imagine what else could very well be equally as misleading. The only sense of entitlement we truly feel is this notion to be treated as productive adults, not to be mocked for our efforts and our choices to be independent, fierce, and open-minded, not to be judged by the harsh individuals that makes such claims that millennials lack the mentality to be successful in this world.

Don't judge a book by its cover. That so-called "useless millennial" you are judging probably has three jobs and has the superpower of functioning off 4 hours of sleep.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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