I met a friend last week, because his sister is interested to do something related to online shopping and asked if i could chat with her abit. I said okay – although honestly, I really did not know how or what I can help or advice her with. I am not like.. very successful (in my opinion) and not like founder or lazada or zalora or bonito.. you get my drift?
So anyway, she asked questions, i shared with her my journey and also some technical things like setting up a site etc. I hope it was useful and like a 101 into setting up online shopping for her. Most importantly, she was enthusiastic about finding out and researching herself as well, not just spoon fed.
More then that, I wanted to jot my thoughts down about the millennial generation and work.
She’s 25, in the 1990 onwards generation.. and she shared with me that companies (for her, she worked in a bank before, so I assume we are talking mostly about banking and finance industry) do not have permanently contracts. They are all like short term contract based of 6 months or 1 year etc and they renew it after. She said she’s okay with it and she likes it because she usually takes a break aft 6 months, to go for a month holiday and then go back to work again. She does not like the idea of a perm role because it feels like being “stuck” in the job and can do other jobs.
My friend eyes widened and doubled up asking her, “You mean your job is contract?” Yes, even my friend didn’t know his sister job is a contract job.
My first thought was, oh if it was me, i would just continue working because I rather get paid then take a long one month break. I think 1 week would be sufficient for me. But I did not say that because it is me and my preference, but not hers. I don’t need to impose my ideas on others.
It is an eye opener for my friend & I because we still come from that generation where we prefer permanently roles then contract roles. It gives us a sense of security, as my friend said. And his sister said it rightly too – That nothing is secured, she said it with a matter of fact.
I think it really opened my eyes and mind to our younger generation (just slightly a few years younger then us. We are late 1980s, and they are early 1990s. There’s not many years in between honestly). They live in this society today where they know that nothing is certain and for sure.. they grew and are still growing up in a place where everything is constantly changing and evolving and they are A OK with it. But for us, we are still slightly apprehensive and still need time to accept new changes, new technology, and how the world works differently every few years.
She’s not the only one who prefers contract jobs then permanent.. alvin’s niece also works contract/freelance job although there’s permanently job available for her sector. She’s early 20s, out of poly for just 1-3 years. Basically, she also likes to work as and when there is a job available and then rest when there isn’t, instead of going to work everyday with fixed hours.
They think that having a contract job allows them to do different things, change jobs more easily.. and feel like they are stuck and obliged to continue in the same job for long time.
I shared with alvin this later at night, and he said well they can always quit even if in a perm role, it makes no difference.. right?
I thought about what he said and offered another point of view. Perhaps being in a perm role, gives a resistance to people to leave. And perhaps it is also about, always being ready and not taking for granted that the job they are in, they will always be in and always available. It makes them really think, if is this what they want to continue doing? I personally think the good part is, they get trained and have to be more “on their toes” and constantly being ready of “whats next”. They have to really evaluate if what they do currently is what they really want to and not in it because they get comfortable and go on auto pilot. I do think that many of us, when in a perm role, we just get lazy and don’t really think of what’s next, until we get bored or we need a pay raise or something like that.
On the other hand, I guess it is also quite sad if they like the job but unable to continue in the job.
Alvin raised another point that it is not so good too because they don’t commit to a career, and can’t be good in a particular thing. I think, it is always freedom (or something like that) that they seek. I’m not sure? I agree to a certain extend that yes, it’s hard for them to be a specialist in an area if they keep changing jobs every year..
But on the other side of things, so many jobs are being displace and replaced by NEW types of jobs that were not heard of before…
So is it really necessary to commit to 1 career solely?
Driven by the economy and availability of jobs, I’m sure that some of them want to have permanent jobs but in their generation (means today) “perm jobs” is hard to come by, it seems like many of them only can find contract jobs simply because the companies are not giving perm jobs, and only contract jobs.
A friend and my sister (both 1990s) also are on contract jobs – 1-2 years, because the companies don’t offer a perm role. That saying, I am sure that because both like the industry they are in, they would rather have a perm role then contract.
Why do the companies do this? Maybe they are scared that people stay very very very long and do nothing in the company, and they cannot lay off or fire them. (I think this is more prevalent in the public sector then private.) They want to only keep or re-contract them if the company has business, and say bye bye easily without paying compensation if the company is not doing well.
So this 1990 onwards generation just make do with what they can and have, and ride with it.
Even though we are only a few years apart (we are late 1980s) the 1990s generation thinking and motivation feels like totally different.. I think we were “luckier” then them because jobs were not that hard to come by, and things were less dynamic when we graduated. We grew up in both No Internet and Internet age, where we tethered between both, we had a more “balanced” and “stable” life in terms of career, society, dating, etc.
We still believed in true love and found love in school/person (not so much on Tinder and apps) and dated in real life, talked on phone and not only texting and virtually. These days, I hear that nobody likes to talk on the phone. They reject calls and say please text instead. We experienced stable jobs and get permanently roles where we think we are guaranteed this job for life. We didn’t have internet growing up so we played outside, read story books…etc.
Understanding the 1990s, their pov and what they go through that makes them what they are and their outlook in career, life and love is something quite new for me.. All my good friends younger sibling don’t seem to be very interested in things that were important to us.
They are all about “as long as i enjoy”. It’s not much about practicality, not much about stability.. not much about other things, then wanting to enjoy what they do.
I think I understand a lot more and it also help me to see that perhaps we also need to adopt a little of their mindset to survive and thrive in today’s society.
Like, don’t get complacent or comfortable thinking your job will last forever. A perm job is a false sense of security that we all got sucked into believing that we were set for life, actually in our parents times, yes maybe some people work 30-40 years in the same company, but even my dad got retrenched during the economy crisis many many years back.
And keep evolving with the world because nothing is constant (I know this is super overused, but maybe just a simple term is to just keep up with times.)
And it is also important to know their motivations or how to incentivize or motivate them at work if they are your colleagues or your subordinates.
