I went to the lumber yard and offered $8 for a 4x8 sheet of 3/4 plywood, they laughed at me. The same thing happened at the home improvement store, too. Well, a sheet of plywood is not even worth 8 dollars to me, but nobody wants to sell lumber anymore.

On my way back I stopped at the gas station and offered $2 for a gallon of fuel. They told me to move away. Same thing happened at three different gas stations. A gallon of gas is not even worth 2 bucks to me, I was being generous but nobody wants to sell fuel anymore.

It was lunch time so stopped by the burger place and wanted to buy a hamburger for $3 but they didn't let me have one. You won't believe it but literally no burger place sold me a burger for three dollars. Nobody wants to sell burgers anymore.

Am I losing my touch with reality? No, it must be greedy sellers trying to turn in a profit and stay in business.

Graduated high school in 1974 but not sure about college so went to work in a factory. Worked hard and earned $37,185 in a year. Bought an $8,100 used car for cash using money earned part time in HS. Saved enough in a year for three years of college at Ohio State, tuition, room and board and books. Bought a motorcycle and started skydiving for fun. Went to college, studied hard. Took out a $10,000 student loan at 3% to finish school. Which was paid off within a year of graduation. Had a minor medical problem; Needed a cyst removed. Cost $7.45 total ( yes that is in 2022 $) graduated college with good not great grades in engineering. Received 12 job interviews/offers before graduating and accepted a starting salary of $101,749. Got married and bought a house the next year.

By todays standards my life would be a fantasy. I am grateful but feel sorry for young folks today. No amount of hard work will yield the same quality of life today. Keep up the fight. This must change.

6 weeks ago my boss(61M) was fumbling and mumbling under his breathe the standard "no one wants to work" bs. I typically just stay out of his way when he gets to ranting but on this day for whatever reason he called me into his office and asked me what is the deal with my generation(31M) why does no one want to work. After I told him I'm not particularly comfortable with talking politics at work he then assured me he genuinely just wanted to understand what was going on. We are severely understaffed and he needs to understand how to reach us because we are not meeting our production goals. So I figured I had nothing to lose explaining to him.

Let me break it down like I did for him:

From a purely business stand point

1)only a few jobs in our company pay competitively, the rest are below market value(I know because I'm the one who does these analysis) 2)our insurance is very poor and uncompetitive. Our lowest paid employees would need to forfeit 25% of their paycheck to avoid the single plan. 3)we are offering $1000 sign on bonus(for skilled positions only). Our local competitor is offering $5000(for all new hires) 4)competitors are offering 2 weeks vacation to start. We are offering to earn a week after a year. 2 weeks after 2 years.

B)from a human stand point

1)no one can afford to survive anymore on low pay. Not everyone is in a situation that leaves them unwanting for money or living with others to split the bills. 2)most millennials and younger have no hopes of being able to afford a home or a family or even retirement. When you have nothing to hope for your priorities change. You figure out exactly how much you need to survive. If you can avoid overworking yourself, a lot of us elect to just get by. Work one job 40hrs and live our lives in peace.

After our conservation he basically said it was all very interesting and needed to think about what we talked about.

5 weeks ago he sent out a memo that for the foreseeable future there will be mandatory overtime. We need to meet out production goals or we are going to be in big trouble as a company. Everyone was grumbling about it of course, I tried my best to stay middle of the road about it. Makes sense we need to do it so we can stay in business not happy about it but it'll be extra money for a bit and we will get through it. The first weekend of mandatory overtime he wasn't there... nor the second weekend... etc

2 weeks ago I address his absence from the weekend work. He says "that obviously doesn't apply to me". I said why not exactly?(at this point I'm being polite but firm because I'm frustrated). He tells me that he is the boss and can make his own hours according to his wishes and got snappy with me for questioning him. I do not like this answer.

Last week I skipped the "mandatory weekend overtime".

Monday I was called into his office and he issued me a write up. I picked it up, told him I was taking a personal day and I'll return this when I come in tomorrow. I go home freshen my resume and call this annoying headhunter who has been borderline harassing me for the last couple weeks(obviously unbeknownst to my boss). Set up an interview for tomorrow.

Last Tuesday I call out. And go to the interview. Goes very well. They are in a desperate staffing situation as well. Told me I can work from home start as soon as I like.

Last Wednesday I go to work to return the write up and hand my resignation over. Boss begins to berate me for being selfish, petty, unreasonable etc etc etc. I had to cut him off to as nicely as possible explain that if was burning the two week notice I had given him and one more unkind word and I'd be leaving today. That shut him up quick.

The reason I am posting this today was because I was walking by his office and heard him ranting over the phone about me to who knows who. He doesn't know it yet but I've been packing my desk since break time and I'll be leaving today.

TLDR: Boomers seemingly can't be reasoned with. They can't understand anything anyone else says. So stop trying. Just do whatever is best for you.

Edit: to address the feeling of ageism in my post.. I'm sorry. I really do not want to feel that way about an entire generation of bosses but I do. I have more compassion for working class Boomer than I do management rich class Boomers but in my personal experience there is an overwhelming trend that doesn't help their image. All of my boomer bosses have acted this way. It's very difficult to recognize any positives when it's completely counter to my lived experience.