According to yet another Forbes article about working women, “millennial” females are having a rough time in the corporate world, flaming out early, unhappy, stalling, etc. That women comprise the majority of entry-level workers yet grow progressively rarer as the ranks rise is cited as evidence for this supposed trend, but of course that could simply be because they are younger.
The fact that men allegedly take more breaks is also held to be a contributing factor, but don’t men work more overtime, too? The girls are also said to have spent themselves in school, where they “worked like crazy” (all those drunken flings must have been terribly taxing, too).
However, there’s at least one good quote in the article. Says PR company president Kelly Cutrone:
College is nothing more than a baby-sitting service. These students are totally unprepared for the real world. The reality for women who want to work in PR is that they are going to be working with 24 catty [women] who will backstab and compete with them. No one will say thank you. You will eat lunch at 5 p.m. It sucks and it’s hard work…
I guess the daydreams of Don Draper romancing them in his office aren’t panning out, and the reality is rather disappointing… Could it be that these professional millennial women really just don’t like spending all day with a bunch of other professional women?
If that’s the case, I guess they’re out of luck:
Simply quitting or changing careers isn’t an option because the education for their professional jobs has burdened them with substantial student debt. Also, while earlier generations may have opted out of the workforce through marriage or motherhood, these paths aren’t viable for these self-sufficient women, who either are still single or unwilling to be fully supported by men.
That last part about “unwilling to be fully supported by men” is a real howler. Most men their age couldn’t support them if they wanted to, and in general they don’t.
Women are burning out because they got what they asked for, and a lot of them are finding out (too late) that it wasn’t what they really wanted.
