TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:07]

Be honest, have you ever thought it's just soft millenials and gen z who can't handle real work these days? If you have, you're not alone.

[00:00:11]

But you know what? The people who reach out to me most to tell their stories about corporate trauma are Gen X men.

[00:00:18]

Yeah, they're the generation that was supposed to be cynical, tough, never complained about anything. They are the ones not complaining now. They're breaking. We all are breaking.

[00:00:32]

Work in the 80s was tough, no doubt about it. It was also different, though. Long hours, toxic bosses, all of that existed. But you also had pensions.

[00:00:43]

Job security was a thing. when a company said they were loyal to you, it meant something. You could support a family on one income.

[00:00:51]

And when you left the office, you actually left.

[00:00:56]

The 90s and 2000s started chipping away at that.

[00:00:59]

Layoffs increasingly became restructuring, and restructuring hasn't gone anywhere. Benefits got thinner, but at least there was a finish line that you could see.

[00:01:09]

Now, in many cases, you're always on. Your phone means that your boss has seen access to you at 9pm on a Saturday night. Job security?

[00:01:20]

Well, that's a funny joke. Pensions are gone.

[00:01:22]

You don't see this. Pensions are gone.

[00:01:25]

Benefits barely exist. You're doing work of three people because efficiency became the norm. And after all that, you still, still, still can't afford to buy a house.

[00:01:35]

So when a Gen X guy who's been working for 30 years sits down with me, and his hands are shaking while he talks about what the workplace did to him, that's not weakness.

[00:01:46]

That's not generational. That's what happens when you survive in a system that's gotten progressively more extractive, more invasive, and more inhumane.

[00:01:56]

The trauma isn't new, but the conditions that cause it have intensified.

[00:02:02]

Every generation has it right now is dealing with a version of work that demands more and gives us less than what came before.

[00:02:10]

People are not the problem.

[00:02:13]

Well, toxic bosses can be, but generally people are not the problem.

[00:02:18]

The system is. If you have a story to share, or if you want to learn more about the work that we're doing with Project Corporate Trauma, please reach out.