ESPOSITO: Young workers are missing out on office experiences
Column: Unapologetically
A week ago, I had the opportunity to catch up with a friend of mine who graduated from Rutgers last year. We were both in the area, picked a coffee shop and were able to sit down and talk for the first time in a few months. For anonymity’s sake, let us call him Chris.
I had known Chris since I was a first-year in college. He was a big shot, to say the least. Everyone knew him as a guy who was on the road to Wall Street, even in his junior year. He was well connected in the most elite business fraternity. He was also well connected with the rich parents in his social fraternity. Professors loved him, he had a foot in every door, every extracurricular activity and every premium internship went to him.
His first semester of senior year, after a summer of backpacking through Europe, he had already accepted a full-time position with a fancy financial firm. He was too humble to tell me his starting salary, but I am assuming it was nearing six figures. Even when the pandemic hit, Chris’s job was as stable as ever, the only difference being he was now going to be doing it completely remote until further notice. He was one of the lucky ones.
This is why, upon asking him how work was going, I nearly spit out my coffee when he told me his plan of quitting within a few weeks.
I was in disbelief. The economy still has a long way to go before recovering — this past year has seen jobs disappear at a rate we had not seen since the 2008 recession. I was angry.
Though I am still a college student, the pressure to look for remote work and internships in my field where jobs have become so scarce and competitive — the things I would do to have a premium job in my field lined up for me like that! And here he was, just walking away. My immediate response was to ask him what he planned on doing next.
“I am going to look for a job as a waiter in Hoboken,” he said. “They make really good tips.”
We talked for a very long while after this revelation. He told me the decision to walk away had not been an easy one. Finance itself, he told me, is not a fun job. It is not something that many people enjoy. What is enjoyable about it, I learned, is the big offices in a skyscraper in the hub of New York City.
It is the young people in cubicles next to you, fresh out of college and practically burning to prove themselves as Forbes stars. It is getting drinks on Fridays with your colleagues and going out to lunch at a new sushi restaurant on your break. It is weekends in the Hamptons in the summer.
But Chris, who sits at a desk in his childhood bedroom in suburban New Jersey 40 hours a week, receives none of those pleasures. Instead, he deals with everything he hates about finance — actually doing finance.
I hear him talk, and I understand his pain and frustration. But, I rebuttal with the fact that there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Vaccine distribution is rising! Cases and hospitalizations of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are dropping! Why not wait for the social aspect to come and remote work to end?
Chris explains that his office is not sure if they will ever fully shift from remote work. And he cannot wait for something that may never happen — the isolation he feels is too pressing.
On my way home from my lunch with Chris, I thought a lot about his drastic life change. At first, I thought he was making one of the biggest mistakes of his life. But now, I understand. Only 79 percent of offices plan to return to in-person work, according to USA Today. More than half of workers also want to continue remote work even after the pandemic.
Chris and I are similar. And I know that I could not take another year of college on a computer. If I saw no light at the end of a tunnel for a job that brings me no happiness, I think I would also walk away, regardless of salary. This brings me to the fear of the future: Middle-aged workers who have settled into the jobs and their lives and their families may not want to return back to the office.
But those in their 20s and 30s do. We deserve the experience of the daily train commute, the water cooler talks and the company-wide meeting not over Zoom. There is an influx of new workers coming to take over Wall Street and every other street, for that matter. It is not something we want to do online.
Laura Esposito is a School of Arts and Sciences junior majoring in journalism and political science. Her column, "Unapologetically," runs on alternate Tuesdays.
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