«Nnot laziness but resignation. No exaggerated dreams. We are just a generation forced to live by the week”: Galileo Gattuso is 24 years old, a perfect personal story to summarize the philosophy of young people regarding the world of work. A year ago, with two friends (now three) he founded Miggas, better known as TheBlackCatCards, whose core business is the buying and selling of trading cards, with Pokémon in the lead. A success. And while business continues to boom, the young Milanese continues his university exams in Economics of Cultural Heritage in Venice. Nothing to do with the narrative in vogue today of young people incapable of taking the future into their own handsdemanding, presumptuous, unwilling to give up private spaces, hunting for the comfort zone even when they sign the employment contract.
“I’m looking for a place that makes me feel good”: the priorities of young people in the job market
It is true that alarms about staff shortages are coming from many quarters, from Confartigianato to the industries of the North. And it’s true that, in just a few seasons, she showed up at the selective interviews a new “breed” of candidates, as Roberto D’Incau, headhunter, founder of Lang&Partners Younique Human Solution, a human resources consultancy company, says: «A difficult generation, less motivated and with little desire to work: this is how twenty/thirty-year-olds are described. Instead it is a lucid, aware generationunwilling to accept the rules of work that we take for granted. They aim not for a work-life balancebut to a job that integrates into their lives. They want to be involved, listened to, put in the position to express themselves. They saw their parents deceived and disillusioned, staying away from home for 12 hours a day. They are not willing to accept “toxic” contexts. They reject a certain way of working, not the work itself. The priority is that it makes them feel good. In short, for young people, work is not everything.”
Are hiring promises not kept? You change jobs
Words that to past generations sounded blasphemoustheir experience says: we couldn’t afford certain luxuries, we had to bring home our salary, at the cost of hard work, emptying of the soul, malice from bosses and colleagues, endless toil. And for women it was even worse, overcome by feelings of guilt for not being at home with their children (or not having had them), and often the object of unpleasant attention. You young people only talk about rights and not duties. But Roberta Parena, national manager of Youth Aidp, the association that represents the heads of personnel, reminds us: «Earning through the ranks means learning. And now, does it really happen? Girls and boys ask for transparency and authenticity, while companies often do not keep the promises made upon hiring. It’s good that they want to experience their family more, have some free time. AND if they often change places it is because they do not adhere to a certain working model. If there is a high turnover it is not so much a question of money, but of recognizing oneself or not in the values of the companies”.
Smart working is not enough
With smart working cleared thanks to Covid, now subscribed to by some companies, imposed or fought by others, there is actually no shortage of job offers. But in the majority of cases they are low-profile, low-paid and fixed-term. A recent survey by Inapp (National Institute for Public Policy Analysis) carried out on 45 thousand individuals between 18 and 29 years old, certified that a third of young people express dissatisfaction with the job offers displayed.
Social policies are poor
Goodbye then to passions, to high school dreams of a committed, dignified and self-sized future. Moreover, for several decades, young people have been transparent, ignored and, if anything, criticized by politicians. They realized that they exist at the recent referendum on justice or with the demonstrations in defense of Gaza, and a few years ago with the ecological commitment of the Fridays for Future. Italy shines for its poor social policies and trainingcompared to the majority of European countries.
And to say that there would be a need because, while studying, we understand little about what the world we have to face really is. If they feel bad, they leave The school-work relationship works badly, as the investigation by Orienta, an employment agency which, by interviewing over 2,300 high school students in 19 Italian institutes and more than 110 companies, admitted that 42.7 percent of students do not feel adequately oriented.
Young people and work, the “scandalous” proposals bordering on exploitation
Mauro Migliavacca, full professor of Sociology of economic processes at the University of Genoa and member of the Youth Observatory of the Toniolo Institute, also says this: «There is more work but it is of poor quality, unstable and low in professionalism.Not to mention thewage immobility of the market. There are no far-reaching policies and Italy’s tourist vocation leads to the need for waiters, cooks… Generation Z and Millennials seek greater consistency between work and their ethical ideals, and seek a balance between work and family. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they look for the comfort zone: if they feel bad they go elsewhere. Our annual report shows that almost half of those interviewed between the ages of 18 and 34 are willing to leave a job, even a permanent one, if it makes them feel bad. Of course, not everyone can afford to act like this, it is easier for those who have families who support them.”
To Galileo Gattuso, the twenty-four year old who said «it’s not laziness, but resignation», the school-work path proposed to him in Venice was: «Being a delivery boy for a florist in Ca’ Foscari. I didn’t accept. What was the point? Many of my peers receive similar scandalous proposals, which almost have the flavor of exploitation. My generation was born with the internet, we are “awake” 24 hours a day, the competitiveness is infinite, and often to have an income that allows us to live with dignity or pay for a hole in the house, with prices going crazy, we give up our passions. In the end, we think about how to enjoy the weekend. We live with minimal goals. It’s just too difficult to have your dream job. But I’m trying, together with my partners.”
