Experiencing the ups and downs of working in America

Created
Mon, 23/01/2023 - 09:00
Updated
Mon, 23/01/2023 - 09:00
I said to a young friend the other day that this might be the best job market they will ever experience and she looked at me like I was crazy. I get it. When you’re young the experiences you have had limit your understanding of what it’s like when things change. When you are old (like me) you’ve been through some stuff and you have a different outlook. This piece in the NY Times looks at the different ways the generations are experiencing the contraction in the tech sector: When Lyft laid off 13 percent of its workers in November, Kelly Chang was shocked to find herself among the 700 people who lost their jobs at the San Francisco company. “It seemed like tech companies had so much opportunity,” said Ms. Chang, 26. “If you got a job, you made it. It was a sustainable path.” Brian Pulliam, on the other hand, brushed off the news that the crypto exchange Coinbase was eliminating his job. Ever since the 48-year-old engineer was laid off from his first job at the video game company Atari in 2003, he said, he has asked himself once a year: “If I were laid off, what would I do?” The contrast between Ms. Chang’s and Mr. Pulliam’s reactions to their professional letdowns speaks to a generational divide that is becoming more clear as the tech industry, which expanded rapidly through the pandemic, swings toward mass layoffs. Microsoft said this week that it planned to cut 10,000 jobs, or roughly 5 percent…