Young Workers Are Lucky But Miserable

ByABC News
August 28, 2003, 4:34 PM

Sept. 2, 2003 -- The job market is so bad that unemployment went down because people were so discouraged they stopped looking for work. But the jobless aren't the only ones complaining.

Meet the employed, educated "quarterlifers" in crisis. They're 20- and 30-somethings who might appear to have it made in this cruel economy, but are still asking themselves, à la the late Miss Peggy Lee: "Is That All There Is?"

"If someone took a poll yesterday and asked Americans where there was more stress and anxiety in their lives and where their biggest fears for the future lie, they would say their job," said Stephen Pollan, author of Second Acts: Creating the Life You Really Want, Building the Career You Truly Desire. "This is endemic in America."

For those roughly 21 to 35 years of age, Pollan said, there's a special brand of discontent. They're looking to their work for fulfillment and more often than not, it's not happening.

Maybe that helps explain, along with employer fickleness, why two-thirds of 20-somethings have stuck with their current employers for less than three years, according to the Labor Department.

When their search for fulfillment goes unrewarded, the resulting malaise creeps in to the rest of their lives, say quarterlifers.

And All I Got Was This Cubicle?

Anne Robinson, 32, of Charlotte, N.C., seems to be one of America's golden children. Ivy League-educated with multiple degrees, she has a job in corporate communications.

Yet after years of pursuing education with blazing idealism, she's found that the reality of post-college life did not meet her expectations.

"What a rude awakening on your first day in the cubicle," she said. "I'd like to work at a job that sends me home at night proud of what I did for the day."

And less time in the car and more hours devoted to yoga and dog-walking would be nice, too.

For Robinson, unhappiness at work translates into discontent about life in general. "I wish I were able to better separate sense of self from career," she said. "I know the people around me are sick of hearing me complain."