Work is Difficult in 2025

I have been blessed to have quite a career in technology. I’ve been in many sectors doing many different things in many different industries. Some places I worked were toxic and full of pride and ignorance. Some places were a very risky jump to begin with. I’ve had a couple of dead end ones, one that could’ve had a class action lawsuit filed against them, and some that were great… and for some of those good ones maybe changes changed them.

What I can say though, is in 2025… it’s almost impossible not to end up in one of these main spots; miserable with money, no money and overworked, or unfulfilled and stuck. Yes, you can be happy and all that jazz too, but where the whole US economy has been headed has made life so much more difficult for your average person to live a decent life... at least not without a TON of sacrifice.

I definitely want to be clear here before folks start with “kids just don’t want to work” or “people are just bad with their money” crowd that’s out there. I respect your opinion, but I vehemently disagree. Those of you making 100k, bought a house 25 years ago, have a 401k, and paid off your vehicles; you are extremely lucky. In fact I don’t think you understand just how lucky you are.

So I don’t want to speak for the whole of the American experience here, but I will speak on the troubles I’ve experienced over the last 12+ years in a stable and growing industry of technology.

I can imagine at one point in time, the workforce was a very chill place. Not that there weren’t a bunch of changes, risks, and emergencies, but rather that we had a workforce that could as a whole, sustain and work as a bunch of folks doing amazing work, and that was your baseline.

It just isn’t like that now. Work isn’t a baseline. Work is a competition. Work is life. Work keeps you alive - not comfortable. Therefore, your current workforce is constantly thriving to achieve the baseline comfort of the generations prior.

The generation prior just says “work harder” and “be smarter with your money” - while all the millennials out there are like “I’m working 80 hour weeks and I have 10$ to get me through the next two weeks, how am I supposed to be smarter with 10$ and no time?“

Meanwhile millennials are absolutely killing it out there - some of the most innovative hard working folks you’ll ever meet… destroying themselves and watching life pass by for another paycheck. Problem is… millennials trying to achieve a baseline has actually raised the bar for everyone else. Work hard, now hard work is the baseline. Average work isn’t good enough.

Now instead of businesses competing to keep people, we compete with each other while businesses compete in the market. The rat race continues.

But now you might ask - “why do millennials feel such a need to be so aggressive, competitive, and hard working?”

I lived it. I‘ll tell you what I experienced.

Naturally, a business is always looking to be as financially healthy as possible. We all seem to think being a head of a business is easy work to pocket cash - it your butt is always on the line. You need investors. If they aren’t confident you’ll return, they won’t invest. Your stakeholders don’t want happy people; they want profitable businesses.

So as the wheel turns, a business must decide where to save money. As the economy demands more and more out of its people, thus businesses also have to supply to meet that demand. Eventually they’ll come to realize… one of the most expensive, if not THE most expensive thing is resources - aka salaries, paychecks, bonuses, stock, etc.

Once upon a time, this was just a thing. It was there and you needed to eat it. In the past 15 years though… options have arisen. You can have an international workforce. Automation can reduce the need for heads. Tooling, technology, third party software, etc., so… why would you need to eat the cost anymore?

Then there’s the secondary problem; the multiple hats you wear. It’s very common in the US now that you’re a… let’s say infrastructure engineer, but you also need to play security, support, operations, and other things in your role to be successful. So instead of being good at one thing, you got to be good at a bunch to succeed.

So now, the workforce has a dilemma; businesses are starting to shift what you do to something cheaper if you aren’t proving that you’re absolutely required to be there. They can replace your salary with 1-3 folks internationally. They can use resources to automate away your job. They can change your expectations and broaden your role without hiring another head. All is great for business and bad for people. Time to get to work to figure out the next problem!

I’ve never worked a single job that hasn’t focused on value and visibility. Some say “it’s who you know” but I disagree - it’s who can see what you did, and is what you did valuable to the business? They really don’t care about what your responsibility is… they care what value you bring to the table.

The prior workforce had a simple expectation; do your job, do it well, and be rewarded. If you wanted to excel, you ask, you work harder and boom.

It no longer works that way. If you do what you do well, you become stagnant. Why? Because they don’t judge you off of your responsibility anymore… it’s about your value. This creates two really crappy positions for our generation;

1. If you want to grow and be promoted, you have to prove that you’re valuable enough - aka you have to do your job + the job you want to get there.
2. Our entire existence at work depends on advancement, not on maintenance. If you wanted to simply coast… you’ll get left behind.

Let’s say you do all of that, but your boss sees none of it, or they take credit, or your co-worker that barely works saves the company some money with a new process. They were seen. You weren’t. You’re screwed.

Now let’s get down to my role. Every position I’ve been in, there’s always been some pretty incredible, sometimes genius level folks working with me. There’s also been some smart workers that are pretty efficient. Some people I’ve worked with have been attention seekers and killer workers (hours wise).

“Okay and?” - Normally I’d agree. There’s been a constant problem I run into though… with these people, instead of just being “above and beyond” or “great hires” they become trendsetters. My bosses or the company starts using their amazing skills as the standard. “If this guy can do it this well… then why can’t the team?”

And if it’s not comparison of individuals, it’s a comparison against goals, KPI’s, project movement, etc. This alone isn’t really a problem, but remember, the business is playing the market. All of these “performance“ based stats become everything, and more often than not, become something so hard to accomplish that it becomes sacrifice by employees.

Which leads to the last problem here…

If you aren’t extremely passionate about what you do, life beyond work becomes so incredibly difficult. I am a great example of this; I like working with tech, but I have no passion for it. I am just logically sound and it works well with technology.

Thus leads to burnout, imposter syndrome, or just straight life sacrifice for the sake of a career. You’ll end up working on your off hours for many reasons, including but not limited to;

• On call
• Scheduled after hours work (that you will be considered “difficult” if you say no)
• Only being able to get your work done when people aren’t online bothering you
• Having to work a ton of extra hours to keep status quo
• Finishing work that couldn’t get completed during your average work day

By the time you get to be by yourself, you have nothing left. You want to pursue a hobby, yet you’re so tired and exhausted that you can’t. You cut corners on life things, like your house, health, or vehicles because it makes life a little less intense in the moment.

And all of that happens if you can actually get off the ground in the first place. Between high rent and property prices, interest rate hikes, managing a good credit score, medical insurance ripping your check a new hole, etc., it becomes so hard to get ahead.

I worry about my kids. I worry about their future. I pretty much kill myself and put myself through a lot of misery to give them what would be considered a middle class lifestyle. Even then, I can’t slow down even for a second or I start getting left behind.

Every month, new tech comes out. Every year something goes up in price. Every generation has to work infinitely harder than the previous one to live comfortably.

How much harder will it be for them? What challenges will they face? What sort of dreams will be crushed by reality?

And more importantly - how can I make sure they don’t end up playing the same game I do. I think we as a nation need to reframe what success and financial health look like so we can destroy the rat race and become better people, not just have a better workforce. Businesses have the power to shape your life. We somehow, someway need to rip that away from them.

I have no answers. I have no solutions. It’s in God’s hands at this point.