Millennials won't do menial or entry-level jobs

The argument

Proponents of this argument point to what happens when millennials first enter the job market: they are, on this account, unwilling to do entry-level work at all. The explanation offered is a sense of entitlement produced by education. Having been to university, the argument holds, millennials arrive believing themselves already above the positions that sit at the bottom of an organisation, and treat being asked to fill one as a misallocation of their credentials rather than as the ordinary starting point of a career. The example proponents cite is an open letter addressed to the chief executive of Yelp by a millennial worker named Jane, who complained of having worked in an entry-level position for an entire year. What proponents fasten on is not the complaint's substance but its presentation: the duration was set in bold lettering, as though a single year in a junior role were self-evidently outrageous and required no further explanation to be recognised as such. That, on this reading, is the attitude in question made visible. The contrast drawn is with previous generations, who are said to have understood entry-level positions differently — as a stepping stone that everyone had to pass through rather than an indignity to be escaped. The argument holds that the value of that passage was never the work itself. It taught valuable life skills about the value of hard work, and it taught empathy for the people who occupy the lower positions in a company, because those who had held such jobs knew what they involved. Millennials who refuse these roles, proponents conclude, forgo both lessons. Because their work-shy unwillingness to do menial or entry-level jobs costs them skills earlier generations acquired as a matter of course, this argument holds, millennials are lazy.

Context

Unlike previous generations, millennials won’t take lower paid jobs to pay their way through college or high school. They simply refuse to work in a restaurant, pick fruit or do manual labour.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The economic climate Millennials grew up in means they don’t have to work through high school and university. Millennial's parents have more money now than previous generations’ parents. They are supporting millennials later into life. It isn't a reflection of millennial work ethic, but a product of the economic boom in the 80s and 90s. Millennials are also increasingly able to work from home. So they don’t have to do manual labour or menial jobs. Why go and work in a restaurant for minimum wage when you can earn more money writing product reviews online, compiling blog posts, or doing admin for a company on the other side of the world? It has also never been easier to work for yourself. Millennials are the most likely generation to become self-employed. Millennials aren’t not doing low-level jobs because they are entitled or lazy. They do them because they are empowered. The workplace is different now. The rules that got previous generations to where they are today no longer apply.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Millennials have more choice so they don't have to do these jobs out of necessity.