Boomers vs Millennials

#80/100

“OK Boomer!”

a viral internet slang phrase used, often in a humorous or ironic manner, to call out or dismiss out-of-touch or close-minded opinions associated with the Baby Boomer generation and older people more generally

-https://time.com/5782508/ok-boomer-meaning-slang-dictionary/

“Do you want to have a pastry?” asks my dad, a diabetic! “No, dad, sugar is bad for health. Besides, you are the one who shouldn’t be eating it!”. This advise falls on deaf ears as I find a box of pastries on the dining table in the evening. My dad is from of a generation where going to school was considered a luxury. He has had a hard life, I admit it. Yet, I cannot understand half of things he does or considers absolutely necessary to do.

I understand ‘baby boomers’ have lived way longer than us and have had richer life experiences. But there are certain things that millennials understand better and no amount of life experiences can supersede that. Baby boomers have absolute disregard towards the issues that millennials face in their day to day life. Yes I understand that our life may not be as hard as yours, but that doesn’t reduce the severity of our problems. Also, what’s with the deal with never admitting to their mistakes? They never apologize and have an excuse for everything they do, even if it’s visibly wrong.

In March this year, when our country had just started with the lockdown, everyone aged above 60 years were strictly asked to be inside the house. I tried reasoning with my father who wished to go on a morning walk, despite our fears and concerns about the situation. He eventually had his way because science is dumb and coronavirus is just a myth! My mother and I have a big generation gap too, yet she understands her kids and their situation so well, it astounds me. Why can’t my dad? Why can’t he at least try?

I had a very important office call to attend today so I locked the door of my room for the call. I don’t really have a room, I work in the living room of my house. In the middle of the call, I could hear someone frantically banging the door. Yes, you guessed it right! It was my father. I guess he had an important space mission to attend to which absolutely couldn’t wait any longer. I continued with the call and was in the middle of answering a query when I heard a loud voice asking me to open the door! He had his way, like always! “How can you have such a long call? What am I supposed to do inside? came his reply!

I was so disappointed by this entire incident. No, I didn’t worry much about the call. I always feel helpless when it comes to my father’s behavior. It would have been really nice to have a parent who at least empathizes with our life even if they don’t relate to it. Talking to him never has any outcome. I still tried. I told him how disappointed I was with his behavior. For once, I felt that he listened to me when he didn’t reply for a while. Is this for real? Did he actually understand my issue with his behavior?

“Do you want to have a pastry?” Turns out, he was thinking about his pastry the entire time!

Bow down, be humble

#49/100

“Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.”

–Oprah Winfrey

When I joined my current workplace, the one person I admired the most was my boss. His work ethic is impeccable, is extremely passionate about his work, is polite with his peers and subordinates and has a vast knowledge on any topic. But my admiration for him didn’t take time to turn to loathing the moment I encountered a part of his personality that shocked me to the core. He lacks empathy. Now, sympathy and empathy are two emotions that are extremely crucial to judge a human being’s personality. Most of us are sympathetic and disguise that as empathy. If you are sympathetic, you would listen to someone’s troubles, try to console the person and leave it to that. But if your empathetic, you will imagine yourself in that person’s shoes, lend a helping hand and try to work out on a solution.

My house is almost 56 kms from my workplace. I’ll not even discuss the part where my organisation is gas lighting us into coming to office just because they don’t consider work from home as an effective means of working (the pandemic can’t be used as a reasonable excuse here). It takes 8 hrs each day to travel from my house to my office to do the same work that I can complete in few hours at home. I’m grateful to go through this ordeal only twice a week but the sadist reason behind making the employees suffer in the name of employment is infuriating.

The best way to identify a true leader from a boss is the presence of empathy. In the scenario I explained above, a true leader would have understood the employees troubles, made genuine attempts to listen to their concerns and make an informed decision which favors everyone and keeps the company operations smooth. Instead, my organisation devices new ways each day to make their employees more frustrated and angry. They don’t understand the severity of the situation and make no attempt to do so.

I’m trying to sail through this situation by focusing on being happy and positive to the best of my ability. I wish and have an ardent hope to get out of this mess soon. I don’t know when that would happen but I do know I’ll be much stronger in my actions, thoughts and grit by then. As they say, every dog has it’s day. I’m waiting for my day to arrive sooner than I can imagine. The world can be a scary place sometimes, we can make it better by being empathetic, kind and humble towards one and another. The people helming the decisions at my workplace lack all 3 of these crucial emotions. I pray for their well being when each of the dogs they’ve bruised has it’s day.

Source : Grammarly

Of brickbats and glasshouses

#42/100

One of my closest office colleague and the nicest human I know lost her job yesterday. And the reason behind this isn’t even remotely connected to the quality of her work. She was made a scapegoat in a situation involving office politics between few members of the senior management. Although she is financially sound, this incident has left a deep impact on her mental health. She is unable to understand what she did wrong to be treated this way. This is her first job and she has given more than 2 years of her life to this place. She has now been asked to not step foot into the office till the end of her notice period.

Sometimes, life treats us in the most unfair manner possible, or so we believe. At the moment when such situations take place, we lose all hope and everything seems to be falling apart. It becomes extremely difficult to make sense of the situation and try to workout the best solution to cope with it. I am well aware that every bad situation becomes a learning experience for the future but dealing with such situations in present causes unbearable pain with no respite. I hold a firm belief that if we are true to ourselves and our work with no malice towards anyone, the universe will be kind to us. There will be unfavorable situations in life but they could just be a way for us to learn more about ourselves, the people around and the world. The universe has a way to carefully remove all hurdles on our path to give us the life of our dreams. We just need to give our best in every situation and be patient with ourselves.

We all know very well that “What goes around, comes around“. People who willfully cause harm to others have a special place in hell. I’m sure the culprits who have caused my friend to lose her peace of mind will get a taste of their own medicine sooner than they can imagine. The universe spares no one, we humans are just a speck of dust in this wide galaxy.