Beware the tweet that begins with the caveat “Unpopular opinion:”. Usually, the phrase is used to couch an offbeat take on culture, i.e. “Thor: The Dark World is the great movie” or “caramel apples don’t taste as good as they smell.” But every once in a while, someone shares an “unpopular opinion” that rankles us to our very core. The tweet in question comes from one venture capitalist Jordan Kong, who chose violence and wrote “Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is to work on the weekends.”
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is to work on the weekends.
— Jordan Kong (@ImNotJK) June 11, 2021
As you can imagine, this tweet quickly set off everyone on Twitter who has ever held a job. And it couldn’t come at a worse time: as offices and workplaces reopen, Americans are quitting in droves, leaving employers desperately rushing to hire new workers. In April, the share of American workers quitting was 2.7%. A year earlier, it was 1.6%.
Republicans blame the labor shortage on pandemic unemployment benefits, with politicians like Mitch McConnell accusing people of refusing to work to keep their benefits. But the facts simply don’t bear that out: a guaranteed income allows people to be more productive, seek better jobs, and breaks the cycle of poverty.
The labor shortage is also a long overdue rebuke of stagnant wages and poor working conditions, and people have had enough. As we come to the collective conclusion that late stage capitalism is a losing game for all but the wealthiest among us, is it any wonder that the workforce is burned out and unwilling to sacrifice their weekends at the altar of rise and grind culture? These work shortages also seem to disappear when companies offer $15 an hour, to no one’s surprise.
There are no silver linings to be found in the pandemic, but there has been a resetting of priorities. Working from home allows people to spend more hours with their families and loved ones. Long commutes and office culture have been replaced with self-scheduling and more time to accomplish tasks. And now we’re supposed to not only rush back to the office, but do so on the 2 paltry days we have off? No thank you.
Many took to Twitter to call out Kong’s tweet and meme-ify the message:
Unpopular opinion: The best thing young people can do early in their careers is to abandon their identity and start over in a coastal New England town as a mysterious but beloved local bartender
— jon drake (@DrakeGatsby) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is open a portal to Hell, capture the first demon to emerge from it, consume its magic and use it to demolish your foes until you grow powerful enough to challenge Satan and crown yourself Lord of Hell https://t.co/I4AyV4F9JP
— Rob Sheridan (@rob_sheridan) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is promptly leave their desert planet behind after the last of their known relatives are murdered by the Empire and jettison into space with an old man, a sexy pirate, a large dog monster & two robots
— Catrina (she/they) (@ohcatrina) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is to start small-scale ponzi schemes within their community as part of an ongoing effort to unseat god https://t.co/MY3V2vLFGz
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their career is become the nurse of a millionaire mystery novelist with a dysfunctional family who will die in mysterious circumstances and leave them his fortune and his Massachusetts mansion.
— Icona 📚 (@Iconawrites) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is get revenge on their idea-stealing bosses (Sigourney Weaver) by pretending to be executives & stealing their boyfriends (Harrison Ford), after said bosses break their legs in skiing accidents https://t.co/62big8GusJ
— Erin June 31st Ryan (@morninggloria) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is have wealthy parents
— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is see a hypnotherapist because they hate their job where their awful boss is about to ask them to work saturday, get their friend to create a virus that skims fractions of pennies off each transaction, https://t.co/3xKzgLP3mZ
— libby watson (@libbycwatson) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: The best thing young people can do early in their careers is quit their jobs to breathe life into their grandfather's old farm in a small town full of marriagable NPCs
— Nightling Bug 🗝️ (@NightlingBug) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is go on the road with a famous rock band, fall in love with a groupie, save her from quaaludes, and write about it all for Rolling Stone
— Laura Hankin (@LauraHankin) June 13, 2021
Unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is to follow the auguries of twin doves, discover and enter the sacred grove, and kill the aging priest who guards it, claiming the golden bough
— sententiae antiquae (@sentantiq) June 13, 2021
A+ work, everyone. Enjoy your weekends!
(via Twitter, image: 20th Century Fox)
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