How's Your Backhand? Good? Good.

Oh, summer time, how I love your promises of lushery, concerts, hanging out on balconies and fire escapes, cute dresses and new haircuts. I have grown accustomed to the fact that I am a mosquito magnet and weirdly proud of being an SPF 55+ wearing body double for any of the pale folks of Twilight.

New Yorkers are weirdly forward, I think because there the odds of seeing some random schmo you had words with in line or on the subway are so damn slim. Still, I've been surprised by the apparent city-wide reaction to my alabastery.

Drugged out man on subway last night, after I had sneezed twice: You must have allergies. Are you allergic to the sun?

Italian man in the East Village: Wow. You're so white. What's your name?


I could go on. But my all time favorite this summer came from a middle aged, leather-skinned customer. She was the gaudy type, who has probably been tanning regularly since the tanning bed was invented in 1978. I was serving her something appalling like virgin cosmos in the mid afternoon while she was with two men having some sort of casual meeting. I was wearing a cute, short, black skirt so I guess she saw this as an invitation to talk about the skin I had exposed.

"I just want to let you know I think it's great that you haven't caved into the pressure to tan. You look fine."

I smiled, holding my tray. "Thanks" I replied, but before my backhand could help itself from continuing the volley I added cheerily, "Getting skin cancer would really suck, you know, and for what, vanity?"

MY Generation Is Not The NY Times Generation.

Three days ago I read this article in the NY Times that cites a university researcher's (aka PhD candidate?) study as definitive proof that Gen-Y, referred to by the Times writer as the "Me-Me-Me My-Space Generation," is indeed self-important and uncaring. Really?

It seems to me a study about the empathy of college students, particularly college students born of helicopter parents, forced into SAT tutoring from the age of 14 and often still calling mom a gajillion times a week on their cell phones is more a study of the values that were practiced in their upbringing than about the awfulness of my peers.

...the authors speculate a millennial mixture of video games, social media, reality TV and hyper-competition have left young people self-involved, shallow and unfettered in their individualism and ambition.

Universities are more competitive and more expensive than ever. It is neither a surprise nor a fault that current students look out for themselves more than the students of years passed- it's what they had to do to get in in the first place, and now it's what it takes to get employed upon graduating. Criticizing Gen-Y students for self-aggrandizing and self-involvement is punishing them for the skill set (self-promotion) they needed to make their application stand out among thousands. And why should you criticize college students for ambition, when old people always seem to criticize college students for being stoned, lazy slobs?

Really, I'm just sick of the trash talk. It's hard enough for people to take new graduates seriously enough to hire them, and this bullshit will only make it worse.

A Little Pathetic Can Go A Long Way.

Like so many people, m4m is not used to having free time on his hands. And he's looking to fill it commiserating, I mean networking, with other people who no longer work since that's the way to get a new job right?

Check out this ad on the Boston Craigslist Strictly Platonic Board:

Lunch group for unemployed/underemployed - m4m (North shore)

A significant decrease in the demand for my work has left me with a depressingly amount of free time, and I thought that an unemployed/underemployed lunch group would provide a chance to get out of the house and maybe network a little.

My idea is that we would meet at a Chilis/Applebees style place on the northshore every couple of weeks to socialize and network. Folks who are fortunate enough to be working full time but still want to get out of the office would be welcome to join as well.

I additionally would enjoy a STRICTLY PLATONIC buddy or two to visit with on the weekend; I enjoy eating out, movies, long walks, etc.

Please let me know your thoughts and good luck with your job searches.



Aside from his terrible taste in food and ambience, I actually think this man is onto something. I just don't understand why underemployed women can't go eat the shitty food too. I also don't understand why another m would be attracted to a long walk with this obviously fun-hating downer of a guy.

This Is No Joke. Happy Graduation, Class of 2010.

A couple days ago, I read an extremely relevant article The Wall Street Journal (a hard copy no less). As its title suggests, "A Lament For The Class of 2010" illustrates the job market for young, college-educated graduates. It's bleak.

"They will enter a world where they will compete tooth and nail for jobs as waitresses, pizza delivery men, file clerks, bouncers, trainee busboys..."

That's the truth. On average, I apply for 3 jobs a week. Now, thanks to the restaurant that hired me, I even have NYC service experience and I can't get a job serving tables. I've worked at major arts organizations, but I can't get a job answering phones at hair salons. Sure I've got an Ivy League degree, but I rarely even get interviewed for the random admin jobs I apply for. 17% of people between the ages of 20-24 don't have a job. And (almost) all of them want one.

What I found interesting about this article, though, is its unafraid disdain of the Boomer generation (who I imagine make a significant portion of WSJ's readership). I love my parents, but other than their parents (the self-proclaimed "greatest generation"), there is no generation so uniformly condescending towards the plight of young people today than the Boomers who spawned them.

Back when we were employed, Boomers claimed Gen Y-ers make bad workers, entitled and demanding and incapable of understanding why they are at the bottom of the ladder. Maybe its because we were told by said Boomers that we were the most amazing people of all time, that we really could do anything, and that our grades, SAT scores, college acceptances proved it. After having worked really hard to meet the high expectations for us, of course we expected to be rewarded for it. We always had been.

Growing up, we middle-class Gen Y-ers were over-committed hyper-scheduled achievers. Aside from the fact that our battles with underemployment have done a number on our understanding of our capabilities and self-respect, we have never had so much free time in our entire lives. In part because of the Boomer parenting philosophy of "No Summer Left Behind," our brains don't compute with a life that includes day after day with nothing on our schedules. Our post-graduation joblessness isn't a choice. We're no Ben Braddock. You tell us "Plastics" and we'll say, "Insurance!"

"...the legacy costs that society has imposed on young people will be a millstone around their necks for decades. Who's going to pay for the health care bill? Gen Y. Who's going to pay off the federal deficit? Gen Y. Who's going to fund all those cops' and teachers' and firemen's pensions? Gen Y. Who's going to support Baby Boomers as they suck the Social Security System dry while wheezing around Tuscany? Gen Y."

While I don't think pensions or social security are an inherent problem, I do believe they will be if Gen Y doesn't start earning some serious money. Boomers are poised to retire, some having been forced into retiring early, and there's a lot more of Gen Y than Gen X to shoulder the burden.

Hey Boomers : Try finding me a job, and see how you fare. When you succeed, please email me at underemployedinnyc@yahoo.com.


The cartoon above is by Scott Santis, former editorial cartoonist for The Birmingham News.