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Millennials Have (Finally) Figured out Bigger Salaries Are a Scam

Tim Denning
The Startup
Published in
7 min readSep 15, 2022
Photo by Zhanbo on Unsplash

I’m the most brainwashed, indoctrinated human being you’ll ever meet.

Some join cults. I joined the corporate ladder cult and fell in love with the devil in a pinstripe suit.

This devil promised me bigger paychecks, more status, and lots of office fun. As a millennial, what I got became my worst nightmare. Us younger generations are getting smarter.

We now see bigger salaries as a scam.

The modern-day corporate nightmare

I read a great article in the Guardian. It helped me realize why younger generations are no longer interested in bigger salaries. Really, the larger problem is that ambition at work is dying fast.

For most of my career I chased a bigger paycheck.

I wanted more money so I could buy the finer things in life. I thought all I had to do was go above and beyond and my corporate employer would take care of my skinny ass. Eventually I did access some of those bigger paychecks.

But when I got them they felt empty. It wasn’t what I thought.

Even more annoying is that the path to getting these promotions was unknown. There was no guarantee if I gave up time and my youth, that my employer would make good on their promise.

Often, pain-in-the-ass leaders got in the way of my career ambitions for a whole host of odd reasons I’ll never understand.

And the hard part is these roadblocks aren’t revealed to you.

Secret meetings just happen behind closed doors about your career and someone (often a leader who doesn’t know you well) makes a random decision. Then HR sends the “sorry to inform you but it’s not happening, pal. Stay on the hamster wheel a bit longer and we’ll see what happens.”

Broken career dreams. Broken promises. Broken system.

This is the modern workplace nightmare so many people have to live with. We’ve had enough so we’re changing because corporations won’t.

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The Startup
The Startup

Published in The Startup

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Tim Denning
Tim Denning

Written by Tim Denning

Aussie Blogger with 1B+ views that made me 7-figures — Get my free email course: https://timdenning.com/1k-mb