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wombatwolf's review against another edition
4.0
Certainly too long, but its actually very good. The title does it a disservice -- this is an approachable and scorching work of overall social critique. The peg that it's about millennials and the focus on "burnout" as the buzzword center is just that -- a peg. The work itself is far more comprehensive and serious that you'd believe from cover info.
thepaperwitch's review against another edition
4.0
Can't Even: How Millenials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Peterson tackles the enormous burden of burnout that millennials have inherited from the orchestration of previous generations.
Where Can't Even shines is in the details of what society and generations past have built and worked within. The boom of industrialization following the war, the rise of unions and worker's rights and protections, and then the fall and struggle of millennials who grew up while those same boomers who benefitted from social and governmental programs and progression began disassembling the things that made us prosperous in the guise of creating an "if you work hard enough, you will make it" mentality.
Reading how the shifts in parenting, class precarity, and what a good job and good worker are coming together with union busting, rising costs, and stagnating wages painted a broader picture of the conditions that different generations lived under and how they altered the. With parents pushing college at any cost ultimately costing their kids more than they can bear. There's so much more to take in to consideration, as well as the differences in privileged and non-privileged experiences.
Pick this up if you are looking for a larger picture in the shift from boomers and prosperity to millennials and perpetual precarity.
Where Can't Even shines is in the details of what society and generations past have built and worked within. The boom of industrialization following the war, the rise of unions and worker's rights and protections, and then the fall and struggle of millennials who grew up while those same boomers who benefitted from social and governmental programs and progression began disassembling the things that made us prosperous in the guise of creating an "if you work hard enough, you will make it" mentality.
Reading how the shifts in parenting, class precarity, and what a good job and good worker are coming together with union busting, rising costs, and stagnating wages painted a broader picture of the conditions that different generations lived under and how they altered the. With parents pushing college at any cost ultimately costing their kids more than they can bear. There's so much more to take in to consideration, as well as the differences in privileged and non-privileged experiences.
Pick this up if you are looking for a larger picture in the shift from boomers and prosperity to millennials and perpetual precarity.
lelainav's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
“Underestimate us at your peril. We have so little left to lose.”
thombe's review against another edition
4.0
This read was validating and helped provide historic context for the society we find ourselves in today. The rise of individual responsibility and "pick yourself up by your own bootstraps" has truly ruined the millennial work ethic. So many of us are suffering and don't understand why. This book was written almost too early to deal with "quiet quitting" and other corporate backlash.
I do wish that she had spent time expanding on two points she brought up in her conclusion; looking at societies that are already feeling significant consequences to burnout culture (i.e., Japan) and how burnout leads to the rise of xenophobia and neofacism. Those were just dropped into the conversation with not much, if any, follow-up.
I do wish that she had spent time expanding on two points she brought up in her conclusion; looking at societies that are already feeling significant consequences to burnout culture (i.e., Japan) and how burnout leads to the rise of xenophobia and neofacism. Those were just dropped into the conversation with not much, if any, follow-up.
teresatumminello's review against another edition
3.0
According to this book (and other sources, I’m sure), I’m a “young” baby-boomer and my children are “old” millennials. (That fact doesn’t reveal much, except to say my two children were born to a young mother.) I didn’t find my parenting experiences in this book, but I related to the economic struggles (as a single parent) of some of the millennials interviewed. As with so many of my country’s issues, the reasons for burnout are systemic, because corporations and legislators have not changed, or been forced to change, their ways of doing business for far too long.
This, the October book of the Nervous Breakdown Book Club, isn’t the kind of book I usually read. Because of that, it took me longer to read than it should’ve. I’d be more likely to read an article on these kinds of topics, which is how the book got its genesis. Last night, with the electricity off due to a hurricane, as I read of how the internet and social media have taken hold of, and added to, work and work-hours, I finished the book by flashlight. Go figure.
This, the October book of the Nervous Breakdown Book Club, isn’t the kind of book I usually read. Because of that, it took me longer to read than it should’ve. I’d be more likely to read an article on these kinds of topics, which is how the book got its genesis. Last night, with the electricity off due to a hurricane, as I read of how the internet and social media have taken hold of, and added to, work and work-hours, I finished the book by flashlight. Go figure.
sams84's review against another edition
4.0
As an elder millennial, I feel the pressure to have it all, be successful, etc and also the threat of burnout, as much from myself as others. Luckily I have parents that didn't pile on that pressure but society did plenty and it is very much there in the background, especially as I see others of my generations striving as shown in this book. Petersen breaks down the generational differences that have led to millennials feeling so pressured to achieve regardless of the personal cost and how some of us are starting to push back and encourage the next generations not to make the same mistakes we did. The writing is clear and logically laid out, supported by robust research by the author and others as well as including personal accounts from those millennials on the front line of burnout. An eye opener of a book regardless what generation you find yourself in.
mercourier's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.75
I enjoy Peterson's writing and this book gives a lot of insight into why we work the way we do and where that overwork ethis came from. It does not come to a conclusion and as an elder millennial to the feelings in this came too close and I couldn't read it very fast.