I recently read an article that I thought was a joke. It was titled "An Open Letter To My CEO." I thought it was a joke, because if it wasn't, that did not seem like a very intelligent open letter to write on a social content platform. I read the whole thing and slowly realized that this wasn't a joke. It wasn't sarcasm. This young woman, who is college educated and 25 years old working at a large corporation was actually writing to her CEO, complaining to him about how awful her life was because of her decision to work for his company. Now I'm no expert at professional relationships but I am a human that made it through the first grade; so, I know that complaining and whining are not how you get what you want.
I got to the end of this ridiculous letter after 15 minutes which you can read here, though honestly, I wouldn't waste my time. At the end, she said getting fired from her job was unplanned and asked for monetary donations from the public. I was mad and a little bit dumbfounded, because how did you see this ending any differently? You bashed the company, you bashed your manager and you bashed your CEO. Another thing I learned in first grade: when you say you don't like people, they generally don't want to hang out with you.
She threw out sarcastic remarks on how to make the company better and took jabs at how much the CEO makes. Somewhere in there is a story about a guy named Marcus who works at CVS and makes more than her because he gave her $6 so she could get to work one day. She talks about how she deserves so much more than Marcus, and after all, she has a college degree. My reaction: if you think Marcus at CVS is making so much more than you, maybe you should try working at CVS for a little bit.
There were a few responses from older people about how you have to work for the things you have, and you have to pay your dues. I'm 19 and I wholeheartedly agree with that. It seems like older generations are always saying that Millennials are entitled, they complain and they expect handouts. I'm a Millennial, the majority of my friends are Millennials and that's not the whole truth. However, when I read things like this, I suddenly understand where they're coming from.
What I really want to know, though, is what was the point of this? Why would you write this? What were you trying to get out of it? If it was attention and a viral article, I understand. And congratulations, you did it. That's what I want too. I want people to see my writing, I want them to read my articles. However, I know how powerful the internet is. I have written an article every week for the last 18 weeks, and as a college student, who would like to be employable one day, I write with the expectation that my future employers will read them.
I refuse to believe that you weren't smart enough to know that your coworkers, your management, and even your CEO would see it. But if money is so tight, why would you want to jeopardize your job? The part that really kills me is after you lost your job, you asked for money. Why would people want to give you money? I wouldn't. As you know, people work hard for their money. Go be a barista, a waitress— you were employable. Probably not anymore, though, because people don't want to hire someone who publicly bashes their place of employment? That's not good PR.
In a couple of years, I'll be in that same position. I'll have a college degree, I'll be working a low paying job, and maybe I'll be struggling to pay for rent and groceries too. So, if any good came from this article, it's that it showed me what not to do when I'm in that position.
