Gen Y Simone Francis from Sydney has tried seventy jobs
The Sunday Telegraph
July 26, 2009 12:01am
Easily bored … Simone Francis jumps from job to job to the frustration of her employers / Sam Ruttyn
SHE’S tried 70 jobs but can’t find work that interests her, The Sunday Telegraph reports.
Simone Francis, 25, of Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west, is typical of a generation that jumps from job to job – to the frustration of employers across the country.
From waitressing to acrobatics and working in a call centre, Ms Francis’ CV shows she’s done it all.
Her longest job lasted just a few months, but Ms Francis said she had spent as little as three days in a job before offering her resignation.
“Usually, it takes a week or less than a week,” she said.
“I just can’t take the routine of getting up and doing the same thing every day.
“I realised there was something wrong with me after I was getting paid to be in the sun, spending most of the day looking at fish and turtles (as a snorkel guide on Hamilton Island) and I still didn’t like it.
“After a week, I was bored and told my boss: ‘OK, I’ll work till the end of the month.”‘
Ms Francis’s age bracket is known for having itchy feet, and she typifies a generation that has no qualms about leaving a job.
Social psychologist Hugh Mackay describes Gen Y as the options generation.
“They not only jump from job to job but course to course, partner to partner, house to house – it’s a generational characteristic.
“The generational ethos is bred into them: keep your options open, hang loose, don’t get too committed too soon.”
Researcher Neer Korn, of Heartbeat Trends, said members of Generation Y viewed being in the same job for a long time – once a sign of success – as a sign of failure.
“Their role is to fill their CV with experiences,” he said.
“Stability is not a sign of success – it’s having done many, many things.”
Typically of her generation, Ms Francis values experiences over stability.
She said she was “addicted to travelling” and, in her latest venture, has made a documentary about oil exploitation in Ecuador.
Ms Francis has also formed a group called Nomadic Hands to raise awareness of human rights and animal welfare overseas.
And, until her hobby leads to full-time work, she remains on the dole.
“Why bother doing a job you hate? Why does anyone bother doing anything they don’t want to do?” she said.
“I used to do that, but I thought: ‘What the hell am I doing conforming to a job when I hate it?”‘
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