“You think you’re burnt out? Try surviving the Great Depression and World War II!” In the wake of the millennial burnout piece, that was the most common critique in my inbox. The sentiment usually came from boomers, who, somewhat ironically, had endured neither the Great Depression nor World War II. Other greatest hits: “Buck up, life is hard” and “I worked my tail off in the ’80s, and you don’t see me complaining about being burnt out.” These statements are variations of what I’ve come to understand as the boomer refrain: Stop whining, millennials—you don’t know what hard work is.
