Unpacking the Millennial Work Ethic
Or, what Hannah Arendt can tell us about LinkedIn’s content problem
Three days ago, I changed my job title on LinkedIn. The title change was part of a broader restructure at work and was accompanied by a new role description that was really just a superficial tweak to the old one. There was no real increase in responsibility and no extra money. I updated LinkedIn mainly because I was updating everything else—my email signature, business cards—and the people I work with on a daily basis check LinkedIn. I was not prepared for the wave of pro forma congratulations I got. Some of them came from colleagues and peers; most of them came from friends, excited that I had apparently received a promotion.
We want our personal capacity to accumulate at a rate faster than everyone else, so we can remain competitive.
Given that I was receiving no extra money and there was no increase in authority or duties, it stung mildly to be congratulated. This was exacerbated by the fact that I had pushed back against a new title because I liked the old one. I’d done nothing, in fact, except lethargically resist a change I didn’t care much about. I was updating my profile because not doing it would raise more questions. I’d toggled every…
