Strawberry generation: We are not quitters, we are thinkers

Updated 6 years ago · Published on 22 Nov 2017 10:42AM · 9 Comments

MY strong dispute. Hear me out.

You think that the so-called “strawberry generation” is spoilt and incompetent. But let me tell you here why you are wrong.

“We are dealing with a new generation that will try out a job, and if they think it’s not suitable, they will quit,” you say. Arrogantly. You are so distorted with your successful egos because you’ve had the privilege of being born first, that you cannot look from our perspective.

Times are different. We are the most educated generation in all of history. What you blindly accept because others tell you, we will say we don’t want to do it, because we have read about, pondered on and evaluated it. We are finding unprecedented ways to carve out our careers. And who are you to stop us and say we are spoilt and pampered?

We are facing challenges that you didn’t: fewer jobs, stiffer competition, a pathetic salary. Sure, you had those same struggles when you began your career. But did you ever feel inadequate even though you have a degree? I would think not. A degree in your generation elevated you in terms of social prestige. While in our generation? We slave away for years to get a degree, where lo and behold, it is only a requirement (out of many) to secure a job under the system that your generation created: the infamous corporate ladder.

What does a career mean these days? Your generation has established that a career means climbing up the corporate ladder, working up from scratch, listening to the berating your superior gives you and swallowing it all up. We do not want that in our generation. We want to acknowledge and celebrate the breakthroughs from our years at school, especially after all our sleepless nights studying for that piece of paper. For us, our degree is not only a piece of paper, as you like to see it. It means sweat, blood, effort and tears… even if you brush it off as just a hiring requirement.

Your generation subjects us to tedious, old-fashioned, conservative methods of training – those that reflect your own experiences, but are not geared towards the challenges we face. The corporate ladder demands people with both academic prowess and the will to withstand long, hard hours of monotonous training… yet, like you say, the pay is only RM1,500! What a joke! You will be defiant and say, “You ungrateful brats… in my day, I earned RM1,500 as well and I lived with that!”.

Therein lies the generation gap, my friend. Followed by inflation. You were born in an economy where degrees were rather uncommon, and positions could be filled easily if you had the qualification. You got a salary that was decent back in the day. We need to live. Prices for necessities are rising, but our wages are stagnant. Houses are ridiculously unaffordable, and we will always live with debt. How about you step into our shoes, receive RM1,500 a month, and try to live with it today? Would you think we are still ungrateful?

Your generation has set up a system whereby corporations can give us only a certain amount of jobs. That structure is suitable for your generation, but it is unable to accommodate the increasing amount of educated people nowadays. It’s all a lie for us to follow what you are doing. You may have had more time walking this Earth and have gotten ahead, enabling you to set up the status quo, but it is an oppressive one, where the rich, influential and powerful at the top are staying put, not surrendering their places to let new minds in, and you blame the rest of us in the middle and working classes, saying we are not working hard enough.

Our generation is different from yours. You cannot use your old yardstick to measure ours. Our generation chases happiness over stability, while your generation chases stability over happiness. We grew up swallowing useless subjects that you shoved into us at school. Politicised Sejarah? What the hell is Moral? We do not want to be your brainless machines, working on autopilot in society. We want to think. We want to be our own leaders, not be susceptible to your traps.

We want to be fulfilled by what we are doing. A stable, but unchallenging, unrewarding job? No thank you. We are educated, thus, we want to feel that all the hard years of education that we put ourselves through are put to good use.

I am sick of the conservative minds of the past generation, who didn’t have as much exposure as we do in the sophisticated era of the internet. We grew up with the internet, giving us an opportunity to exchange new ideas and create new mindsets, linking the world together like never before. We found ways to break through the oppressive system that you would like to entrap us in. Our generation is different. We know we want change. We speak out. We do not like people who think they know all that, solely based on their life experiences in their generation, telling us what we can or can’t do. We want to fall and rise back up on our feet.

While your generation chases money and stability, our generation chases happiness, even if that happiness comes with challenges: ripples and waves pushing us down. We are tough, we stand up. Contrary to how you think we are the “weak strawberry generation with attitude”, our attitude is what makes our generation the most dynamic generation mankind has ever seen – global interaction, sophisticated thinking and the courage to say “no”... whereas you whimper with blind obedience to every command your parents give you, even when you know that it’s not always right, it is merely their point of view.

Therefore, I urge you to think again about where you are coming from. Because who are you to label us? Your only advantage is the privilege of being born into this world first. Your time will soon pass. The social structures you feed us will slowly be destroyed. It will be our time to rule soon. – November 22, 2017.

* Eunice Tang reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.

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Comments

  • "It will be our time to rule soon." Oh really? And for how long, before it will be time for YOU to become the hated generation-in-power and the next generation will find YOU just as odious as you found us. All is vanity. All are in transition. Perhaps the one distinction between today's generations and those born mo than 72 years ago, is that Mankind did not hold the keys to his own annihilation then. On 16th July 1945, Dr Op

    Posted 6 years ago by James Dean · Reply

  • On 16th July 1945, Dr J Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific head of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb, witnessed the successful detonation of the world's first A-bomb at Alamogordo in the Nevada desert. He quoted from the Bhagavad Gita, watching the huge xplosion through heavily tinted protective glasses : " I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." So,yes, Eunice Tang, one thing you and future generations after 1945 can be proud of is, you hold the keys to your own destruction. Think about that, when it, very. Temporarily, becomes your time to rule.

    Posted 6 years ago by James Dean · Reply

  • Hi Strawberry, where have you been lately? In search of Happiness? Did you find it? Let me tell you, your shidai and ours are not much different. To seek Happiness one must strive, work hard and not be arrogant. Happiness does not just appear out of the blue, one has to work for it. No knowledge is useless, it is how you put it to use. Back then, for your info, we also slave away for years to get a degree!
    Therefore, we urge you to think again about where you are coming from. To me you sound more like a mushroom rather than the more expensive Caomei! You are like a mushroom, keeping yourself in the dark and being fed the stuff that mushrooms are fed and always waiting to be fed, instead of coming out into the light like the strawberry.

    Posted 6 years ago by Thai EL · Reply

  • Let me make it short & sweet: your "generation" will cringe in horror at all the pompous "we" in your article for you totally misrepresent them... And I bet even they, reading this, will not hire you if they own a business.

    Posted 6 years ago by Fz fztt · Reply

  • lol i didnt know the word "overpampered", "overprotected", and "weak generation" can be expanded into so many words

    Posted 6 years ago by Lolicopter88 loli · Reply

  • Totally spoiled. You are disregarded the past generation hard work, sweat and tears to get things done. The past generation also face generations gap but we don't rant.

    We work hard relentlessly to get whatnwe wanted. Knowing the fact that ranting produce no productive outcome. Do we have our thinking? Of course and we know that to achieve what we wanted will also take time and effort.

    New generation spoiled and expected instant gratifications. If you think getting a degree is hard work, sweat and tears, try to do the same without having internet and a fancy laptop.

    In our time, we have to study and work part time job just to make through and earn our degree. What have you done so far? More ranting about unforgiving world and unfairness? Have you work on any part time job while looking for a bettet one or just laying on bed dreaming (not thinking) of happiness while skipping the needs for hard work?

    Posted 6 years ago by Thebugbud at work · Reply

  • I took half an hour to rewrite this because it has brilliant points which were ignored because way too many folks took offense to the statements. You think that the so-called “strawberry generation” is spoilt and incompetent.

    “We are dealing with a new generation that will try out a job, and if they think it’s not suitable, they will quit,” you say.

    We are more alike than you might imagine.

    Does this sound familiar? fewer jobs, stiffer competition, a pathetic salary. Sure, you had those same struggles when you began your career. Please just consider this. I'm sure you're not buoyed by our current economy, jobs openings are tightening. The amount of graduates coming out of universities have never been higher. It's reached a point where we even have too many DOCTORS graduating. Stiffer competition is a painful understatement. The starting salaries are still as pathetic as they were 15 years ago. Your pain is my pain, except I have to deal with inflation so high I will probably never ever be able to afford a house, and food so expensive that it is multiples of what you used to pay.

    What does a career mean these days? Staying with one job over the years is most likely going to screw you rather than reward you. Go ask all the government servants driving uber just to make ends meet.

    The corporate ladder demands people with both academic prowess and the will to withstand long, hard hours of monotonous training... yet, like you say, the pay is only RM1,500! What a joke! You will be defiant and say, “You ungrateful brats... in my day, I earned RM1,500 as well and I lived with that!”.


    The truth is, you were underpaid then. Just look at what your parents were making vs the cost of living. And we are underpaid now. So say we all. Do the maths yourself. You know it to be true.

    But it's fine.

    Because each generation has more opportunities than the last, and it's our responsibility to make the most of our advantages. Our grandparents had national independence. Our parents had a booming economy. We have the Internet.

    We are not the “weak strawberry generation with attitude”. We are like you. We will learn from you and from each other. We will reach new heights. Just as you did.

    Therefore, I urge you to think again about where you are coming from. Because, just as you did better than the last generation. It is our responsibility to do the same, and we welcome your help to bring this country forward.

    Posted 6 years ago by Jhay Wy · Reply

  • Because I had half an hour free, I took the liberty to rewrite this to be less offensive to other generations . Hopefully we can all see some of her very good points now.

    You think that the so-called “strawberry generation” is spoilt and incompetent.

    “We are dealing with a new generation that will try out a job, and if they think it’s not suitable, they will quit,” you say.

    We are more alike than you might imagine.

    Does this sound familiar? fewer jobs, stiffer competition, a pathetic salary. Sure, you had those same struggles when you began your career. Please just consider this. I'm sure you're not buoyed by our current economy, jobs openings are tightening. The amount of graduates coming out of universities have never been higher. It's reached a point where we even have too many DOCTORS graduating. Stiffer competition is a painful understatement. The starting salaries are still as pathetic as they were 15 years ago. Your pain is my pain, except I have to deal with inflation so high I will probably never ever be able to afford a house, and food so expensive that it is multiples of what you used to pay.

    What does a career mean these days? Staying with one job over the years is most likely going to screw you rather than reward you. Go ask all the government servants driving uber just to make ends meet.

    The corporate ladder demands people with both academic prowess and the will to withstand long, hard hours of monotonous training... yet, like you say, the pay is only RM1,500! What a joke! You will be defiant and say, “You ungrateful brats... in my day, I earned RM1,500 as well and I lived with that!”.


    The truth is, you were underpaid then. Just look at what your parents were making vs the cost of living. And we are underpaid now. So say we all. Do the maths yourself. You know it to be true.

    But it's fine.

    Because each generation has more opportunities than the last, and it's our responsibility to make the most of our advantages. Our grandparents had national independence. Our parents had a booming economy. We have the Internet.

    We are not the “weak strawberry generation with attitude”. We are like you. We will learn from you and from each other. We will reach new heights. Just as you did.

    Therefore, I urge you to think again about where you are coming from. Because, just as you did better than the last generation. It is our responsibility to do the same, and we welcome your help to bring this country forward.

    Posted 6 years ago by Jhay Wy · Reply

  • The writer doesn't sound very educated to me. A university education - probably paid for by the very parents who "chased money and stability" to give her and her generation a good life and opportunities they never had - was wasted on her. I have found many resourceful, determined and driven millennials, but she isn't one of them and does not represent their views. She's just a spoilt brat, which appears in any generation.

    Posted 6 years ago by Leon Tan · Reply