Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen  276 pages

"While burnout may seem like the default setting for the modern era, in Can’t Even, BuzzFeed culture writer and former academic Anne Helen Petersen argues that burnout is a definitional condition for the millennial generation, born out of distrust in the institutions that have failed us, the unrealistic expectations of the modern workplace, and a sharp uptick in anxiety and hopelessness exacerbated by the constant pressure to “perform” our lives online. The genesis for the book is Petersen’s viral BuzzFeed article on the topic, which has amassed over eight million reads since its publication in January 2019." (courtesy of Goodreads)

I thought this was an interesting read, but I sometimes found it frustrating --- lots of pointing out that there are problems, but no proposed solutions. I also felt like there was a lot of generalizing, which was sometimes irritating. As someone who is Generation X, I'm not immune from the pressures the author notes in this book due to how I was raised to think about work. And the way the book comes off, it's as if the author only thinks it's Millennials who get burned out . . . which isn't true at all.

It's an interesting overview of work, workplaces and other things. However, definitely a read that made me alternate between finding it interesting and finding it really annoying.