Same story here.

My parents had to step out of the shithole grind they'd been normalized to before getting enough perspective to have sympathy. And even then, they didn't have to deal with one million applications and a super intensely competitive job market with shitstain computer moderated hiring processes that we do. They had their career jobs by their late 20s. I didn't get mine until 35 and that was after a super long job hunt and crazy background check and living pretty near poverty level the whole time.

My dad liked to think that me complaining about jobs meant I didn't want to work and jerk off all day. Nah. I wanted to be treated with human decency and not worked like a machine until I burned out, without much to show for it.

Our work culture is dogshit.