Inspector Harold Francis Callahan from Dirty Harry once said “Opinions are like a@#holes, everyone’s got one.” I mean, everyone’s got the right to one, it just so happens there’s a piece of anatomy to equate it to when it comes to proving a point. Language is fun.
Anywho, this includes unpopular opinions as well. Like one shared by Twitter user Jordan Kong (@ImNotJK) who shared that “the best thing young people can do early in their careers is to work on the weekends.”
This, in turn, started a huge debate—mostly a one-sided one, disagreeing with the statement, but some did see some sense in it, supporting the idea.
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They say that if you wanna get somewhere in the world, you gotta work hard to do it
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So, a week ago, Jordan Kong tweeted out what she called an unpopular opinion, effectively urging young people to work weekends during the earlier parts of their careers.
The idea seemingly stemmed from the premise that young people have less commitments, more time, and ample energy to be invested into their futures by working harder now.
One woman extended this to working harder during the earlier days of one's career in her unpopular opinion on Twitter
Image credits: ImNotJK
This in turn sparked a bit of a debate among tweeters
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Another tweeter elaborated upon it, supporting the idea since young people have next to no experience, knowledge and reputation when it comes to their career, so their best asset is hard work.
Well, while some supported Jordan’s idea, most were against it, for a number of reasons—the first and foremost of which was that it encouraged people to effectively overwork themselves, supposedly for little to no pay in response to that.
Jordan elaborated more in the form of replies to people discussing the topic
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Others pointed out that while this has positives, the negatives will surely come in time—negatives like health issues due to overworking, issues with being able to set healthy boundaries, all the while allowing bosses and managers to blur the line between a healthy employee culture and optimized (maximized) profits. And then there were those who said it’s not an unpopular—but rather a bad—opinion.
Needless to say, this started a huge debate. Granted, it’s leaning more to the side of those against it, arguing it’s not healthy, but there were definitely those who understood the reasoning behind the hustle.
For the most part, people were against this idea of working weekends when you're young
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Besides Jordan responding to some of the tweets she got from those joining the debate, just yesterday (a week after her original post), she also elaborated on what she said previously.
Others were of a different opinion
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In a nutshell, Jordan explained that she came from a poor immigrant family; working hard was her only key to success. Work wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies, but despite that, she found joy and purpose.
She did reach a point where it became taxing health-wise, but despite all of it, she came out victorious, and she still wouldn’t trade any of it as she outworked her peers and earned opportunities that were “typically reserved for white guys who went to Harvard and Stanford,” and not “an introverted, short, nerdy Asian female.”
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But that’s her. She saw success in hard work as she saw this in her colleagues and that’s what worked for her since the early days. Might not work for everyone, though.
A week after her original tweet, she elaborated on her opinion with a thread
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
Image credits: ImNotJK
The tweet gained some modest virality, gaining a bit over 16,000 likes and the same amount of quoted tweets, with also making some headlines and even being quoted on Imgur, where it gained nearly 4,000 upvotes with over 128,000 views. If anything, it stirred quite a bit of a discussion among tweeters.
You can read the whole thread here. But before you go, what are your thoughts about this? Share your thoughts and your experience with work in the comment section below!