The early-twenties debauchery is easy to let go. What’s harder is accepting that you’re no longer hip.
At my old job, one of my friends felt a pang of resentment when the group of recently hired 22-year-olds would post Snapchats of themselves hanging out and ripping shots on Thursday nights. He’d hear them laugh at some joke in a Slack channel he was never invited to. At 29, he knew that I’d already experienced what they were now discovering and now, frankly, He wanted nothing to do with it. But it still stung.
His peers are going out less on Fridays and working more on Saturdays. They’re dropping the hard stuff and picking up games and puzzles. They don’t talk about hookups; we talk about wedding registries. The early-twenties debauchery is easy to let go. What’s harder is accepting that you’re no longer cool.
This feeling gets worse and worse with younger and younger colleagues entering the office every year. Many modern workplaces emphasize culture — which means being fun and social.