London’s Tea House Theatre and Café has come under fire for a snarky job advertisement that wasn’t so much an advertisement as an open letter decrying the state of the Millennial work ethic.
“Dear Millenials,” it begins, before a paragraph describing how the company has spent the last two decades “grafting, scraping ... breaking even and revelling in the success that in the real world that is. It saddens me to be putting this advert up for the third time in as many months.”
“Are you just not taught anything about existing in the real world, where every penny counts? Did no one teach you that the end of your studies is the beginning of your education?”
The social media backlash was swift and violent, with much of the criticism levelled at the fact that the role was only paying NZD $25,000 a year. The ad was called “snotty and patronising” and was questioned whether it was a “poorly judged joke”. The Arts Council, the website on which the article was posted, removed the ad after the overwhelmingly negative response.
However, as obnoxious as the ad was, this was not the reason the job ad was pulled. Specifically targeting Millennials was considered to be a form of age discrimination, which is illegal.
