Oh I have so much to say in this matter I should probably create my own post. Maybe I will pick just a couple points to colour the conversation.
Along the lines of work being hard, if it was easy and fun, they wouldn’t have to pay you to do it. While I agree that executives are out of touch/turn a blind eye to the struggles of the average Joe, their jobs are NOT easy. Can you imagine how much of your soul and life you would have to forfeit in order to make millions a year? Truth is most of us don’t even qualify to make that choice because we would have to put in decades of education, learning & failing, and grinding to the level to even be in the same county, let alone stadium. I get annoyed at the have-nots (I am one by perspective) barking at the haves because their bone is bigger. So much easier than starting your own quest to improve your own lot.
Discomfort is no longer the fashion. It is uncomfortable to jump lanes into another job or to grind your sled out of the rut it has settled into. For many, the entitlement to be comfortable trumps the notion that one might have to improve their attitude, try harder and evolve positively in order to become good at something or produce better results. The current of the system can easily carry you into instead diagnosing yourself into an echo chamber of victims who are also hard done by and misery loves company.
Dammit I am really sounding like a grumpy old boomer (when I am a gen Xer like you!) but I am a little disheartened at the swing from the heartless “nobody cares work harder” of a time long passed to more of a “you are entitled to be happy so go do what you love.” It will correct back to a happy medium of those if there isn’t a huge wipeout and I am just glad to be ready to try, fail, work hard and make progress for myself and family while snowflakes melt. It is true that the last mile is much less crowded.
Anyhow, instead of finding comfort or stagnating in a bad place and resenting the unattainable prize, I would encourage people to seek out others who have what they want, ask them how they got it, and give that a try!
As easy for me to say that as it is for the exec to tell people to find another job I suppose.