The latest intergenerational volley has been fired: Gen Z wants millennials to stop ending sentences with "lol." According to trending social media posts, the shorthand reads as passive-aggressive to younger adults, particularly in the workplace. But, as many millennials are quick to point out, that's not the intent. "It's emotional bubble wrap," writes Oriya Hirschhorn, adding that the three letters are meant to say "I'm not mad." Another way to think of it? The term, Jessica Misener observes, "is essentially punctuation."
🇺🇸 September Jobs Report: The Headline Isn’t the Whole Story
The September U.S. jobs report offers a more nuanced picture than the headline +29,000 payroll jobs suggests.
Here are the numbers that matter:
📈 Labor force: +485,000
👷 Employed people: +406,000
📊 Labor-force participation: 61.8% (+0.2 pp)
💼 Unemployment rate: ~4.2%, broadly stable
🏗️ Construction jobs: +11,000
🏭 Manufacturing jobs: +9,000
🏛️ Government jobs: −17,000
🏢 Private-sector jobs: +46,000
The key takeaway
The establishment survey looks weak on the surface. But the household survey tells a different story: hundreds of thousands of people entered the labor force, and most found work.
That matters.
It suggests the labor market is still absorbing workers even as monthly job creation has slowed.
At the same time, the report highlights a structural tension: employment growth is cooling without a corresponding surge in layoffs.
And there’s an interesting AI angle.
Construction and manufacturing both added jobs, potentially reflecting continued investment in data centers and AI infrastructure.
What I’d watch next
→ Labor-force participation
→ Private-sector hiring
→ Wage growth
→ AI/data-center investment
→ Whether unemployment remains near current levels
A +29K payroll number can look disappointing in isolation. The broader labor-market data point to a more complicated story: slower hiring, but continued employment growth and a surprisingly strong expansion of the available workforce.
Apparently, Gen Z thinks millennials using "lol" is passive-aggressive... which is crazy, lol
Here's something I dug up from the archives to prove that this is simply how we have always communicated: using excessive emojis, shorthand acronyms/slang and !!! (no cap)😉
Every generation has its quirks, and lol just happens to be one of ours (avocado toast is another, just ask Gen X). It's our way of making something that might otherwise be tense, blunt or uncomfortable feel a tad lighter. Cringe? Maybe. Passive-aggressive? Nah.
Guilty as charged lol
Apparently, it doesn’t just make us look old, but it also makes us sound passive-aggressive in the eyes of Gen Z. Furthermore, they would like us to stop using the acronym altogether, especially at work.
I’m going to be honest: the likelihood of Millennials completely erasing “lol” from our vocabulary is slim to none. However, I do think we can do a better job of cutting down on when and where we use it for the sake of cross-generational communication.
For Gen Z, I want you to know that our use of “lol” is not passive-aggressive. It’s actually the opposite. We’re normally using it to soften a direct phrase.
In short, it’s our emotional support word. Hoping your generation doesn’t develop the need for one.
Would love to know ALL generations’ thoughts on this one in the comments
