Supervisor Conflict

I've noticed something lately in my interactions with friends.  I've noticed that I have very few friends my age who have a good relationship with their supervisors at work.  Most are unhappy with their jobs, their hours, their responsibilities, their boss' character, the organizational system, and so forth.  Even my ministry friends live this, both in churches and in nonprofits.  It's like there's a general culture of discontent and conflict at work among my generation.  Why is this?  I'd like to hear your comments, but I have a few ideas to start the conversation.

I have sometimes noticed a failure of both supervisors and the supervised to recognize their own limitations.  Perhaps both think they know better, or perhaps one holds age and experience over the other.  Without each person recognizing how they are contributing to the problem, and recognizing that the other person may have some valid reasons for their behavior, conflicts will never be solved.

Other times I've seen unhealthy expectations of perfection.  Millennials, in valuing authenticity and transparency, can often make the quick jump to hyper-critical when they sense that transparency is lacking.  In this type of attitude, every mistake is a deal-breaker and once we judge somebody or lose respect for them, it's very hard to regain it.  I'd ask, however, why we have to expect such things out of our bosses.  Why is that necessary for us to do our jobs, and to do them well?

Further, people may expect their own jobs to be perfect.  Nobody loves 100% of what they do.  Every job has sizable elements of things that we put up with doing as well as things that we downright dislike.  If we sense ourselves being asked to do things we don't want to do, we need to avoid the impulse to get angry or rebellious.  By persevering and putting our noses to the grindstone even when we don't love what we do, we develop character, integrity, and we may just learn something in the process.

Are you unhappy at work?  Why do you think it is, and what do you think is the way out?  Or, are you a boss who knows the young people who report to you are unhappy?  What do you think is the solution to the conflict?