Gen Z values our health more... or do we?
We still work too much, despite what you hear on the news.
Hello! :) I’m back with another edition of Gen Z Diary, and today we are talking about ✨work ethic✨.
I was reading one of my many (many) newsletters when I came across one that mentioned how Gen Z struggles to practice what they preach when it comes to work-life balance.
In this Wall Street Journal article, the author mentions Deloitte’s 2023 study of millennials and Gen Zers, and we’re still putting work at the top of our list. This is after a boom of Gen Zers calling work toxic and prioritizing our well-being first.
So Gen Zers still work too much?
Honestly… if I took that survey, I would have put work at the top of the list too.
And how could you not? If you live in the U.S. (or any capitalistic culture), work is most likely at the top for you. It can be one of your highest priorities, even over your well-being if you're not too careful.
The article also talks about how Gen Zers feel guilty about the sacrifices our parents made for us, and that we feel like we have to do the same in order to be successful and live happier lives.
This is where it gets tricky. Yes, we can put work at the top of our agenda and neglect our innermost needs (and make money while we’re at it), but even though we’re making money, deep down we really know that a fuller life isn’t through exerting ourselves. It’s about enriching our lives with meaningful experiences aside from work.
It’s easy to say that we’re not all about work, but it can be hard to practice what we preach when we live in a hyper-capitalist environment where your peers work hard, you’ve seen your parents work their asses off at work, and so you feel like you have to work harder than everyone else too.
Add this to the fact that burnout is at an all-time high right now- not just for Gen Z, but for millennials too. We’ve had to live through a pandemic during college and high school. This doesn’t even count marginalized Gen Zers who’ve had to deal with microaggressions on top of job insecurities and family pressures.
We know what we need. Unlike baby boomers, we’re more likely to think outside the 9-to-5 box and be creative.
Lazy? I don’t know her, she doesn’t exist
In the late 2010s baby boomers and Gen Xers labeled millennials as lazy, and some were maybe put off by Gen Zers and their refusal to do unnecessary work that didn’t fit them. And instead of listening to these age groups, they just judged them.
Of course, not every baby boomer and Gen Xer is like this. But times are changing, and work looks very different right now. ‘Hustle’ is seen as a bad word to some, but hustling is still a trend and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
I wish that we all lived in a utopia where we all had basic health rights and qualified people got their dream jobs and we held everyone accountable. But sadly, we do not. (Can you think of a country like this? Does Norway count?)
Honestly, I wasn’t surprised by the findings of that survey. It’s hard to practice exactly what you preach when we’re faced with a lot of odds. We haven’t changed the world (yet), but Gen Zers are still a pretty sizable demographic, and we have some good ideas. And we are shaking up the workforce, one long workday at a time.