Gen lay-Z: Why my generation doesn't care about work

When I first heard people accusing my generation of not wanting to work, I was incensed. But that’s not because it isn’t true. It is. Only one in 10 Gen Zers want to work from the office full-time. We’re less likely to have ever worked beyond our contractual hours, less likely to have looked at work emails out of hours and more likely to be 10 minutes late. We take more sick days, demand full lunch breaks, and don’t want to do any work during those lunch breaks. We don’t dress in traditional “office wear” and we tend to take the total amount of our allocated annual leave.

To me, this is all totally fair. After all, why would we Gen Zs want to work? I’m a 27-year-old in a traditionally “good” career living in London, and I am still clawing my way out of my overdraft each month. I have to sell my belongings on Vinted to make ends meet. I will probably never own a house. I don’t have dreams of being the highest up person at my company, or in my industry, because it doesn’t seem possible. Not only would that involve working much harder for relatively little financial reward, but all of those jobs are occupied by older people who won’t relinquish them until they literally die. So, yes, why would I want to work?.

My generation also don’t like work: according to YouGov, those aged 18 to 24 are way more pro a Severance situation (based on the hit Apple TV+ show where people’s work and personal lives are totally separated) than any other age group. In case that’s not clear: Gen Zs dislike work so much they’d rather a reality where, in their downtime, they have absolutely no memory of their 9 to 5. Sorry to anyone who’s become work friends with a Gen Z recently, but it turns out they might want to forget you altogether.

Gen Z’s resistance to traditional “professionalism” can prove tricky for employers, who lose money to their militant time management and struggle to organise around their flighty nature. And it’s not just boomer CEOs, either. Millennial manager Hannah* is in charge of several Gen Zs as part of her job as a fashion stylist, and says they are “nightmares”. “They will ask for 10 minutes in lieu if they work 10 minutes late,” she says, “which is something, as a millennial, I would never feel like I could do.”.

Despite this behaviour, Hannah claims the Gen Z employees expect to be handed promotions even when they have been doing the bare minimum. “They don’t have the mentality that a lot of us older people do that if we want a promotion, we need to be already working at that level before we get that job,” she says. “We know we need to earn something. But they think they deserve the opportunity without having done the extra work or proven they can do it.”.

As a Left-wing millennial, she finds it all very conflicting. “I believe in standing up for your rights at work, but sometimes I think it’s been taken too far,” she admits. “There’s a lack of drive and passion to exceed in something, to put the extra work in. There’s a real lack of taking pride in your job compared to other generations.”.

One Gen Z who refuses to be proud of her job is Rowan*, a 27-year-old planning analyst who works mainly from home in north London. After working 12-hour days to cover for lost employees who haven’t been rehired, she’s become sick of it. “I’m done breaking my back,” Rowan says. “I’m literally just trying to make enough money for myself to live and that’s my only goal at the moment.

“I’m not saving for a house because I can’t. I just want to fund my lifestyle. I want to go out for drinks with my friends and buy nice clothes and maybe go on a holiday at the end of the year if I’m very lucky. But even those things can feel so out of reach that I’m like, why would I go above and beyond to try and afford that?”.

Similarly, Gen Z videographer George* gave up on trying when he realised he wasn’t getting a promotion. Vowing to become “the biggest time thief to have ever lived”, he claimed to have weekly dentist, doctor and plumber appointments. He drank alcohol on company time. He used an out-of-office “shoot day” to tour the entirety of London via Lime bike, hitting all the tourist destinations and soaking up the sunshine while he did it.

“The projects that could take a couple of hours took a couple of days,” he remembers. “5.30pm finish times became 5pm, then 4.30pm, then 4pm.” But he doesn’t regret it for a second. In fact, he says, “If people give you the opportunity to waste their time after wasting yours, take it!” George isn’t alone. Company loyalty is dying, with 75 per cent of employees leaving their job before ever getting promoted. For many, it feels as though the only way to attain more money is by leaving a job and getting a new one at a slightly higher pay grade. Not that it helps much: 60 per cent of Gen Zs worry they will never be able to afford a home, and they’re struggling to make rent, too.