Gen Z’s Work-Life Delusion in an Indifferent World

A recent Washington Post article highlighted the latest trend among certain millennials and Gen Z employees who refuse to make work a priority as they chase the fantastical notion of a perfect work-life balance. As the piece notes:

“So, many members of Gen Z have experienced their share of workplace emergencies causing stress and burnout. And now, some young workers are deciding that the last-minute project they’re supposed to panic over simply isn’t one.”

This inclination to deprioritize job-related responsibilities and interrelated sense of urgency also closely aligns with the similarly recent development of ‘conscious unbossing,’ where 52% of Gen Z aren’t interested in pursuing management roles, and 16% would refuse any role where they would have to manage others.

At a fundamental level, this is easily observed as an entitled rejection of the traditional work ethic, and another indication of the overall fragility of younger cohorts. According to Deloitte, 43% of Gen Z and 37% of millennials have needed to take time off work due to stress. This translates into Gen Z workers being nearly twice as likely to call in sick than a Boomer, averaging 14.3 sick days to 8.9, with mental health cited as a key driver. Many seem incapable of withstanding the day-to-day stressors that are part of any workplace, and they are done no favors when coddled by some overly permissive HR departments.

This mindset commits two self-destructive errors. The first is in thinking that they are above it all. A generational attitude has taken hold where they believe they have the luxury of placing themselves and their wants above the hard truth that there will be difficult days and challenging periods in their lives, particularly when it comes to their careers. They want the benefits of tenure – larger salaries, additional paid time off, and greater work flexibility – without being willing to demonstrate the sustained effort necessary to get there. They reject the reality Thomas Hobbes described in Leviathan (1651, Chapter XIII), that life – and work – can be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Look no further than some of the largest corporations in the country, particularly in the tech industry – Microsoft, Tesla, Apple and Oracle – where founders such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison succeeded through sheer grit and brutally long hours, not with leisurely 35–40-hour work weeks. While there are exceptions – inheritance, nepotism, or the sheer luck of a lottery payout – building a financially secure life through work is a marathon, and occasionally a grueling one, not a sprint.

Second, they fail to recognize that they are very easily replaced by those who would make the effort they will not, or by the significant advances in generative AI that have already arrived or are rapidly approaching. Amazon just announced that it is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs. Accenture recently eliminated 11,000 roles. Since 2022, Meta has laid off approximately 25,000. This year alone, job cuts are rapidly approaching 1 million. In a competitive global environment, companies are under pressure to achieve more with fewer resources and to improve productivity per employee. Whether fair or not, those who fail to adapt will eventually find themselves sidelined. Employers are unlikely to prioritize an employee’s career development if the employee isn’t willing to demonstrate a similar level of commitment.

When 57% of Gen Z would become an influencer if the opportunity presented itself, it is hard to take them or their concerns seriously. It is a mindset detached from workplace reality, in a world with very real, significant consequences, which one blindly ignores at one’s own peril.