Travis Alajoki, contributor
“Gen Z is so lazy and never wants to work,” is a sentence that we have all heard at this point from people older than us. Most of the time the argument comes down to hating the next generation for doing things differently than they did and that makes Gen Z “lazy.” This is simply a lazy argument. But what are the reasons why Gen Z doesn’t want to work?
The creation of the internet is one of the biggest factors to explain why Gen Z is so “lazy.” This is often an argument used by older generations that don’t like how people are spending more and more time online. But when you think about it, Gen Z didn’t make the internet. The people making these arguments are the ones who did. We were exposed to it by our previous generations to make things easier and they are now blaming our generation for being lazy because we… use social media?
But the internet can be used for more things than social media. Many jobs are online now, opening the door for more jobs from home and this has skyrocketed since the pandemic. The number of times I have heard “Why don’t you just walk into a business and get a job,” is too many to count. I’m sorry, but it’s not the 70s anymore!
We don’t live how our elders do: overworked in jobs they hate. Why would we want to work ourselves to death while doing things that we don’t want to do?
Travis alajoki, contributor
Things are more complicated now and mostly online. There are also more people trying to get jobs than in the past. Everything is more expensive and the hiring process is longer than ever. I don’t know about you but after being forced to stay inside for over a year, I would rather work at home than anywhere else!
I think it is important to note that Gen Z is generally more aware of social norms and actively trying to break out of them. It’s scary to get a job because you see older generations that do have jobs but hate them, often just working for the money and not working because they enjoy it. That is the key difference between the past and now. Gen Z is more focused on ourselves and what we want to do with our lives. We don’t live how our elders do: overworked in jobs they hate. Why would we want to work ourselves to death while doing things that we don’t want to do?
The reason why fewer people are getting traditional jobs is because people want to follow their dreams and do what they want. I know I don’t want to end up working somewhere I hate and only do it for the paycheck. Gen Z is also more in tune with work-life balance to try and live a happier life.
There are many reasons why Gen Z isn’t working as much and it’s not because we are lazy. We were dealt a difficult hand to begin with, and then you throw on a pandemic and a World War III scare every year — no wonder we want to focus on things that we love. We don’t want to suffer as much as past generations and we never know when we will lose it all again.