Why Employees Are Prioritizing Lifestyle Over Career Ambitions

Lean out or burn out?

A recent Twitter thread from Strategic Researcher Victoria Buchanan examined a growing trend among young people on social media toward ‘anti-ambition’ and sharing content that rejects the so-called ‘hustle culture’. 

Appearing to support this further, a recent Randstad report revealed that 56% of 18-24-year-olds surveyed would rather be unemployed than work in a job that restricts their lifestyle. 

Career Disillusionment 

The Great Resignation was the manifestation of the growing disillusionment felt by many working people after 2 years of repeated setbacks. The Covid pandemic, job losses, and imposed lockdowns had a huge impact on mental health and have been followed by the cost of living crisis that we now find ourselves in. 
 

As a result, many young people have had to deal with intense pressures before their careers have really even begun. In cities like London and New York, young people face exorbitant rents, and the prospect of ever being able to own their own home feels like a pipe dream. 

For the first time in over 200 years, millennials face being worse off than their parents were at their own age. 

All this is compounding a growing sense of unease and disillusionment which has impacted the way that people approach their work and career. 

Rethinking What We Want From Our Lives & Careers

We live in a consumer-driven society where, largely, we are encouraged to be aspirational and to strive to achieve more all the time. While this approach can have positives, it intrinsically suggests that what you already have/are in the present is in some way undesirable. That in order to be valuable we must be productive. But our value as individuals exists regardless of what we do for a living, even though our ego and identity can sometimes be wrapped up in our careers. 

Many people were confronted with this realization when they lost their jobs during the first wave of the pandemic. In a society where being busy and always moving is the norm, we were forced to be still and look inward. Many people learned uncomfortable but important lessons about themselves and what they want from life as a result of this stillness, and they are not prepared to forgo the lessons now, which is why we are seeing a rise in prioritizing lifestyle over career and job titles. 

Many of us have attached great meaning to our career, to the point where it is attached to our ego and identity. But when this is stripped away, as it was for many in the pandemic who lost their jobs, we faced a kind of existential crisis about who we are and what we want our lives to be. We were confronted with the realization that we are more than our jobs because that, and other things we may have attached meaning to, can be taken away at any point.  

Lean Out Or Burn Out?

It is well documented that rates of depression and anxiety have skyrocketed since the pandemic. In light of this, we can view this rejection of hustle culture by many as an exercise in self-care and mindfulness. 

Individuals are putting their mental health first. They have learned what they don’t want and are setting boundaries that they need for self-preservation and to have a healthier, happier life.

Dawn Foster, author of ‘Lean Out Culture’ said that women, in particular, are ‘de-prioritizing and de-centering work from their lives’.

Victoria Buchanan added to this sentiment, observing: “We value time over status. Freedom & autonomy over climbing up the career ladder. Stillness over hyper-productivity.”

It seems many of us want to return to a simpler form of life, similar to the famous parable of the fisherman and the businessman, and where we achieve what work-life balance means to us as individuals. 

What Employers Can Learn From This 

While at first all of this might seem concerning to employers, this change in attitude is really a positive thing. Hustle culture, overworking or having an unhealthy focus on the career is destructive in the long term, it may have benefited businesses in the past in the short term, but at what cost? Burnt out staff.

Employers need to offer staff flexibility and benefits that can help them to live a more healthy lifestyle aligned with their personal needs. If employers can offer this, staff value it highly and are more productive and loyal in the long run. 

In fact, 76% of workers would be more willing to stay with their current employer if they could work flexible hours.

Employers need to innovate and listen to what their staff really want, a huge part of this will be breaking free from the shackles of 9 to 5 office culture and embracing asynchronous and remote ways of working.

Although, many companies see the value in creating a good employee experience and offering flexibility, a recent survey by employment background check company Goodhire revealed that 77% of managers (of 3,500 surveyed) would consider implementing “severe consequences”—including firing workers or cutting pay and benefits—on those who refuse to return to the office. 

With this in mind, there is still work to be done to create a positive working environment, where staff feel engaged and supported. 

We can’t blame people for being disillusioned after the last few years and prioritizing their health and happiness. 

It’s up to companies to adapt and take on the learnings from the pandemic, not try to rewind the clock. Business life is never going to return to how it was pre-pandemic, the New Normal is here to stay and those who prioritize employee experience and offer the greatest flexibility for their staff are the businesses that will thrive. 

Tom Gibby is the Co-Founder and CMO of The Bot Platform, a no-code enterprise software solution that empowers people to build a better employee experience on internal communication channels such as Microsoft Teams and Workplace from Facebook. Visit https://thebotplatform.com/  Connect Tom Gibby