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December 19, 2024
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“People no longer want to work,” senior workers complain. Is this true? Working less or not working seems like the antithesis of what America was built upon, but for a few years, trends seem to say that millennials and Gen Z are moving in the other direction.
So, what is it? How can people work less while remaining productive? Are these ideas antagonistic to each other, or is it just the future of work? Read top publications’ insights in this short article.
In his essay for the New York Times, Jonathan Malesic explores the idea of working less and how it isn’t as new as people might think. This essay is adapted from his book “The End of Burnout,” where he discusses how the pandemic only brought forward some old ideas about the future of work and how they keep resonating.
He points out that work is the king of American culture. The idea that anyone can work to succeed and be a self-made person is the backbone of the American dream, which has fueled not only people but also institutions. It’s almost unthinkable for people to ask, “How to not let work take over your life?” At least, that was until the pandemic.
It wasn’t just remote work that shifted people’s perspectives, but the idea that everyone was suffering the consequences of such a massive upshift. The work done to bring things to their grocery store and more could suddenly be perceived. Everyone, from those working from home to the essential workers, wanted it to stop, to be left a moment to process the changes. But that’s not how things went, Malesic argues; we just returned to the new normal.
The idea that people should work less is not only the stuff of revolution; thinkers and academics have argued for it. But people are still subjected to harm and injury even if they don’t work in the field or mines, from doctors and healthcare workers sleeping little to construction workers carrying heavy equipment all day to the miners who remain.
Malesic agrees with Henry David Thoreau’s idea that everyone has a genius in something, but we need to discover it. Leisure time allows people to search for it through dignity, compassion, leisure, and solidarity. There is meaning and dignity in work, but there is more meaning in communal and individual happiness.
“Dignity, compassion, leisure: These are pillars of a more humane ethos, one that acknowledges that work is essential to a functioning society but often hinders individual workers’ flourishing.”
Stephanie Tepper writes that people “don’t want to work anymore” as many managers and senior workers claim, but that they want to be able to control their own time. In her essay for Harvard Business Review, she talks about how knowledge workers have been needlessly forced back into the office.
Certain jobs can’t be done remotely, but if, during 2020 and 2021, productivity levels were maintained or even soared, why do employers want people back in offices? Keeping employees engaged and productive is one of the companies’ big aims yearly, as unengaged workers will look for other opportunities. This was what happened during the Great Resignation.
“The relationship between work experience and life satisfaction has long been established, but given the recent struggles between workers and employers, we wondered how factors related to work flexibility might affect that satisfaction.”
Time scarcity and a lack of control over time management seem to be the greatest culprits in dissatisfaction. Workers want to work; it’s just that they want to work during the hours that suit them. According to the National Study of the Changing Workforce, people who feel like they’re in control of their time have higher satisfaction.
In this study, one of the most important things they found was that the amount of hours people work does not affect their satisfaction. That is to say, working less isn’t necessarily the goal; people want to be productive but also want to do other things such as chores at home and making every moment count in all senses.
Forbes writer Nirit Cohen penned a piece on how to work less, which seems to be a resolution among younger generations. She talks about how there was a time when staying in a single company, endlessly working hours, and staying longer was a source of pride but also an almost certain way to advance.
“Over time, as work stopped being a place you go to and became something you do, people realized they could “do” work from more than just their office desk.”
Several different trends have cropped up with employees trying to overcome their workload. From quiet quitting, the Great Detachment, hush trips, and the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, it all points toward the same thing: employees prioritize their lives.
People are diversifying their careers by beginning their own unrelated businesses, freelancing, or taking advantage of the gig economy. This is the opposite of working less, but instead, they’re ditching the usual “single income” to secure financial freedom. They’re no longer tied to a company, instead, they are flexible enough to create their own schedules.
People aren’t working less. Not even those who work remotely. The data is clear: productivity was balanced and even rising during the pandemic, offices became obsolete in some roles, and yet the future apparently is working less.
People want to own their time and do things as they see fit, no longer chained to a schedule, but deliver their work in due time.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO FIND?
