Why Gen Z workers are already so burned out

I think the article touched in it, but from my group of friends, the main theme is this. We’re working just as hard as our parents, and particularly the older colleagues in our offices, but not receiving the same rewards in regards to life milestones like getting a ‘nice’ car, moving out, or even owning a house, which further delays other milestones like putting down roots and starting families, leading to an ongoing sense of futility.

The feeling is ‘why bother working 50 hour weeks in a stressful profession if I’m going to be in roughly the same position as working 20 hours at a book shop and getting to spend more time with my friends’, and this is something I relate to as well even on the more successful end of the young person with job spectrum. It does feel a bit pointless doing all this. My savings and money are just as useless as nit having them when a house I could live in is 20x a bookshop salary and 12x my salary, they’re both not cutting it so why bother?

Anyway, that’s where this feeling is coming from in my group, and is something I’m still trying to find a solution for in my setting.

I'll throw in my $0.02

I enjoy coding, I'm not some whiz but I can throw together a CRUD app in a weekend and hook libraries together so it's enough. I feel as if any job I take will be intellectually stimulating but spiritually unfulfilling. I would much rather be moving things in the real world with my body, or working outside, or still doing coding as long as it's something that has an immediate visible impact on my community. But jobs like that don't pay the bills.

So instead I take the high-paying tech job. I have no real desire to advance except to increase my income so I can save more and partially retire early and take a much lower-paying job doing something that makes me proud. When that's my motivation it's difficult to care about anything other than doing the bare minimum to get the next paycheck. This sentiment is reflected by a lot of the engineers I know my age who escape it through partying, sitting around all day doing nothing and still getting paid, having multiple remote jobs where they barely do any work, or trying to escape the rat race via entrepreneurship. None of them are lazy, the incentives just aren't aligned for employee satisfaction.

There's no amount you can be paid to give a shit.

I'm 28, and employ a 22 year old. Burnout is absolutely a huge thing (and definitely worse for the younger generations), but I'm not sure the burnt-out kids they interview realise exactly why they feel this way (if they did, they would fix the issues and move on).

At least from where I'm sitting, it seems like young people never switch off.

You come home from work, and rather than spending some alone time doing something you actually enjoy, young people will spend 2 hours projecting their "personal brand" on Insta or Discord, then another hour on the web finding out the latest things they're supposed to be outraged at or offended by. Then, it's time to watch a Twitch streamer, eat an unhealthy meal and before you know it it's midnight and time for sleep.

On the weekends, it's time to see your friends and family - which means exhausting, fake interactions designed primarily to "be seen". Brunch, clubs, experiences and attractions, all with the axe looming over your head that your social network could kick you to the turf if you're not keeping up on the treadmill.

The poor zoomers haven't had an actual day off (Sabbath) since the end of high school.

Not only will you not own anything, but from an early age we’ll enslave your mind and control your attention span. We have industries of people working day in, day out to perfect this formula. We will blame any concern or problem you have on a regular rotation of mental health issues that we devise and concept, and that doctors will prescribe you a rotation of pills for in tandem. If you have a problem, we will have an answer, prepackaged and ready to go, agreed upon by the most trusted expert minds today. When you get out of line, we will shun you, and concern troll you until you either fall in line, or commit suicide. We will take away religion and community and substitute it with goals, myths, ambitions, and narratives of our own making. We will tell you what to believe and who your God is. We will put role models in front of you to follow, and you will do so even when you think you’re breaking the mould.

In the end, you will be happy, you can be sure of that.

Probably you are going to be mad at me, but I give it a try. My advice (genXer) to the genZer generation is, stop being so scared about what other people think of you, lay down you phone more often (leave it at home) and go do some relaxing stuff like going to concerts or festivals, spend more time outside (unless you are 365 days a year in a cold environment) and seek more people that leave their phone at home too...

Take more risks in finding out what your purpose is here on this planet, if playing safe and live a boring life is really your thing after finding out then you have all my respect, but at least explore...

Be careful with addictions of any kind as they slave you, especially smartphones, gambling, cigarettes and hard drugs, stay away from debts as well...

Try to stay free and try to define your own path as much as can...

Success, you can do it as most of us did it...

The perception that <current generation> is worse off than previous generations is very common but the truth is a bit more complex.

- Household income trends per age group have remained relatively consistent. The youngest group has seen the biggest dip in the past couple decades but did recover pre-COVID. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/FT_18...

- Real incomes are down slightly for those without a college degree but up significantly for those with a bachelor's or better https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/14/millenn...

- Housing prices are up significantly https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USSTHPI but price per square foot is actually fairly flat https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/todays-new-homes-are-1000-squ...