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Careers
Lazy girl jobs: is this work trend really the answer to our burnout problem?
By Meg Walters
2 years ago
5 min read
After years of hustling, we’re all taking a new approach to work – that is, do as little as humanly possible.
Our relationship with work has always been fraught. However, in the past few years, the relationship has changed more rapidly than ever. After a period of work obsession, when terms like “hustling” and “grinding” became synonymous with the workplace, the Covid-19 pandemic brought about a harsh change. In place of the hustle, many of us suddenly found ourselves working from home or changing careers altogether in a period known as the Great Resignation, which saw 20% switch roles. Burnout seemed to be everywhere (almost 90% of UK workers reported it at some stage) and the hustle, it seems, was falling out of favour.
Now, a new workplace shift is apparently occurring. All over TikTok, young people are proclaiming the benefits of what they call “lazy girl jobs”. Is hustle culture finally a thing of the past? We certainly hope so. But how far in the other direction is too far? And how can we strike a healthy balance between laziness and burnout at work? We spoke to an expert to find out more about what ‘lazy girl jobs’ mean for the future of work.
What is a ‘lazy girl job’ anyway?
Lazy girl jobs are pretty much exactly what they sound like – jobs that require minimal effort and deliver maximum rewards. Imagine this: you clock in from a sunny, remote location around 10am, then you answer a few emails before taking a long lunch break. In the afternoon, you open up your laptop from the beach, a cocktail in hand, as you sift through a spreadsheet or coordinate a team on Slack. Before you know it, the working day is over – and somehow, you barely did any work. That is a lazy girl job.
The phrase was first coined by TikTok user Gabrielle Judge (@gabrielle_judge), who claimed, “A lazy girl job is basically something you can just quiet quit.”
“There’s a lot of jobs out there where you could make, like, 60-80k, so, like, pretty comfortable salaries, and not do that much work, and be remote,” she went on. “Also there are non-technical tech roles,” she said, listing jobs in the tech sector that don’t require technical skills.
According to Judge, these ‘lazy girl jobs’ pay for your cost of living, give you sense of security, make childcare much easier and mean you can “truly exercise work-life balance”.
Young people have officially fallen out of love with hustle culture
“Hustle culture promotes a relentless pursuit of success often at the expense of one’s well-being,” life coach Gemma Perlin tells us. “This can lead to burnout, increased stress levels and a decline in our mental wellbeing.”
Given the current political and economic climate in the UK, it’s not hard to see why so many young people are searching for more balance and less hustle from their careers.
“The cost of living crisis has really been a catalyst for falling out of love of hustle culture for many,” says Perlin. “People feel even more pressurised and stretched financially and if the constant hustling career is still leaving them feeling financially insecure, having to get other sources of income, many are questioning the point.”
While previous generations may have glamorised the ‘hustle’, Gen Z are faced with a cost of living crisis that has put things into perspective. As prices of rent, mortgages and everyday essentials have risen, wages have remained relatively stagnant. This has left many thinking, Why would I work harder for less?
According to Deloitte, over three quarters of Gen Z and millennial workers would consider finding a new job if an employer didn’t offer flexible or remote working. The same report notes that almost half of Gen Z-ers have a side hustle. In this climate, where young people are often working longer and harder for the same benefits, it’s easy to see why the idea of a ‘lazy girl job’ would be pretty enticing.
A lazy girl job is basically something you can just quiet quit.
Can lazy jobs actually be a healthy thing?
What Judge recommends isn’t all that extreme — it is, in many ways, just a normal job. However, in a post-hustle culture world, it is deemed as ‘lazy’ simply because it’s a job that doesn’t require giving absolutely everything.
According to Perlin, the basic premise of the ‘lazy girl job’ isn’t unhealthy. “If we define a lazy girl job as a job that allows you time for nourishing yourself outside of work, one which allows you time to explore hobbies and passion and develop projects that fulfil you, it is easy to see how much happier, less stressed and content you could be,” she tells us. “When we feel in charge of time, as opposed to chained to a desk, we experience life in a much more relaxed, peaceful way.”
However, Perlin warns that using language like “lazy” to describe your job could have negative side effects. “It is important to define what is feeling relaxed about going to work and what is doing something that is not fulfilling your potential,” she says. “If we commit to laziness in the workplace, it can lead to decreased job satisfaction, fulfilment and, crucially, confidence in ourselves. We need purpose as humans to drive us, to get us up in the morning, and feeling stagnant in something that doesn’t stretch you can have a really detrimental effect.”
Striking the right balance between laziness and overworking
While working in a job that is unfulfilling and dull is unhealthy, so is overworking and ‘hustling’ just for the sake of it. So, how do we strike a healthy balance?
“I teach my clients about a work/life integration as opposed to a work/life balance; the latter, for many years, has been the go-to of what is healthy,” says Perlin. “It came from a place of trying to protect peoples lives outside of work, but I don’t see it as a useful and realistic idea. A work/life balance indicates there are scales that tip between one or the other, a work integration is about how you as an integrated human being can find harmony. If you are trying to find a balance, as you might know from yoga poses, you are always in a shaky space.”
Instead, she recommends thinking in terms of integration. Ask yourself questions like:
- What does integration feel like to you?
- Do you need to redress boundaries at work?
- Do you need to do a different career?
- Do you need to invest more time in self care?
- Are you interested in exploring hobbies outside of work?
Image: Getty
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