Generation z are shunning the corporate ladder because they recognise we live in an asset-driven economy that penalises work, says Eliza Filby
Here’s a charming exchange between two young men I overheard in a cafe in Devon: “There’s this guy who posts reels on Instagram,” said one, “where he like lives in Thailand, works remotely for two hours and spends the rest of the day spearfishing in the sea…. He’s like corporate dude by day and gutting fish by the afternoon.” He showed his friend some of the Instagram content, eliciting an endearing response: “Yeah, I really want to be a fisherman but also make money doing corporate stuff, y’ know?”
I know what you’re thinking. The naivete of privileged youth! Nonetheless, their daydreaming points to an increasingly common reaction to the corporate hamster wheel amongst gen z, one that frustrated managers see all the time among their youngest recruits, from their scepticism of overtime and preference for working from home to their emphasis on work-life balance. The key question is this: from where have gen z got these ideas about work? Too much TikTok during the pandemic? Not really. The truth is more fundamental, and legitimate: gen z have grown up in a time when work doesn’t pay.
Average real wages are now no higher than they were in 2005, and a well-stocked office breakfast bar doesn’t do much to make up for this. We know of the pay squeeze on doctors but the same frustration, albeit on a different level, exists in the graduate-fuelled private sector. Corporate wages do not bring anything like the rewards they once did, and now we operate in an environment where tech-overload requires us to work longer than ever. Meetings shot up by 150 per cent between 2020-2022. Collectively, gen z have grown up considering the modern workplace as somewhere you spend more time but for less reward.
It is remarkable how few older colleagues, beneficiaries of more favourable economic conditions, are willing to recognise this (while at the same time doing all they can to ease their own kids’ path to adulthood). They will compare today’s starting salaries with their own but without the context of rents, bills and student debt. The latter, spelt out on payslips, is effectively an additional tax on the graduate young in an era when taxes are already concentrated on income rather than assets.
We are in an asset-driven economy where wealth is supported but work is penalised. This reinforces the wealth of the older generations and is creating disillusioned young people across the income scale. We have been in this stasis since the financial crisis, most of gen z’s life. As one young millennial consultant told me; “I have chosen a conventional corporate path, but it doesn’t feel secure. I know those extra hours rarely translate into something. It’s just time I’ll never get back.”
Older millennials, the in-betweeners with a foot in two different centuries, have tried to contort themselves into the baby boomer straitjacket without much success. They were cajoled into thinking that a sense of purpose, #girlboss vibes and a good education could mitigate against harsh economic realities. Gen z aren’t so foolish. They look at mid-life millennials and think, “you’ve made work your life for twenty years and you still can’t afford a house.”
The only winners in this system are the gen z’ers who are buttressed by the bank of mum and dad. Those who can piggyback onto their parents’ piggybank and enjoy a fast-track into adulthood. Wages alone won’t do it. The stark reality is that affluent mum and dad offer more certainty and a better springboard than any employer but the divide, between those who can rely on such help and those that can’t, splits friendship groups, peers and society.
The deal used to be clear; fat pay for a pound of flesh. But it no longer rings true. Every generation has challenged the corporate ladder, but gen Z are different; they’re simply unconvinced of the deal you are selling. It could be that these two young men in Devon, with their fisherman aspirations and side hustle vision of the corporate ladder, actually have a more realistic view of modern day capitalism than the rest of us.
Dr Eliza Filby is a generations expert. Her new book, Inheritocracy, is out in September