Glamour or Gloom – The ‘Lazy Girl’ Trend

As a wave of tik-tok videos promote anti-working and quietly (or not so quietly) quitting the corporate rat-race for a more balanced way of earning a living, is it fair to assume that this is the answer to workplace burnout, or is it simply a fad?

Such jobs are supposed to be less stressful than a corporate environment, creating work-life balance. Yet are they simply the mundane piece-meal type jobs that create stagnation, lack of fulfillment and boredom over time? Anthropologist David Graeber says these types of jobs are “bullshit jobs”, describing them as “a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence”.

Compared to their corporate counterparts, for many it might be true that some lazy girl jobs appear to have less pressure. However, as with anyone who works for themselves, runs their own business – online or otherwise, or does a job that requires a certain quota to be achieved in a day, the pressure can be equal to, if not greater than those undertaking the daily trudge into the office. Opting for an admin ‘lazy girl’ type role may seem an easy way to pay the bills – if those bills are small.?

Often the choice to opt out of corporate life and take up a lazy girl job is afforded to the Gen Z’ers, who are still living at home, and whose bills are relatively low. Their comparative lack of responsibility removes some of the pressure of earning a higher salary, making those lazy girl jobs seem like a great way to earn pocket money. Interestingly it is the Gen Zs who burnout quicker than any other generation, with burnout figures rising from 47% to 58% in one year, according to SEO and digital writer Adam Grucela . The hospitality sector suffers the highest levels of burnout, with a rate of around 80%. As such burned out employees are 50% more likely to seek a new job. So, it’s no wonder that the Gen Zs see ‘lazy-girl’ jobs as an appealing alternative.

Yet, as human beings we often crave the need to achieve – that sense of doing something worthwhile, making a difference, feeling professional pride in ourselves. That sense of purpose may be denied to those workers isolated at home, with little incentive to get out of bed before noon. This may possibly be contributing to the growing tsunami of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, as ‘lazy girls’ lose the ability to socially interact. They are denied face to face human contact, meaning social anxiety can escalate, with around 8 million people in the UK suffering with an anxiety disorder and 7.1% of the total population in the US suffering social anxiety.?

Additionally, with nobody to check your behaviour or attitude at work, holding you to account as you would be in the corporate world, the lack of boundaries and discipline can create a sense of entitlement and negative behaviour that goes unchecked.? Those [women] battling it out for promotion, pay rises and status in the corporate world must fight every step of the way to gain an inch up the corporate ladder. They must prove themselves by sacrificing their social lives, family time and ‘me’ time on the workplace altar. It’s exhausting and no wonder more and more [corporate working mothers] are burning out, with around 88% of UK employees experiencing some level of burnout in the last two years and the latest McKinsey report claiming that 42% of female employees experience burnout compared to 35% of male employees. They may view their, often younger counterparts, who have quit for ‘lazy girl’ jobs, as having achieved work life balance, especially those corporate workers unable to work from home some days. It can lead to two very polarising options available to them – either dumb down and take a mundane, mind-numbing ‘lazy girl’ job, giving up your sense of professional self-respect, or continue to climb the greasy pole, feeling guilty every time you’re late home, every time you miss parents evening, and every time you’re answering emails at the dinner table.

In our experience, especially since Covid-19, we have found that women want to retain their sense of pride, achievement, and ambition, and to be intellectually stretched at work, without having to give up precious time for other important aspects of their lives. Above all they want choice – choice of when to come into the office, catch up on the gossip, maintain professional relationships and simply interact with other professionals. Yet they also want the choice to be able to work from home when they want to, take the kids to school, go to watch the end of term play, and help with homework. The unfounded fear that people are slacking off when working from home has been disproved time and again, never more so than over lockdowns, as soon after the first one, boundaries slipped as home working saw the number of hours worked daily escalating. People sat at their screens for hours on end, feeling the need to be ever present, ever available. The working day on averaged increased by an extra 49 minutes, with an additional 28 hours worked per month, according to The Metro.? Emails rose by 5%, meetings rose by 13%, 12% of workers logged on before 7am and 18% were logged on later than 7pm.

Although it’s easy to see why such jobs may be tempting, this is not the answer for the majority of professionals. What is required is an overhaul in the way we work that offers a more ‘equitable solution, freeing up all our lives’ so that we can all pursue what’s important to us outside of paid work, says Jack Kellam, editor at progressive thinktank Autonomy. With trials of a four day working week being held across the UK, could this be a more robust way forward for everyone to make a decent living, and develop a sense of satisfaction from work?

Vicky Smith

Senior Consultant at WorkingWell Ltd