I was reading an article about worker happiness in Australia based on a survey, with a large difference between the happiness of Gen-Z compared to the boomers. Firstly, it is good to remember that the youngest "boomers" are close to retirement age with 60% of them already retired. There is a trend to call everyone a boomer, but what people forget is that the average 60 year old has been on the internet for twenty to thirty years already. An internet that was far harder to use.
But this is a digression.
The younger generations who are just entering into the workforce in any kind of career trajectory, are far less happy, experiencing anxiety, stress and burnout and apparently most are struggling in the workplace. While the article did mention that this is partly due to the point in their career where the jobs are entry level, what it failed to mention is that those boomers also entered into entry level positions and had to work their way up.
What the article failed to mention, is the expectation and entitlement that younger generations seem to have when it comes to their working environment. they expect it to be tailored for them, not for the business. They expect to have a lot of responsibility and salary, but will not do what they don't like to do. And they believe that the workplace should provide life purpose, even when they choose the field for the money it can offer.
The boomers were much happier.
And it is easy to attribute this to holding better positions that pay more, or having a house paid or close to paid off. But I don't think that this is the reason that they are happier at work at all. I think that firstly, they might have accepted their position and regardless of whether it started off having meaning for them, they made meaning in what they do, where work has become part of their life experience. But it is the experience that I want to mention here in more detail.
Life experience, not work experience.
Consider the average life experience of the oldest of Gen-Z, which is currently 28 years of age.
The average age of marriage in Australia since 1940:
The first Gen-Z were born in 1997, but the average age of marriage is 32.8 years for males and 31.2 years for females. And the average age for a woman giving birth in Australia is around 31.3 years, with the average for first-time mothers being 29.9 years as of 2023. That means the average of the oldest Gen-Zers are not married, nor do they have children. So, no life experience in those areas, where people tend to learn about commitment, compromise and a hell of a lot of responsibility and having to provide for the family, often having to do what is not desirable.
I highlight the marriage and children because Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964. Neither of my parents were Boomers, they were both in the "silent generation".
Here is the birth rates by age groups.
Pay special attention to the 20-24 and the 25-29 ages, because they have fallen off a cliff since the 1960s. But the 30-34 and 35-39 has climbed. This is because women are having children later in life. But think about those birth peaks and align it with the boomers, because while the average 28-year old Gen-Zer is unmarried and childless, the average boomer at the same age was married and had children. There are some economic aspects that go into this, but the trend is largely social and cultural, because the trend has been happening regardless of economic prosperity or opportunity.
But, I am not thinking about the economics of it here, but the experience of it, because at the same time boomers were building their career from entry level positions, they were also getting married, having kids and taking on mortgages for houses. They were adulting because they were adults, whereas the average Gen-Zer is still acting like a teen as they approach thirty. Not with the dreams of a teen looking to have a career in this and that, because Gen-Zers don't seem to care about what career they actually have, as long as it gives them enough money and time to do what they really want, which is to continue on with childish behaviours. Which if you think just a little, you will also understand how this approach might impact on their workplace happiness and lack of purpose there.
Marriages and births aside, the experience of these things also brings other experiences, with a lot of late nights up with a sick child, the feelings of not being able to provide enough, as well cheating partners, divorces, and having to navigate a social network as a couple, and a broken-up couple. And the older the boomer gets, the more experiences get grouped around these things, with the oldest of the boomers being in their 40s in the recession of the late 80s and early 90s, where jobs were lost, mortgage rates went to nearly 20% in Australia and they still had to hold their family together, feed their kids, and ensure they had a clean guernsey for footy practice.
The average boomer has had a very different young career experience than the average young person today, and it wasn't all roses. Many will say how easy life was because it was easier to buy a house, but they fail to recognise all the other differences in life at the time also. There was far less entertainment for example, and it was very different. Does this have an impact?
Short answer, yes.
But now looking at those generally happier boomers in the workplace today, people are again attributing it to the economic aspects, without looking holistically at all the factors. Yep, they might own a house, but they have likely also experienced the troubles that having older children brings, with at least some of them losing their children already to cancer or a heart attack. And they have likely also lost some of their friends and colleagues to illness and accident also. Yet, they are happy? Yes, because they don't take the workplace for granted and have long ago shed the expectations that their workplace is meant to provide them with purpose and meaning. They know it is a job to pay the bills, which also makes it easier to bear. Not only that, they are also working for the purpose of their family, with kids now in their forties and fifties, who have their own children. This means that the work they do now is for other people who will benefit from their earnings, savings, and investments.
Gen-Z are only working for themselves
The guiding principle, the north star, the fundamental tenet that gives their direction in life, is themselves. It is all about doing what is right by them, balancing life for them, working to do what they want to do. And ultimately as humans who have evolved to be social and communal, a life focused on the self is unfulfilling for most people, and will lead to disconnection and loneliness. Not aloneness, loneliness. And this is happening in younger and younger age groups, where anxiety and depression runs rampant, as do the avoidance mechanisms and pharmacological treatments for it.
Experience matters.
Not just in the workplace, but in life. Wellbeing doesn't come from a good job with a good salary and a lot of vacation time, otherwise all of those Hollywood stars would have the highest wellbeing on earth, instead of drug and relationship problems. Wellbeing comes from living a life worth valuing, and valuing it, even when it isn't perfect, even when things break, even when you don't get what you want, and even when you have to do things that you would rather not do, for years on end. When you have a reason to work for others, it becomes so much easier to do all kinds of unwanted tasks.
Before you whine - are you experienced enough?
For most people who complain about their cushy job in an office, the reason they complain is because they haven't had enough negative experience to truly know what hardship is, nor have they had enough life experience to be willing to do work they don't want to do, for the sake of others.
You want purpose?
It isn't hard.
Build a life worth working for.
It is the most rewarding thing you can do.
Taraz
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