Does working hard now bring work-life balance later?

Global – In the Boomer generation, it is accepted that you have to work hard and hard if you want to have a good life later. With similar dogmas, they raised their children, but the younger generation is less and less in agreement with this. Should graduates give up balance early in their careers and instead dedicate themselves to work so they can reap the rewards later?

Scott Galloway, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, published a post in May 2022 that went viral on LinkedIn. According to Galloway, work-life balance is built up by career capital: By sacrificing themselves early on, workers can achieve some harmony later in their professional life. “Poise at my age is a consequence of its lack at your age,” he wrote.

Of course, his perspective reflects the life experiences of many Boomer and Generation X workers—people who worked hard to climb the corporate ladder early on but only slowed down after years of hard work left them with the professional clout or financial resources to do so.

And yet, in the wake of the pandemic, many more people are aware of the need to balance work and personal life; talk of stress, mental well-being, and burnout has never been louder. This heated debate about the role of work in our lives coincides with the emergence of Generation Z in the workforce: They want to establish tighter boundaries around work and are actively looking for companies with positive work cultures.

The case of refusal to balance

According to traditional thinking, many workers spent a lot of time at the beginning of their career climbing the corporate ladder, and only when they reached financial security or a certain level of seniority did they allow themselves to rest.

Why balance remains elusive

The unprecedented shifts in long-established work structures brought about by the pandemic have brought new insights into the role of work in people’s lives. It came to the realization that our working time has no meaning, and that work is just one aspect of our lives.

As a consequence, workers of all ages tend to seek more flexibility in their work. Many companies are responding – in the current tight job market, firms are offering employees new work models such as hybrids and placing more emphasis on work-life balance.

In fact, employers are more likely to hire and reward candidates who avoid balance. Research has long shown that drive—ambition, resilience, perseverance, perseverance, and an employee’s ability to remain dissatisfied with their accomplishments—is a critical component of anyone’s employability.

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Of course, young workers may have chosen not to work early in their careers. However, they may be risking their financial security down the road given that new hires usually have to dig in order to progress. This is especially the case for women who face the need to sprint early in their careers so they can achieve a level of security and seniority before taking a break to have children.