Lazy Girl Jobs Are Popular Among Gen Z . Who Could Blame Them?

Last updated on August 5th, 2023 at 08:51 am

In the middle of the 2010s, I worked in a CaFe at an art gallery in south London. Every day, I would make a few cups of coffee, chat with customers, and then take my small sack full of tips home. It smelled good inside, too, like fresh-baked bread and salty anchovies. Even though I’ve had jobs that were more in line with my real interests since then, that job in the Cafe was one of my favorites, mostly because it was so easy. I was paid about the same as I was when I worked as an editor at a major media outlet. But I was always at ease and never looked at my emails.

Young women have started calling these kinds of jobs “lazy girl jobs” because they don’t require much effort but pay well and don’t involve much personal passion. 

Most of the time, the term refers to low-paying office jobs, not jobs in the service industry. For example, people who sit at computers, send a few emails and take home a nice salary are said to be “office drones.” 

The lazy girl job hashtag on TikTok has about 14 million views right now, and the mood is mostly aspirational. “I love my lazy girl job,” one post says. 

I can’t find a “lazy boy jobs” hashtag, but it looks like all of the posters are women. Maybe the idea that men should be paid more to do less work isn’t as new or interesting as it once was. 

Even though the term “lazy girl job” is fairly new, Gen Z has been feeling anti-work and anti-ambition for a while (see also: “quiet quitting”). These are the twentysomethings who grew up after the pandemic and saw the rise and fall of the girl boss. They are tired of hustle culture and the burnout it causes, and would rather just get a steady paycheck every month and enjoy life within the limits of capitalism. At a time when it’s getting harder and harder for many people in the working class to get into creative industries, why not just focus on having an easy life and finding meaning and satisfaction outside of work stress?

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A survey from Workspace Technology found that almost half of Gen Z would leave a job if they weren’t given a “hybrid work option.” 

You can see this shift happening in other areas of pop culture if you look closely enough. Consider the films and television shows that the millennial generation grew up with, such as “Sex and the City,” “Ugly Betty,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” and “Legally Blonde.” These were tales of ambitious, anxious, but aesthetically pleasing women who tried to “have it all.” Ten or twenty years later, attitudes have shifted significantly. Euphoria, The Last of Us, and Sex Education are popular among young people because they focus on the relationships between characters. Except for Succession, which isn’t exactly hustle propaganda, films and TV shows no longer center around characters jobs. This outlook on work is reminiscent of the 1950s: people have jobs to make money and contribute to the household, while the real drama of life unfolds outside.

There’s no denying that lazy girl jobs have some appeal. Who doesn’t want to fill out a few boring spreadsheets for a nice pay package and time off? But they aren’t easy for most people to get. Getting one of these jobs is a privilege in and of itself, since they may not be easy to get for people who don’t have a college degree or who face discrimination at work or during the hiring process.

But it’s interesting that so-called “lazy girl jobs” have become something to strive for. Even though it’s sad that many of us can’t make a living doing what we love, any change that gets us away from the idea that our jobs are our whole identity can only be a good thing. Or at least the less bad of two bad options.

We may even stop having to ask people, “So, what do you do?” Perhaps the time will soon come for us to ask, “So, what do you do when you’re not at work?” What do you enjoy doing?