An increasing number of young workers report experiencing a sense of burnout.
A 2021 survey by job site Indeed shows that millennials and millennials report the highest burnout rates, at 59 percent and 58 percent, respectively.
Generation Z is used to describe young people born after 1996.
A 2022 survey by US-based business management platform Asana shows that more Gen Z workers report feeling burnt out than any other age group, while a 2021 survey of British workers found that 73 per cent of Gen Z respondents compared to an average of 73 per cent across all age groups. It showed that 80 of them feel more drained since the pandemic.
Burnout has been an important problem in business life for a while; however, it is alarming that so many young people report experiencing feelings of burnout in the early stages of their careers.
Understanding why so many young people are overwhelmed by work and the factors fueling the growing sense of burnout is seen as the key to helping the next generation of employees take their first steps in their careers.
increasing pressures
Psychotherapist Kim Hollingdale, who specializes in recovery from burnout at Pepperdine University in California, states that the stress caused by the pandemic is causing higher burnout rates in all generations.
But Hollingdale believes that Gen Z currently has “worst stressors components” among employees; these include lack of power at work, financial instability, the normalization of a culture of hustle and bustle, and lack of opportunities for relaxation.
He attributes the reason for this to the fact that the Z generation has the least “workplace capital”, that is, they have less power to set limits and say no to the tasks assigned to them.
Brittany, 22, who works in the professional services industry in the US, says she feels pressured to perform, which leads to a feeling of overwork and burnout:
“I’ll say yes to everything and the later they want me to be, the later I’ll be… I want to be seen as a hard worker. This makes me feel exhausted, I’m tired all the time.”
Hollingdale states that Generation Z is also stressed about money.
According to a 2021 survey by Deloitte, one of the world’s largest international accounting, tax and management consultancy services, 41 percent of millennials and 46 percent of millennials feel stressed about their finances all the time or most of the time.
Older workers face similar financial pressures early in their careers, but these stressors are now more severe, Hollingdale says. “The cost of living continues to rise faster than our salaries.”
For example, analysis of U.S. census data shows that from 1960 to 2017, median house prices rose 121 percent, while median household income increased only 29 percent.
Today, due to rising inflation, while prices are increasing all over the world, workers’ wages do not increase at the same rate.
Hollingdale says Generation Z workers feel pressure to do extra work to get closer to milestones like paying their bills and owning a home, which increases the likelihood of burnout.
Microsoft’s latest Business Trend Index, released in March 2022, shows that 70 percent of Gen Z respondents are considering earning additional income through a side project in the next year.
“They finish the job they’re working towards for their targeted career plan and instead of rest, they do side jobs to make a little more money,” explains Hollingdale.
These additional pursuits, such as entrepreneurship and content creation, are becoming more common and even attractive among Gen Z. However, the connection between working long hours and burnout has been documented by research.
The time spent constantly in front of the screen may also aggravate the problem. Generation Z is also more likely to use social media during their rest period. Some studies show that this age group spends 4.5 hours a day on social media (almost an hour more than millennials). This can make it even harder to ignore the constantly popping up job notifications.
Brittany says she’s incapable of being inaccessible outside of business hours. She says she sometimes receives job requests late due to working with clients in different time zones, and feels pressured to keep working when she sees her boss is still working:
“I don’t want to look like I’m slacking off, I’m not putting a lot of effort into the job.”
pandemic effect
In addition to these general stressors, Generation Z is also facing the challenges associated with the pandemic and the changes it brings to the business world.
According to Peter Caven, a Toronto-based career coach specializing in young professionals, many Gen Z workers have started working during the pandemic and are only familiar with working remotely or a mix of both office and online work.
“It’s very difficult to get people into a new organization and for that person to form and maintain effective relationships across the organization,” says Caven, while everyone else is working at home. This isolation can lead to fatigue and burnout.
While there are home workers from every generation, all pre-Zen generations have had the experience of spending face-to-face time with co-workers before the pandemic. Caven notes that even if they just started a new job in the midst of the pandemic, mid-career professionals are more familiar with starting a new workplace, making it easier to integrate into a new company remotely.
This experience can also help older professionals draw tougher boundaries between work and home life. Research by US-based computer technology company Oracle in 2020 shows that 66 percent of full-time generation Z workers in the pre-pandemic workforce worked longer than other generations compared to pre-Covid-19.
Is optimism possible?
There isn’t much that Gen Z workers can do about factors that increase their sense of burnout, such as financial instability or having a screen-focused culture.
However, it can be ensured that they have a better awareness of burnout and are willing to talk about it. Compared to older generations, the Asana report shows that Gen Z are more comfortable discussing their feelings of burnout with their managers.
According to Hollingdale, the growing problem of burnout in Gen Z could lead to improvements in the way we work, “for example, greater emphasis can be placed on workplace health and the work environment can be revolutionized to prevent burnout for these workers and others.”
However, young employees are not so optimistic.
With the widespread use of remote work, there are not few who believe that burnout is inevitable for Generation Z.
Brittany plans to stay away from her tiring job for long and head to a completely different field.