Speaking to HuffPost UK, Ed Fidoe, founder of the London Interdisciplinary School, said that despite claims to the contrary, younger people’s workplace woes are “not remotely Gen Z’s fault.”
After all, he argued, the numbers are not on their side.
Large numbers of high-performing graduates have coincided with freezing hires, the infiltration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the workplace, and increasingly volatile markets, the founder claimed in a previous interview.
No wonder Forbes reports 44% of Gen Z are burnt out.
In a recent Reddit post shared to r/AskUK, though, site user u/JaysCooking wondered: “Are Millennials/Gen Z experiencing burnout or is this something every generation went through?”
They added: “is it something older generations also went through, but maybe they just gritted their teeth and accepted it? Was burnout always there but we just didn’t talk about it back then?”
Here are some of the most-upvoted responses:
1) “I think the burnout is exacerbated by the fact that we aren’t really getting anywhere for our efforts.”
“Boomers etc were at least able to afford a decent place to live and reasonable comfort for working themselves to the brink.”
Credit: u/Chemical-ali1
Writer’s note: In the 1970s, the average home in the UK cost 3.5 times the mean salary. In 2035, it’s closer to ten times the average salary.
2) “To be fair, in the past, only a small percentage of the population had [prestigious] careers. And a much, much smaller percentage of women.”
“There was probably a bit less pressure overall as there was less competition, less oversight of behaviour.
More staff did all your admin for you too. I’m not suggesting that everything was like Mad Men, but without emails, mobile phones or electronic tracking of everything it’s a lot harder to push people. The stress of the work was probably better balanced out with more social activity.”
Credit: u/royalblue1982
3) “I think previous generations worked just as hard if not harder.”
“But they saw a lot more progress and rewards for their effort which probably made it easier to push through the burnout.”
Credit: u/joe_cross5
4) “It’s every generation. It’s just our terminology is different for each one.”
Credit: u/batscurry
5) “Gen X here. I was burnt out when I got about 30.”
“I didn’t have a very high-powered or high salary at the time. However, I was chasing money (doing loads of overtime for a long period of time).”
Credit: u/tayviewrun
6) “I’m Gen X and I really really believe the lockdown and Covid had a massive effect on people’s mental health.”
“Plus media doesn’t help. We are constantly bombarded with terrible possible scenarios. It’s all thrown at us and our brain is computing everything and it takes away energy.
After Covid, our strong bunch of friends who socialised weekly never now meet as everyone is far too tired. I’m taking 20-plus people, so there must be something in it.”
Credit: u/northernblazer11
7) “I think the pace of change for recent generations has far outweighed anything from before.”
“I don’t mean big events like wars or Covid, I mean ‘normal’ daily life.
Child of the ’80s here, so I went from life before the internet and now we’re getting into dead internet theory already.
Job expectations went from ‘get a job for 40 years in one place like your parents’ to the threat of redundancy at 30, reapplying for my own job, the threat of redundancy again, moving industries and companies and locations in the UK to stay employed... etc.
I think it’s difficult for most people to be okay with the levels of uncertainty around daily life we currently have to be honest.”
Credit: u/PoetryNo912
Do you have any thoughts on the above? Let us know!