Crazy to be lazy? What the ‘Lazy Girl Job’ trend can teach managers
The days of hustle culture and burnout are well and truly over (period). Whether it is, ‘Quiet Quitting’, ‘Acting Your Wage’ or ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’, there is no hiding that today’s Gen Z employees have developed a range of new perspectives around the ideal workplace.
Maisie Gray, partnerships associate, at Rufus powered by Initiative, is part of Gen Z, but the ‘Lazy Girl Job’ TikTok trend did, at first, leave her concerned for the expectations of our future employees
After investigating this trend, a little further, I soon realised the ‘lazy girl job’ life is not a matter of trading KPIs for days spent beachside, it’s more an empowering mindset that could teach our millennial mentors a thing or two.
The ‘Lazy Girl Lowdown’
We all have moments where we log off after a long day with sore eyes and spreadsheet sorrows. Often in these moments, we enter a downward spiral into corporate structures, long work hours and the audacity of a Sunday evening Teams message.
Easily mistaken for ‘anti-work’, this ‘anti-overwork’ attitude is the key driver behind the ‘lazy girl job’ trend.
With over 17 million views of hashtag #lazygirljob, this has taken corporate TikTok by storm. Coined by Gabrielle Judge, a ‘lazy girl job’ is a non-technical role that leads to minimal stress, a comfortable bank balance and employment minus the emotion.
‘Lazy girl jobs’ foster neutrality in the workplace and ensure we don’t sacrifice the simple joys of life for likes on LinkedIn.
In several of her videos, Judge indicates these jobs are a remnant of the ‘Great Resignation Era’ – and an attempt to encourage employees to get what they want and what they deserve. Whether it is increased autonomy, a substantial salary or greater flexibility, this era proves that productivity relates hugely to the attitude of an employee, debunking the longstanding notion that hours on the clock equate to work accomplished.
Judge emphasises that the ‘lazy girl job’ trend doesn’t t call for people to quit their 9-5 for a life of leisure. Instead, it strives to encourage employees to reflect on the role work has in their own life and question if it could be doing more harm than good. Judge suggests that perhaps in allowing employees to be ‘lazy’ they become better at their job.
After all, no worker is of any value if they are overworked, stressed and haven’t allowed for moments of perspective and depressurisation.
Haters Gonna Hate
Lazy is a controversial term associated with lacking self-worth, discipline and passion. With the ability to act as fuel for people to dismiss Gen Z-ers as entitled (a personal pet hate of mine), let’s just say 99% of individuals wouldn’t list it as ‘Top Skill’ on their CV.
Because of this, like many haters online, I find it concerning to watch women glorify their ‘lazy girl jobs’ as ones where they copy and paste emails, pick up the phone twice a day and take a minimum of 4 long breaks in which they use their “generous pay check to buy an overpriced iced oat milk latte”.
It wasn’t until looking into the backlash that videos like this one received that I was able to subvert my own entrenched expectations and realise the true value of the ‘lazy girl job’ phrase.
It is clear that the coffee break cynics that are commenting on this ‘lazy girl job’ content are embedded with the belief that clocking off at 4pm correlates with weakness, embarrassment and quite frankly, defeat by desktop. What these people didn’t stop to consider before becoming a keyboard warrior is, maybe ‘lazy girls’ work harder, faster and smarter because they have the mental (and physical) capacity to do so.
Having occasionally had such thoughts and feelings of work-related stress myself, I think the ability of the ‘lazy girl job’ trend to implement an anti-hustle ethos does have merit.
To convince myself that the hours I spent scrolling through short videos captioned #lazygirljob were productive, I do have some key learnings to take away.
1. It is time for us to harness the benefits of being a little ‘lazy’ and cater to this new world of employee expectation by taking a stance against unnecessary overwork. In doing this, managers and those that sit above, need to start normalising that secure employment with a decent pay, decent working conditions, flexibility, good training, and development opportunities is not (and should not) be for the lucky few.
2. Despite the pressure to always appear “online”, we need to encourage ourselves and our colleagues to stop answering emails at 11pm and start asking the questions “Do I enjoy what I do?” and “Am I working in a way that is positively impacting the things that matter most to me?” Additionally, if you see your team member complete their to-do list before 5pm, celebrate their efficiency and suggest they treat themselves to an afternoon walk or some time spent on a passion project rather than condemning them as lazy.
3. A little bit lazy, is not at all crazy. So, although transforming from a ‘girl boss’ into a ‘lazy girl’ might appear limiting and life-changing at first – I argue, it is not all that crazy, although I admit I’m still not sure it is a title I want to add to my email signature.
Instead, I consider this trend a wakeup call to encourage us all to rethink our boundaries, because you might not be a ‘lazy girl’ but a strong independent and efficient employee who shouldn’t let no workplace tear you down.
Maisie Gray is partnerships associate at Rufus powered by Initiative.
