Would the anti-hustle movement have irked Socrates?

At the turn of the century, Time magazine featured this quote from Boomers about Gen X: "They have trouble making decisions ... They crave entertainment, but their attention span is as short as one zap of a TV dial."

And now it's Gen Z's turn to cop it.

We've been talking down about the next generation for literally thousands of years and most recently it is Gen Z's "anti-hustle" approach to work that is irking older generations.

Anti-hustle is a term that refers to workers pulling away from discretionary, outside-of-hours work in the pursuit of work-life balance.

And apparently anti-hustle job ads have risen by 30 per cent since the pandemic.

I've seen criticism of Gen Z for lacking ambition with specific advice that they need to do the time, referring to the need to slog your guts out early in your career if you want to make something of yourself, professionally speaking.

I can't help but think that it's underpinned by the notion that, "I had to do it and therefore you should".

But the truth is, Gen Z calling out the toxicity of hustle culture should be celebrated, not diminished.

There is a whole heap of young workers in corporate Australia who are currently being exploited - their salary compared to the true hours they actually work, reduces their hourly rate below minimum wage.

Is this OK? Is it what we want for younger generations?

The other reality is that Gen Z will be working a lot longer than the likes of Baby Boomers.

A sustained decline in real wage growth, the increase in knowledge (non-manual labour) work and an ageing population will drive up taxes and the aged pension eligibility, all resulting in the need and ability for Gen Z to work much later in life.

So, why would they flog themselves in the early stages of their career when they could have around 60 years of work in them?

This notion that Gen Z is the face of anti-hustle culture is often accompanied with the misconstrued idea that they lack ambition.

Why? Because they are "always changing jobs", are not driven by the same goals as previous generations - buying a house and having a family - and have the audacity to start their own business in their early twenties.

But, when you think about it, this is less of a conscious choice by Gen Z, and more a product of the times they live in.

Back in the 1970s, when Boomers were starting their careers, the average dollar went a lot further.

In fact, around 11 times further according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Remember the good old days when you could buy a whole chicken for $1.09? Yeah, me neither.

The average adult wage in Australia back in 1970 was around $4100, or about $48,000 when adjusted for inflation today.

In 2022, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the average Australian full-time salary was approximately $92,000, just less than double what it was in the seventies.

Doubling your salary might sound great, but not when the average Sydney house price has gone up by more than 500 per cent in the same period.

The reality is that things are way more expensive now, and the real value of the dollar, over time, is only expected to fall further.

Younger generations aren't buying a house as early, because they can't afford to.

At the same time, we're seeing people having kids later in life and fewer kids at that - in 1960, the average Australian woman would have 3.45 kids and today that figure is just 1.70.

Younger generations aren't locking themselves into lifelong financial commitments as early as they used to, so, when it comes to work, they don't value job security and financial stability as much as the generations before them.

And they don't need to.

Which is why they can change employers more frequently, pursue work that they're passionate about and employers that get them excited, rather than feeling like they need to slog it out in a dead-end job.

They don't need to compromise on a job just because it offers them permanency.

And if they want to have a year off from the corporate world to build their startup, they go for it.

While there are a lot of differences across generations, we all have one thing in common - we like to talk smack about the next generation down.

But maybe it's time we applied some of Socrates' other famous thinking to the younger generations and what they're up against ... "the only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing".