Generation Z (Gen Z) was never demure. At least not in the traditional sense of the word.
These individuals, born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s, are known for their forthright views and hot takes on everything from money to music. But 2024 turned out to be the year they had some difficult conversations about work, and its place in their lives.
The tragic death of a 26-year-old EY staffer allegedly due to overwork and the reported apathy of her workplace, industry leaders doubling down on 70-hour work week, and a spate of LinkedIn posts “calling out” the behaviour of the “lazy generation” meant Gen Z had a lot to get off their chest.
Gen Z’s 2024 conversations about work can be summed up in three words: burnout, boundaries, and balance.
The demise of Anna Sebastian Perayil in July hit home the most. At 26 years, she was one of them. And the way her parents described the days leading up to her death — “hardly getting any sleep and unable to eat proper food”, working past midnight, and working even on Sundays — were all too familiar. Many had gone through something similar in their short career.
However, when a Gen Z employee shared a news article about this in her office WhatsApp group, the response was one of disbelief and victim-blaming. Many said the departed must have lacked what it took to thrive in a high-pressure environment.
“As someone who wants to work for big corporate houses, such news makes me fearful of what awaits me,” says Aanya Wig, 25, who works in the public policy space. “Just because I want work-life balance doesn’t mean I am not aspirational,” she tells The Indian Express in a WhatsApp audio note sent from her Delhi home.
Just like Wig, other Gen Zers who spoke to The Indian Express recalled their conversations with friends this year about Sundays lost to work and the porous boundaries between their work and life.
Talking to their friends made one thing clear: everyone they knew was bothered by how much of the workday spilled into evenings and the weekends. They also exchanged reels and memes that captured how tough it was to align schedules and plan meetups while “working in corporate”. In fact, Gen Zers found kinship on social media groups for working youngsters, where people deal with issues through memes. Faced with a conundrum, some even bared their hearts to ask perfect strangers on the way forward in their professional careers.
Feeling the strain
Gen Zers were stressed this year, by their own admission. A 2024 survey of Gen Zers and Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) by audit and consulting services company Deloitte showed four in 10 Gen Zers (48 per cent) admitting they were feeling stressed all or most of the time. Work emerged as the top stressor, along with finances, and the health and welfare of their family, according to the same survey.
Aditya Singh, 23, an Indore-based bug bounty hunter and cybersecurity enthusiast, says his conversations this year with friends switched “constantly between celebrating successes and unpacking frustration. “Almost everyone I know is somehow struggling with managing their work-life balance, says Singh.
Mental health, too, came up in conversations, and so did tips to protect one’s mind space. “A friend shared how they began strictly logging off at 6 pm to regain personal time, which inspired me to set similar boundaries,” says Shreyashi Das, 25, a Bengaluru-based public relations (PR) professional. Another Gen Zer said he started putting his phone on ‘flight’ mode on week offs after being asked to work consecutive Sundays without prior notice.
Battle for balance
Gen Zers, who now corner a fourth of the entire Indian workforce, according to a 2024 joint report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Snapchat, continued to press for work-life balance this year. As Gen Z’s share of the workforce swells, the pushback led by industry doyens such as Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy, too, has intensified. This year, the 78-year-old Baby Boomer (born between 1946 and 1964) reiterated his view that youngsters must work 70 hours a week. Murthy said he didn’t “believe in work-life balance” and was disappointed with India’s shift from a six-day to a five-day work week.
This triggered much debate on social media and in personal circles. Gen Zers posted saying they understood that Murthy was focused on nation-building, but argued that his perspective turned a blind eye towards the invisible labour of women and the personal responsibilities of many young adults.
At one level, Gen Zers say they are not bothered by simply clocking in hours but focused on the outcome. It may simply be a generational thing, they say, pointing to the different ways in which people engage with their work.
Ananya Sowmyaragavan agrees. The Mumbai-based 23-year-old says no work conversation she had this year was over without emphasising work-life balance. Gen Zs consider work as a part of themselves, and not a separate unit, she says. “Hence, our generation views work-life balance and mental health as essentials for productivity and happiness, rather than a reward or an incentive,” says Sowmyaragavan, who works in a digital PR firm.
Mind matters
Mehek Rohira, a Mumbai-based psychologist working at online counselling platform The Mood Space, says Gen Zers brought up issues related to pay gaps, limited growth opportunities, and work-life imbalance in therapy sessions this year.
Many of Rohira’s Gen Z clients sought to address how the pressure to constantly perform at work made them more anxious, and encouraged them to seek more meaningful, supportive work environments. “While Millennials and Gen X dealt with similar issues, the ‘always-on’ culture fuelled by tech and remote work makes it harder for Gen Z to disconnect,” she says. Gen X refers to those born between the mid-1960s to the late 1970s.
A generational thing
The generation prior, of Millennials, is mostly empathetic towards Gen Zers, but acknowledges the different work ethics. Mumbai-based Akash Lamba points out many similarities between his Gen Z colleagues and himself, a millennial.
We both want financial freedom and work-life balance, the 38-year-old says. Over this past year, his conversations with his Gen Z co-workers at a public sector bank revolved around the stock market, better job opportunities abroad, startup roles, and early retirement. He also concedes that his Gen Z colleagues are far more “in” on the latest technology.
But head over to social media, and you will find the Gen Z versus the rest divide is far more gaping and the discourse more intense. On social networking platforms LinkedIn and X in particular, battlelines have been drawn.
Recently, a person attached a screenshot of a conversation where their junior Gen Z colleague texted them to say they would join work late the next day after working longer hours the previous day. Soon, there were arguments and reaction posts for and against this behaviour.
While some questioned the ethics of private conversations being made public, others said they had had similar experiences with Gen Zers. Still others felt this outlook towards work hours was simply a generational difference.
Another social media post said it was difficult to work with Gen Zers and that many were no longer hiring them because Gen Zs are “rude” and “don’t know how to behave with other colleagues”.
Flagging the generalisation, Wig from Delhi says many belonging to the previous generation don’t like any form of pushback or being questioned. That, she says, may be at the core of their dislike for Gen Zers, a kind of “we suffered, so you should too”.
That has been the experience this year for one Gen Zer from Jabalpur. She lamented that her supply chain management job didn’t encourage a distinction between the personal and professional. “Talking about work-life balance will be seen as complaining, and not as a valid concern,” she says.
Wishlist 2025
But ask them about the New Year, and Gen Zers strike a hopeful but practical note. Das’ wish for 2025 is grounded in office realities across industries. She wants companies to hire enough people so that employees can take guilt-free time off without overburdening coworkers. “The cycle of one person taking leave and another being overworked creates tension,” she adds.
Gen Zers also see Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) playing a greater role in their lives. Most Gen Zers say they already use GenAI for most of their work activities while maintaining creative control.
Some Gen Zers are more direct and a bit more optimistic about the coming year.
For 2025, they don’t want workplaces that offer shiny toys like meditation or yoga subscriptions and stress leaves but don’t allow time or workplace acceptance for anyone to actually use these benefits. They hope to have managers and workplaces that have a better relationship with work and that maintain open, transparent communication, says Wig. Those who maintain boundaries and work on their subconscious biases.
The past year has shown that the workplace is in churn. In just over a decade, nearly half (47 per cent) of active employees may be Gen Zers, with the next generation knocking on the office doors. The future of work looks a whole lot more interesting.
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