Gen Z Worker Says Jobs Should Only Go From 9 To 1 Each Day — 'No One Works After Lunch Anyway'
Wait… is she kind of on to something?
George Rudy | Shutterstock When it comes to work-life balance, we're all feeling the pinch nowadays, even as many of us have shifted to working from home in recent years.
By and large, Gen Z workers are leading the charge when it comes to rethinking the way we manage our work lives, from establishing clear boundaries with employers to calling for more drastic changes like four-day work weeks.
One Gen Z woman's solution takes things to yet another level, one some might call extreme. But while her proposal will surely strike older generations as just another example of Gen Z "laziness," many others can't help but think she's onto something.
The Gen Z employee thinks the workday should end after lunch.
"Hot take: I think that more employers should start offering 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. jobs," said Jenna, the Gen Z employee. "Like, very part-time, but also like a Monday to Friday job."
Now we know what you're thinking—"these young whippersnappers today really don't want to work!" But hear her out because she's kind of got a point — or several, actually.
She said that, for the most part, 'no one works after lunch anyway' because most jobs have so much downtime.
Jenna's current job is as a part-time account manager in an office where she's been working a 9-1, Monday-Friday schedule for almost a year now. And it's given her quite a bit of perspective on the traditional way of doing things when it comes to 9-5 jobs.
Previously, she worked an 8-5 job like most of the rest of us, with a commute and the whole bit. At her current position, however, she feels "like my boss recognizes how much [stuff] you can actually get done in that 9-1 p.m. window" and doesn't feel the need to stretch it out to eight hours.
The contrast with Jenna's former job couldn't be more stark. "I noticed when I worked my 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. job that once people get back from lunch, you might have a meeting or two and do some things in between," she said, "but if you had four dedicated hours of work, you could get the exact same amount of work done."
JLco Julia Amaral | Shutterstock
It all depends on the job, of course — some of us have jobs with very little downtime. But wasting time on the internet for half the afternoon and taking half-hour bathroom breaks to scroll Instagram are frequent jokes about the workplace for a reason.
It's because a lot of us spend a lot of the day screwing around because we don't actually have eight hours of work to do!
Jenna said that in essence, people in these jobs are probably doing about four hours of work but "stretching it over an 8-5 p.m. day," on top of which they may have to commute and end up "freaking exhausted and [not wanting] to do anything" afterward. Does that really make sense?
She said her 9-1 job has given her more work-life balance and allows her to pursue other goals on the side.
Jenna's idea is also more aligned with the times for many of us. Tons of people are working a series of side hustles, whether it's the gig economy or content creation. A new survey by Bankrate showed that 36% of Americans overall have some kind of side gig, if not several, and nearly half of millennials and Gen Zers do. For 25% of these people, side hustles are a substantial portion of their income — $500 or more per month.
Of course this is mainly out of necessity due to economic forces. But these numbers are also composed of people like Jenna, who is pursuing her own business as a stylist and also does UGC for major brands on social media. Having a 9-1 office job provides a mix of stability and freedom that makes those pursuits possible.
Jenna said the work-life balance of her current schedule has made her way happier this way too. "I truly could never go back to doing a 9 to 5 job because it's brutal," she said, especially because, as she put it, her 8-5 job was "not even 8 to 5." Leaving late most days combined with the commute on either end made it more like a 12-hour day. "For what?," she asked.
Well, for benefits like healthcare, for starters. Most part-time jobs don't offer benefits of any kind, and that's a deal-breaker for many workers. (And saving money on having to offer benefits is also part of why her boss offers a 9-1 position in the first place.) It's certainly not a one-size-fits-all solution.
But it does work for many people, and it's hard to argue with her point that many of our jobs really could be squished into a short, highly focused period of time if we had the option to do so.
Loosening up our mindset toward this — and letting go of the need to "work" eight hours simply because that's how it's always been — just might be an idea whose time has come.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.