Young people want to change the working world with new ideas. A recent survey shows how exactly.
What does “working less” mean exactly? In a recent survey by Generation Lab of 1,033 people aged between 18 and 34 in the USA, revealing facts about the perspectives of young workers on the job market emerged.
Due to the chosen age structure for the sample, a large majority of the respondents belong to the so-called Generation Z. However, the oldest among them are so-called Millennials.
What is Generation Z again? They were born between 1996 and 2012. Before them came the Millennials or Generation Y, who were born starting in 1980. The Baby Boomers started their lives in the post-war period. 1965 to 1979 is the birth period of Generation X. For those born since 2012, we speak of Generation Alpha.
Generation Z with new ideas for the working world
What does Generation Z want? 81 percent of participants state that they prefer a 4-day work week. Furthermore, they are convinced that this contributes positively to overall productivity. But is that true?
The data situation is unclear, as the methodologies of the studies differ. Moreover, it is not easily implementable for all professional groups. But there are indeed confirming trends, as the Tagesschau reports. For example, a study has shown for the UK that the number of sick days significantly decreases with a practiced 4-day work week.
In general, only time and more research will show whether Generation Z and the youngest parts of the Millennials are right with their belief.
Where do young people work? The overwhelming majority of working respondents work in an office. About half as many are at least partially or even completely working from home. However, the picture shifts somewhat when we look at where they feel they work most effectively: Although 60 percent are convinced they perform at their best in the office, 40 percent see this in the case of working from home.
That is more than double the number of people in Germany, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office, who work employed from home. In this article, we present how CEOs of large companies view working from home – in short: conflicts with Generation Z are looming.
A look at the above data gains depth when we consider another response from the survey. Only about one-third of respondents currently work full-time. Another group works in undefined part-time positions. The rest do not work at all or are in school. Therefore, only just over half have any work experience.
This could at least mildly suggest that the shift towards a 4-day work week and working from home will increase rather than decrease as more members of Generation Z enter the job market.
For the workers of a significant industrial nation, which has also achieved a lot for gaming and continues to do so, it runs quite differently. Here they could work less but categorically reject this: In one country, people work more than they have to, willingly forgoing the 4-day work week.
