Titolo in prima pagina del quotidiano locale (bz Basel): “La generazione Z non vuole più lavorare”

So, finally the spin doctors have made it into the front page headline maintaining that no one wants to work anymore:

My local newspaper in richy-rich Switzerland runs the following front page headline (translated): “How the young are jeopardizing Switzerland’s prosperity. Generation Z has no desire to achieve great things in the workplace, says psychologist XXX”.

The article claims that young people are too spoiled by their parents, prefer to work part-time and no longer identify themselves through their work, but by their leisure activities. In contrast, there is more competition in the labor market in Africa and Asia, which means that young people there see their chance in hard work.

So what is it that makes us in the richest country in the world, with the highest cost of living and – so far – the highest salaries, supposedly not try harder?

Well, it is very difficult to identify with a job where there are no longer any real jobs at all, but only low-paying jobs in surrogate companies, which are in reality nothing more than outsourced “cost centers” of other, large corporations. They come in different corporate guises, but all have the same goal, namely not to pay us employees the standard industry rate or union pay scale and not to let us share in the corporate profits:

– Temporary employment agencies
– contract work companies
– covert temporary work
– bogus self-employment
– multi-level marketing
– in-house outsourcing (inside corporate structures)
– offshoring

– permanent internships

In many sectors, there are almost no real jobs in “real” companies any more, apart from a few specialist jobs. Only in low-wage sectors such as gastronomy, the hotel industry or retail is there direct employment.

How are you supposed to define yourself through your work or even identify with your employer if you actually work in a “cost center” for some other corporation without receiving its wages and profit sharing?

I understand it. I could work at 100%, but I don’t want to. 80% is fine, and I don’t need more. It’s a bit less money, but I value my free time more than burning out on my job. So are we the bad ones now, just because we value our mental health more than we care about working ourselves to death? I don’t think so.

Pff. Swiss workers have to work much more per hour than they used to. The „hour“ of work – a mere metaphor for workload – takes more time to get done every year. This generation does not work part time. Itt works part wage.

With all the automatization and technical progress you would think we could just reduce working hours, right… right?

Edit: Also dont worry Zoomers, they said the exact same thing about us when we were young.

Why would i? I’ll never be able to own anything here anyway, why bother working a lot? either earn a lot and work like a madman or take it easy and just do the minimum.

The ones motivated to work hard have nice jobs… in my job i see that what i am doing affects multiple hundred thousands of people, so many people profit if i do my stuff well… but if you work for 4’200 a month and serve low quality food that makes people sick in a multi billion dollar corporation… well, the harder you work, the more profit makes some company that only focuses on profit… yeah, really good motivation and perspective…

Seems like some generations are afraid they cant keep their unsustainable and high-purchasing-power lifestyle, after retirement…
As some other generations would say:
get rekt fkrs 🙂

I’m not genZ but I also have “kä Lust”

If i could actually own my own home or something worthwhile with my wage without burning out, or fear that my retirement will be a nightmare, if things continue the way they are, maybe I would be more motivated lol