From quiet quitting to coffee badging: In defense of Gen Z’s bare minimum work culture
Every week, PhilSTAR L!fe explores issues and topics from the perspectives of different age groups, encouraging healthy but meaningful conversations on why they matter. This is Generations by our Gen Z columnist Angel Martinez.
When we were growing up, Gen Z aspired toward such great things. We wanted to be lawyers, doctors, businessmen; others, rockstars, mad scientists, and astronauts. We held high hopes of changing the world with the single germ of an idea. But now, we want to send emails, input data, and schedule meetings. Why the incongruence?
This isn’t meant to be a direct hit at these humble day jobs: These are decent ways to make a living, after all. But we wouldn’t be wrong to admit that these involve a greater degree of flexibility, far less stress, and a simpler job description and scope of responsibilities; hence the apt term “lazy girl jobs.”
In a similar vein are “quiet quitting” (refusing to put in extra effort), “coffee badging” (briefly showing up at the office, long enough to grab coffee and say hello, then going back home), and even “rage applying” (looking for new jobs online at the slightest inconvenience)—all of which are indicators of a culture that accommodates the bare minimum, courtesy of the generation that no longer dreams of labor.
What a stark contrast to our predecessors, no? Millennials and Gen Xers put career at the center of their lives, to their detriment. Gen Z witnessed firsthand that it made no difference: Mass layoffs will force most employers to spit out those who don’t serve them. Everyone can be disposable—and these enterprising, independent new hires would rather define themselves on their own terms.
“[For Gen Z], success is not primarily defined by corporate climbing, which is apparent in my generation. Instead, it is through holistic life satisfaction, personal growth, and maintaining meaningful work-life integration,” Jyro Triviño, assistant professor at Ateneo de Manila University’s John Gokongwei School of Management, tells PhilSTAR L!fe. Today, some Gen Z are very much content with not loving their jobs, just the life that it pays for—whether it comes in the form of quarterly girls’ trips or revived childhood hobbies.
Additionally, employees my age have a “heightened awareness” of self-care, as Triviño puts it. “It’s one of the many reasons they are more vocal about rejecting hustle culture in the workplace. There’s this tendency to prioritize personal well-being over productivity.” So in a sense, Gen Z’s inaction is already a strong form of action: a refusal to put up with outdated standards only because they were instituted by the time they entered the office. That means no overtime without pay, no taking on an incompetent colleague’s list of tasks, and yes to as many mental health breaks as necessary.
Of course, this isn’t to say that we always know our way around. Triviño also admits that “too much [of prioritizing our peace] can be seen as too lax and not resilient. Some cannot correctly draw personal boundaries over their responsibilities.” One popular example is a user-submitted dilemma submitted to the Demoted podcast, which made its rounds on TikTok. “When asked to come in for an 8 a.m. meeting, my Gen Z new hire said, ‘Ugh sorry, I can’t make it. I have a workout class.’ Should this be allowed?”
Many younger listeners agreed that Gen Z’s boundaries shouldn’t budge: God forbid we have a life, am I right? But Triviño warns that “we are not like alarm clocks that can stop whenever we feel burdened or tired.” The choice to do so also depends heavily on privilege: A Deloitte study shows that more than half of Filipinos live paycheck to paycheck, and 81% feel burned out due to the intensity and demands of their workloads. If this demographic even considers mentally clocking out, that would mean failing to put food on the table.
Sometimes, a healthy level of negotiation is the compassionate thing to do, especially as we deal with colleagues who depend on us: “If it was evident that the meeting was a crisis call, with a tight deadline relating to a vital client, or if it was a one-off or at least something that doesn’t happen that often, I’d be inclined to priorize the meeting on this occasion,” career coach Alice Stapleton tells Stylist Magazine.
But these minor mistakes shouldn’t discount Gen Z’s concerns as a whole. Offices must recalibrate the way they run things from the inside, or lose valuable emerging talent and tire out the ones they still have.
As Triviño sums up: “I think Gen Z isn’t avoiding work per se. They’re just trying to recreate humane and adaptable professional experiences, and change how previous generations view this crucial part of their lives.”
Bare minimum work culture wasn’t meant to be a one-trick gimmick, or an excuse to slack off at our desks. Give us something we’re truly passionate about, and we will show up with a stellar track record for people so young. Its existence only means that there was something to resist against in the first place.
Generations by Angel Martinez appears weekly at PhilSTAR L!fe.
