‘What Do I Do With That Fifth Day?’ — Woman 'Battles’ With Baby Boomer CEO About 4-Day Workweeks
Maybe some people just want to live for a living.
DimaBerlin / Shutterstock Gabrielle Judge, otherwise known by her TikTok following as the “Lazy Girl Job” Girl, posted a TikTok in which she claimed to do "battle" with a baby boomer CEO in regards to implementing a 4-day work week and what that would look like.
The video generated thousands of comments, and during a time when so many Gen Zers are entering the workforce, it’s no surprise. Judge, the “Anti Work Girlboss,” claimed that Gen Z workers have long been looking to abandon the traditional career path, and why shouldn't they? When the traditional approach to work and success no longer exists, perhaps it's more important to focus on a more balanced approach to work and life.
A woman said that Gen Z workers want a life that isn’t ‘work-centered.’
“It is truly astonishing the differences in the mindset around work when it comes to baby boomers versus Gen Z,” she explained. “[It’s] to the point where I’m not really convinced that we’ll ever see eye-to-eye.” These conversations stem from her advocacy for a 4-day work week and her goal to eliminate “unnecessary work” — work that an employee deems unnecessary or that should be completed by someone else.
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“If I could do the productive work that’s really going to move my job forward, that I feel good about, that I think is contributing — [if] I can do that in four days, what do I do with that fifth day?” the baby boomer CEO asked.
At this moment during their panel discussion, Judge started smiling — and her smile was hiding her “absolute shock” at that question. It seemed like the CEO didn't understand that not everyone wants to work in their career five days a week. “The extra, fifth day, you can do with whatever you want. That’s the exciting part,” Judge responded. “We’re seeing a really, really big curiosity in what life looks like when it’s not work-centered.”
A four-day workweek has been shown to boost both productivity and retention, but it's a concept that is difficult for older generations to adapt to.
Immediately, when I pondered the CEO’s question, I thought to myself that it was a day off from work. A day off from working five days a week. A day off from the 40-hour work week.
Studies in recent years have found that when given the flexibility to work 4 days a week at the same pay, employees were healthier, happier, and more productive. That translated into economic growth for employers and higher retention rates. Basically, everyone benefits.
Unfortunately, even when data proves otherwise, it can be difficult to effect actual change, especially when older generations are still clinging to their own experiences. Things in the workplace today are not as they were forty-plus years ago, however. In fact, our tech-heavy, overconnected workplaces allow for less downtime than ever before, and employees are suffering because of it.
According to a report from Zippia published in March 2023, approximately 89% of workers have experienced burnout within the past year. That number drops down to 77% of workers who reported feeling burnt out from their current job.
That fifth day would provide a massive boost in mental health, burnout alleviation, and a much healthier work-life balance. After all, that’s where the argument comes from. Not only that, but since the priority for capitalism is profit, productivity has actually seen an increase in most, if not all, 4-day workweek tests around the world.
The woman argued that Gen Z is ushering in a ‘new iteration of work-life balance.’
“There’s a whole other iteration to it now, where it’s like ‘what does it look like when I truly de-center my success metrics from a promotion,'” she explained. Most Gen Z workers, Judge argued, are not looking to climb the corporate ladder and achieve some monumental success.
“We’re going to a huge [gap] with Gen Z as they further enter the workplace of true careerists, right? And they could look like the traditional structure,” she explained. “And people [who] aren’t necessarily careerists, and they’re not looking to move the needle in the traditional way.”
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In a separate video in which she discussed some “myths” about the 4-day work week — basically dismantling the claims — she explained how Gen Z workers truly don’t care about climbing the career ladder. Her reason is that a lot of promotions these days are “fake.”
“What’s happening these days is there’s a lot of these like, fake promotions happening right now,” Juge explained. “An example is: I was talking to my friend recently. He’s a software engineer, and he got promoted to ‘lead engineer’, right? But there was no salary raise attached to it.”
She called this “quiet hiring,” an interesting play on the “quiet quitting” trend, except this one actually exists. Remember, the biggest form of theft is wage theft, and don’t even get me started on how many jobs (62%) don’t even offer living wages.
Judge said the system might have worked for some generations in the past, but for Gen Zers and millennials who are barely surviving, a 4-day workweek needs to be the new norm for a plethora of reasons.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment, pop culture, relationships, social justice, and politics.
