From quiet quitting to lazy girl jobs: why don’t we want to work?

For generations, tackling barriers to work meant creating jobs to move people out of unemployment or welfare, or fighting for equality so marginalised groups such as women could play a full role in the workforce. But today, a new challenge has emerged: increasingly, people appear to be choosing not to work.

Economic inactivity has risen sharply, with 21 per cent of working-age adults neither employed nor seeking work. Amongst younger people, the trend is particularly pronounced, with almost three million neither actively looking for nor available to start a job. Those within the workplace also seem estranged from work. New expressions such as ‘bullshit jobs’, ‘burnout’, ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘lazy girl jobs’ capture current disenchantment with the demands of working life.

Some blame a failing labour market. Flatlining wages and insecure jobs at a time of spiralling living costs hardly incentivise work, while the decline of apprenticeships, training and clear career paths make it harder for young people to see work as a route to a better future. Meanwhile, rising minimum wages and National Insurance contributions have squeezed out entry-level jobs in retail and hospitality that once taught young people the habits and discipline of working life.

Others say the main problem is not so much getting a job, but that work today is often futile or intolerable. Target-driven bureaucracy, pointless box-ticking and ‘bullshit jobs’ can leave workers alienated or burned out. Post-Covid working from home has weakened workplace culture and made ‘quiet quitting’ easier. With workplaces now deemed ‘toxic’ and allegedly dominated by abusive bosses and cliquey co-workers – rather than valued colleagues and potential allies and friends – the clamour for a better work-life balance will mean even less time in the office. Have employers themselves created the very disaffection they now complain about?

Or does work suffer from a deeper cultural shift? When schools and universities encourage ordinary difficulties to be seen as mental-health problems, young people may see work as inherently stressful or harmful. If they see themselves as fragile rather than resilient, and assume their personal whims or individual identities must be flattered and indulged, then assuming responsibility and adapting to hierarchies and shared goals can seem unreasonable. Working hard, carrying out orders from the boss or simply enduring boring tasks seems less attractive than ‘lazy girl jobs’ promising minimal effort and maximum lifestyle.

Workers have always faced insecurity and tedious jobs while young people have long craved a life beyond work. So, has anything fundamental changed? Is economic inactivity a rational response to a dysfunctional economy, or a symptom of declining expectations and a weakening work ethic? The Burnham-led government hopes apprenticeships, training and voluntary work can coax people back. But can policy reverse the retreat from work?  More fundamentally, why should we want to work at all?