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With over 17 million views, the #lazygirlsjob trend is big news on TikTok, but what is a Lazy Girl Job?
Term coiner Gabrielle Judge the ‘Antiwork Girlboss’ explains that the term is not a dig at women or their work ethic (or lack of it), but an ironic term to challenge the go-hard-or-go-home toxic culture that has been at the center of work life for generations.
A lazy girl job is a position that can be completed without causing stress or anxiety, that is time or location flexible, and enables you to dedicate chunks of time to other pursuits and passions, without feeling like you’re falling behind. Oh, and it pays well. (See Why Boundaries at Work are Important [and How to Set Them]).
Do most of us dream of a lazy girl job? Is it shame that makes you tentative about raising your hand?
While experience tells us that terms that rise in popularity as rapidly as #lazygirljobs, can fade just as quickly, there’s an opportunity here to shine light on what is and what is not a healthy attitude towards work. This is clearly a spectrum, but within the scope of being human… is the search for the Lazy Girl Job (LGJ) actually the healthiest resume you’ll ever write?
Work-life Balance and the Lazy Girl Job
The term work-life balance was coined in the 1980s:
Work/Life Balance: n. A state of equilibrium in which the demands of both a person’s job and personal life are equal.
Work/Life Balance Challenges and Solutions (by Nancy R. Lockwood)
This holy grail of being is in direct conflict with the hustle culture experienced by most millennials:
Hustle culture describes a common, modern workplace environment that emphasizes hard work and long hours as the key to success. It’s become increasingly popular recently, with many companies encouraging their employees to put in extra effort and work hours for better results.
Hustle Culture: The Toxic Impact on Mental Health (by Olga Molina)
The Lazy Girl Job is about pulling the focus back towards equilibrium, it’s about finding a job that pays your bills but doesn’t take up residency in your mind (i.e., it takes up very little of your brain power and absolutely none of your thoughts during personal time).
Gabrielle Judge isn’t making any grand statements that the Lazy Girl Job will make you a #girlboss or propel your earnings into the stratosphere. What she is claiming is that a job shouldn’t be considered to be your identity, and its purpose should be reconsidered. Her claim is that a job is there to pay for the needs of your life and that your life outside of work is where your mind should be focused. A job should be something that enables the pursuit of your passions. Upon consideration… the Lazy Girl Job is sounding kind of healthy.
The American Way
Hustle culture in America isn’t a new idea, it’s a new spin on the old-time American Dream, the notion that if you work hard enough and give your career your all, you can achieve anything and enjoy financial and social prosperity at some undisclosed future time.
But Hustle Culture has another name, and that name is accurate too…Burnout Culture. One of the main issues with Hustle Culture is the goal is never achieved – there’s always more hustle to do – does the grind sound fun? No. So why do we go willingly to the stone?
The average American workweek is 47 hours. In France, the average workweek is just 35 hours (more than two hours less per day!), and just 29 hours in the Netherlands.
With all that extra work, it may be surprising to hear that Europeans, on average receive greater employee benefits and a higher level of social support – European workers tend to receive better benefits than their US counterparts. In good news, American workers often receive a higher level of pay. However, the cost of living is often lower in Europe.
Whether the benefits, pay, and cost of living balance out or not, one statistic perhaps should be of primary concern and is the main driving force behind Judge’s Lazy Girl Job movement:
Nearly one-quarter (23%) of U.S. adults reported a mental health diagnosis, compared to fewer than 10 percent of adults in France, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Mental Health Conditions and Substance Use: Comparing U.S. Needs and Treatment Capacity with Those in Other High-Income Countries (by Roosa Tikkanen, Katharine Fields, Reginald D. Williams II, Melinda K. Abrams)
Is hustle culture making your life miserable?
Where Are The Lazy Boy Jobs At?
Under inspection, it’s clear that the Lazy Girl Job is not a dig at the work ethic of females, however, a quick Google search provided radio silence in respect of Lazy Boy Jobs (unless you’d like to work at La-Z Boy).
There’s no reason a person of any gender can’t align with the Lazy Girl Job mentality, perhaps its the statistical norm rearing its head:
One of the most common findings in the literature is that females are more likely to seek help than males. Rogler and Cortez (1993) suggest that gender differences in help-seeking are best explained by different cultural gender roles, with regard to who takes on socioemotional leadership in the family.
Gender and self-reported mental health problems: predictors of help-seeking from a general practitioner (by D. Tedstone Doherty and Y. Kartalova-O’Doherty)
The Lazy Girls are cutting a path for us all to consider:
Pay your bills.
Enjoy your life.
…I’m in.
Why I Wrote This
Ongig’s mission is to help create healthy, inclusive work environments through positive recruitment practices using tools like our Text Analyzer. Book a call or demo with us to find out more.
Shoutouts
- What Is a ‘Lazy Girl Job’? New TikTok Trend Empowers Women to Work However They Want (by Emily Rella)
- Millennials Are Looking For ‘Lazy Girl Jobs’ After Being Exhausted For Most Of Their Young Adulthood (by Jasmine Browley)
- TikTok’s ‘anti-work girlboss’ is going viral advocating for people to get ‘lazy girl jobs’ (by Lindsay Dodgson)
- Work/Life Balance Challenges and Solutions (By Nancy R. Lockwood)
- Hustle Culture: The Toxic Impact on Mental Health (by Olga Molina)
- The problems with hustle culture — and how it’s tied to mental health (by Madeline Miles)
- Working Culture: USA vs Europe (by Anna Sheridan)
- American and European Workplace Culture Compared: Is the Grass Really Greener? (by the European Business Review)
- Salary differences between the United States and Europe (by Albert Mercadé Laborda)
- Is Living in Europe Cheaper Than Living in America? (by A. W. Berry)
- Mental Health Conditions and Substance Use: Comparing U.S. Needs and Treatment Capacity with Those in Other High-Income Countries (by Roosa Tikkanen, Katharine Fields, Reginald D. Williams II, Melinda K. Abrams)
- Gender and self-reported mental health problems: predictors of help-seeking from a general practitioner (by D. Tedstone Doherty and Y. Kartalova-O’Doherty)
