Enjoy the inaugural episode of Catalyst Spills the Tea, a video YouTube series where we spill the tea on the trend, “lazy girl jobs.” Coined by social media influencer Gabrielle Judge, the notion of “lazy girl jobs” has taken over the discussion on employees looking for better work-life balance.
Gen Z, in particular, is ushering in a new attitude towards work-life balance. No matter the generation, workplace expectations are shifting, with employees everywhere wanting more flexibility. “Lazy Girl jobs” are one example of how employees are taking to the internet to discuss their hacks for better work-life balance.
Coined by social media influencer Gabrielle Judge, the phrase is meant to describe a non-technical job where you have a comfortable salary, a lot of flexibility, and are not overworked. Are “Lazy Girl jobs” just healthy jobs? Does the term have a negative connotation for women? Why did this term cause such an uproar and what does it mean for talent recruiters, workplaces and the future of work?
- Danielle Shelton, Director, Talent Acquisition
- Tara Van Bommel, Senior Director, Statistician
- Host, Mariana Vanin, Director, Global Communications
About Catalyst Spills the Tea
Catalyst Spills the Tea is a video series where we discuss trending topics in workplace culture; gender equity; and diversity, equity and inclusion. We are all about creating equitable workplaces for everyone, so you won’t find people more obsessed with workplace culture more than us. Yes, we love research, but we also love memes, video shorts, pop culture, and debating hot trends just like the rest of you. We decided to bring our watercooler talk and infuse it with a little bit of our research in this video series. Essentially, we’re bringing the research receipts to #worktok. Buckle up!
Wait, what does “spill the tea” mean?
Spilling the tea is slang used to refer to gossip or news, popular on the Internet and social media.
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Transcript
00:00:04:00
Welcome to Catalyst Spills, the tea where we break down and discuss trending topics and diversity, equity and inclusion. Today I’m your host, Marianna Venning, director of Global Communications, and we’re spilling the tea on Lazy Girl jobs.
Tara, as a future of work researcher and Danielle, as a talent professional, what do you think of this trend and why it resonated with so many people, particularly with Gen Z, who talk to the trend quite fiercely on TikTok, where it originated?
00:00:41:26
Sure. Well, we’ll all happen and go first. It’s great to be here today and nice to see you, Danielle and Mariana, to talk about this. You know, I think really important topic. And, you know, I would really start off by saying that this trend is not really a new phenomenon. So two years ago, we called it quiet, quitting.
And in both cases, it reflects really a larger societal shift and pushback against hustle culture. So from the future of work perspective, this really fits under the broader theme of what we would call shifting work and life expectations. So really, after decades of increased productivity alongside wage stagnation and a skyrocketing cost of living, millennials and especially Gen Z are realizing that the notion of the American dream, you know, achieved by hard work in a meritocracy was really just a ruse.
But what we see in our research, regardless of the decade that someone was born, employees of all genders, and we just want greater flexibility. They want to be paid a living wage and they don’t want to sacrifice their well-being to do so.
00:01:50:24
Yep, I totally agree. And you know, when I’m connecting with candidates, one also thank you for having me and Tara. Fantastic. See you. And Marianne, I think true opportunity, you know, when I’m connecting with candidates, whether that’s, you know, for our roles at Catalyst or just in general, people are look at the biggest thing I hear from candidates is that I’m looking for a better work life balance.
00:02:12:03
What about the term, though, Right? The, the use of lazy use of girl to describe the concept, this kind of role, There’s a negative connotation. There’s a gendered component. Why? And what, if anything, does that signal? What’s the message that it sends?
00:02:35:18
The phrase itself suggests that women who want flexible work do not have the same career ambitions as men, and even worse, it equates them with children. You know, what I really like to think about is what do we call this role?
If it were a man seeking this position or a father, would we label him as a lazy boy? Would we recommend him or would we commend him for being a supportive caretaker?
00:03:01:05
Again, I think the the word choice that she used probably wasn’t the best. But I do love the fact that, you know, she was talking about, again, work life balance roles that you can have flexible work, flexible hours, but that still doesn’t mean that your job is easy. Another you know, I saw in the comment section like we were like, yeah, those jobs I have those jobs.
They aren’t easy. They are mentally draining that mentally draining still can take up, I mean, your mental capacity and then carry over into your work life balance. So again, I think word choice could have been a bit difference in the sense and I don’t think there is any job that is easier than the other.
00:03:42:25
And one thing that really stuck out to me when I watched the original video was she talked about how, you know, there’s so many jobs out there, you can just go get them and you could have this job and then you could be a mom and it would be so easy.
And that just really struck a chord with me because it is so just misguided in terms of like what what work is like and what it’s like to be a caretaker. There is no job out there where you can work and take care of children at the same time. Now, flexible work that allows you to do your work around your caregiving.
00:04:16:14
But to say that you could do both at the same time I thought was really problematic. And I have to say that I couldn’t help but wonder how many moms are out there watching, just thinking, you know, has she ever had a job and try to take care of a child before? Because those are full time things, that one does not happen at the same time as the other.
00:04:34:16
And really be able to frame your work centered around your life, right?
Not your life centered around your work, I think is really important, but it’s I think it’s hard to do that if you are unsure about how your work works. Right. And what those hours look like and whether they have flexible work and how they support caregivers and other people and their different lifestyles. So I think that’s another thing that when I was looking up some research behind this, there are quite a few companies and larger companies that are really defining what works and how they work as a work, which I think is really important for then people to really plan on how they want to live their life, which includes work.
00:05:14:02
So thank you both again, so, so much. This was such an enlightening conversation, and I’m sure our audience will feel the same. Thanks again.
00:05:26:05
Thank you. Thanks.