You’ve heard of the “Lazy Girl Job” phenomenon on Tik Tok? Women (young) who have done an about face on the Lean In movement and said “you know what? I’ll take a 9-5 job and have a life too”.
Why I hate this Lazy Girl Job motto: It’s simply that it’s not lazy to work a 9-5 job and get paid for it. It’s not. In my 20s I was working 9-6 or 9-9 or 9-whenever and I never got paid extra for it. I worked most of my 20s at 60 plus hours a week making $28,000 a year (it was 1993 though, so…) I spent my weekends recovering from it. I didn’t start a family until I was in my late 30s because of this! I even worked for myself and worked long hours for not much more pay. It wasn’t until I was in my late 40s and early 50s that I changed MY attitude toward work (but I’m hardly lazy!) I run three businesses at one time. I’m not lazy.
In fact, I’d prefer we NOT refer to these as Lazy Girl Jobs, but as “Quality Life Jobs”. If you work a job from 9-5 and you get paid enough to live, you should live! If you do not make enough – you should gain skills, education and leave that employer for a better one.
You should not expect an employer to call you at midnight, or on the weekends, unless you have agreed to this (and are compensated for it.) I never called employees on weekends or after hours, unless it was to say “I’ve got a family situation, I won’t be in until later tomorrow, you handle X, Y and Z for me.”
And that’s not lazy at all. What I did with my life and weekends was this:
President or on the board of at least three organizations that impacted my career, my hobbies and my community (I varied the organizations over the years but this has held true for decades for me.)
Cyclist, sailor, skier – all healthy ways to move my body. I dabbled in triathlons and duathlons, and I enjoy running.
A friend and colleague in book club and knitting groups
A mother, a hockey-mom-driver-and-cheerleader (and hotel chaperone)
A dog mom to a special needs dog
A daughter who visited at least semi regularly!
A wife and best friend
What I am NOT is my job, my job title. Neither are you. That’s not lazy at all. And that’s not a lazy girl either (can we get rid of the girl thing now? We’re not girls, we ended that in our teens.)
We swing violently between girl boss (10 years ago) and lazy girl job (post pandemic). That’s no way to find our way in remaking the world of work to work for us. Girl has gotta go. And lazy? You’re just doing your job and that’s enough. At the end of it – you’ll have a lot of jobs, bosses, colleagues, work, screw ups, major successes – but the things that will define your life are the people (employees, colleagues, clients) you impacted positively, the love of your family and your experiences. Focus on those first. The rest will follow, I promise!
