Fear of Desk Jobs

To Millennials and Generation X, a white-collar job is the definition of stability and consistency. For those who belong to Generation Z and Generation Alpha, they hear burnout, boring, and unstable.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha have grown up in a time that no other generation can relate to. They are defined by the term “digital native” and have shown increased social consciousness. This environment has shifted perspectives and many people’s goals and outlooks on life.
Older generations, specifically Baby Boomers, tend to spend many years at the same job and some even spend their entire employment with a singular company. Emily Grass oversees Highland’s CTE program and has witnessed changes in her six years at Highland.
“I think this coming generation is just more open to talking about things like mental health and accepting that it’s okay to need help or need a change,” Grass said.
Many younger people have begun to associate a desk job with negative attributes. They have watched the adults in their lives struggle to find passion inside a cubicle or variety behind a desk. Because of this, people are starting to heavily consider jobs that are more technical and labor intensive.
Highland has a CTE program that helps prepare students for these types of careers while they are still in high school. Many hands-on courses are offered, with the most popular being welding, heathcare, and EMT training.
Highland senior, Sasha Myers, is on the CTE EMT pathway and will graduate high school with her EMT certification this spring.
“I like the excitement of the EMT because it’s something different every day,” Myers said. “The 9-to-5 grind is really common; it just does not seem appealing to me at all.”
Flexibility in the workplace is something that is becoming more and more of a criterion as this new generation enters the workforce. They crave variability in their workdays and try to avoid a repetitive schedule.
A study done by Sage Journals found that Gen Z expects employers to provide autonomy, flexibility, and a healthy work–life balance.
To give students a taste of what these jobs look like in the real-world, Highland offers internship programs to build knowledge and sometimes leave with a paycheck. Through these programs, students have more opportunities in their journey to find passion.
These students not only crave flexibility and variety, but they also want to be happy. In a generation where the legitimacy of mental health struggles are recognized, many people have started to believe that people shouldn’t stay in a job that makes them unhappy just for the ease of it.
When a ninth-grade language arts class at Highland was asked to raise their hands if they were scared of having a desk job, nearly the entire class of 40 raised their hands. One of these students, Matilda Moore, feels strongly about having a dynamic job that wouldn’t force her to be burned out in the first few years.
“[If I had a desk job] I would be to stir crazy all the time,” Moore said.
This ninth-grade class is not the only group that feels this way. According to a study done by Supply House, 75% of Gen Z adults associate white-collar careers with burnout or job instability.
On top of wanting to preserve personal health, this generation also has to consider what jobs will even be available when they enter the work force. The sentence “when robots take over the world…” has been uttered for years, but now younger generations have to start taking this cautionary tale to heart.
Goldman Sachs, a finance company, projects that AI could displace 6% to 7% of the workforce if AI is widely adopted and according to iCIMS data, and 51% of Gen Z believe this is a real fear.
No other generation has had to seriously consider if a robot could take over their dream job. Many Gen Z and Gen Alpha students at Highland have taken an interest in the CTE program to explore jobs that require a real human.
As desk-oriented jobs start to heavily incorporate AI, Grass points out that trade jobs would be nearly impossible to replace with AI.
“AI can’t fix your air conditioning; we need people in the trades because those are never going to go anywhere,” Grass said. “You are not going to be replaced by a robot.”
As the years go on and generations evolve, people’s priorities are changing. Gen Z and Gen Alpha have begun a new trend towards hand-on flexible jobs that bring more than just a paycheck into their lives.
“Everyone I talk to wants to do something exciting,” Myers said. “I think that’s just human nature to want to do something exciting.”