Questions about whether the work-life balance ideology is really appropriate for society may be permissible.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf It rarely helps intergenerational understanding when older people tell younger people how to work, live and think. This is especially the case when older people have experienced decades of wealth growth that younger generations likely won’t have.
In this regard, Thomas de Maizière, a 69-year-old conservative gentleman, accuses “Generation Z” of drinking champagne instead of working, which is not only tasteless but also cynical. He’s asking people in their 20s and 30s to please do something for society, not make demands.
Representatives of the younger generation, therefore, have good reason to be disturbed by this, as my colleague Roman Winkelhahn was brilliantly, eloquently but not lacking in humor on this point on Monday.
Because it is the growing generation that will feel the consequences of climate change, while the older generations are responsible for their prosperity. A growing generation has to use working income to fund the retirements of more pensioners than ever before, with no prospect of relatively high pensions themselves.
The rising generation lost their formative years of youth because they were more or less quarantined by a virus, especially to protect the elderly from infection.
communication failure
Above all, the solidarity contribution of young people also includes shamefully poor home education.
In the corona crisis, new generations lose their formative years of adolescence.
(Photo: imago images/Cavan Images)
Self-righteous speeches from old to young are never justified, and here they are completely inappropriate – regardless of how the so-called dividing line between generations is mostly cliché anyway. Clichés end up leaving nothing to say between the old and the young. Communication, then, is often limited to the helpless and sometimes absurd climate glue campaign, which the chancellor then downplays as “madness”.
To overcome speechlessness, it is advisable to ask the right questions, not to wag a finger like de Maizière. For example, whether necessary change can be better organized through decisive positions within the system rather than radical action from outside, as representatives of the “last generation” seem to be striving for, at least in part.
Does work-life balance still matter?
The question might also be asked whether the ideology of work-life balance really applies to a society that is already suffering from a severe labor shortage and will suffer more. In the long run, the number of workers and hours worked remain the determining factors of economic growth.
>> Read here: Gen Z – Wants and Finds the Enemy
Since computerization, we have waited in vain for a leap in productivity through technology to compensate for this development, something John Maynard Keynes dreamed of. If so, then you first have to work towards this advancement. It cannot be assumed that he showed up while on vacation.
Is the ideology of work-life balance still applicable in societies with labor shortages?
(Photo: IMAGO/Shotshop)
It is perhaps understandable that young people are convinced that the labor market will compete for Gen Z simply because of severe shortages. But there are no guarantees here either, as the needs of the labor market ultimately also depend on performance and the number of prosperous companies.
“Internship-to-sabbatical attitude” isn’t going to help here as much as “burnout after starting a career.” Often, the intergenerational debate is about the middle class versus the middle class: Many companies no longer need lean young professionals with Harvard degrees and 24/7 mentalities. However, corporations (like their colleagues) don’t appreciate spoiled long-term dropouts with a revolutionary attitude.
The legitimate concerns of Generation Z—such as their rights to ecological sustainability and intergenerational justice—are best served if they act professionally from the defining points of existing systems. This is rarely a beach bar.
more: Gen Z – Wants and Finds the Enemy