The girl boss era of the 2010s is dead. In its place? Lazy girl jobs. Well, according to TikTok anyway.
Videos mentioning the trend have amassed 47 million views on the platform. “Lazy girl jobs are my favs, all I do is copy and paste the same emails, take three to four calls a day, take my extra long break, take more breaks AND get a nice salary,” user @raeandzeebo said in a video that has been viewed over 840,000 times.
Users quickly commented, saying that this was their “ideal dream job” and they wanted a job that gave them a “slower” pace. “I want these jobs but I girl bossed too hard and I’m overqualified now,” another joked.
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“'Lazy girl jobs' usually refer to administrative, remote working, flexible roles which have a relatively decent salary,” Mhairi Todd, roadblock coach and founder of Revolve Coaching, tells GLAMOUR. “The term includes any job which has little to zero responsibility and where extended periods of 'slacking' would go unnoticed and unchallenged.
“Some examples from self professed 'lazy girl job' holders are customer service manager, administrative assistant for a charity and marketing assistant. The term is popular with Gen Z who are part of the anti-work movement. Whereas generations prior may have placed work front and centre of self worth and personal value, the anti work movement is an attempted rebellion against this and our capitalist culture.”
In an ideal world, everyone would work in a job that challenges them just enough, is gratifying, has good pay and hours and a company that values their employees. Yet, this kind of job feels like an anomaly rather than the norm. It’s either good pay, long hours, and no work-life balance OR rubbish pay, normal hours and more work-life balance. Which is exactly why well paid ‘lazy girl jobs’ could be the solution.
Todd says that whether or no a ‘lazy girl job’ is the right option for you depends on what season of life you are in and what your personal sense of success looks like.
“Money can set us free, or it can handcuff us to a life of worry and stress”
“If your goal right now is to backpack around the world, then holding a job that has no pressure and lots of flexibility may be ideal,” she adds. “However, having personally held what I'd consider to be a kind of 'lazy girl job' in my early twenties as a medical rep, they can be incredibly draining and demotivating.”
Like most trends, it’s not the first time people have shifted towards a lower pressure job. Todd points to the term “bullshit jobs” that was coined by the anthropologist David Graeber in his 2018 book of the same name. “Though it may be attractive at first glance to think of doing very little and getting paid for it, Graeber argues that these types of roles take a serious toll on mental health,” Todd adds. “In a study which looked at individuals who felt their jobs were 'pointless' he found a much higher incidence of depression and anxiety.”
So, instead of a ‘lazy girl job’, could finding a job that encourages you to be ambitious and feel success be the key to our mental health and, ultimately, how we feel about our work-life balance?
“We should all strive for the best we can be as this is quite key to our mental health. If you feel you are doing your absolute best and being fairly rewarded, you feel at ease and inspired to do other things,” Akosua Dede, life strategist at Truly Thriving, says. “Having said that, ambition means different things to everyone and it’s really important we don’t judge our ambition based on other people’s goals and dreams.
“It’s OK for us to progress at a different pace and be very much at ease with our own path. My postman and bus driver are no less successful people just because they do a ‘blue collar’ job. Both can be quite well paid jobs with pros that might not be immediately obvious (flexible hours and simplicity of the job). Equally, I don’t look at career-driven people pulling in six figures and think, gosh, we should all be like that.”
I saw casual - and sometimes blatant - sexism at the highest levels on the show.
There are pros and cons to the ‘lazy girl jobs’ ideal. The pros being little pressure, lots of flexibility, time to spend on other areas of your life, and being well paid for little work. However, as for the latter, Dede says jobs like this are incredibly hard to find. “Very few jobs will actually pay you high salaries to do very little,” she explains. “For those who like to be challenged and stimulated in their work, some of these jobs will prove too boring after a while.”
The most important thing to remember when deciding which career path is the right one for you, is knowing what your priorities are. If you’re a goal-oriented person and love thriving in a high-pressure environment, then a challenging job may be the right fit for you. On the flip side, if you’re someone who sees work as a means to keep a roof over your head and will allow you to take one (or several!) jaunts to Europe each year, then a job that you don’t have to think about too much may just be the perfect answer.
“Each of us have a role to play whatever jobs we do and in a time and age where mental health struggles are through the roof, it’s so important for people to realise that success comes in all manner of ways and truly ‘doing you’ is key to your happiness,” Dede adds. “Whether that’s a lazy girl job, or any other job, the people you work with and the company culture actually matter more in the end.”
