Why Gen Z is already feeling burnt out after entering the workplace

A generation of young professionals are already struggling with burnout at work, despite only just beginning their careers.

Generation Z spans from 1997 to 2012, which means the oldest of that generation are 26, and yet, for some of them, they already feel exhausted.

The 9-5 working day is officially dead and it has been replaced with workers constantly being able to check their work emails from their personal phones.

Pair that with the fact that a recent study by Recruitment Partners found Gen Z spend the most time on their phones and are spending the equivalent to two or more working days weekly on their devices – and you have a recipe for exhaustion.

In April a study conducted by The Future of Work Lab at the University of Melbourne revealed some alarming results about The Great Burnout experienced by Australians – primarily aged between 25 and 55 – due to the pandemic.

It found that a whopping 50 percent of workers in those age groups were exhausted in their jobs.

Sophie Hart, 20, is a photographer based in Western Australia’s Perth who runs her own business, and she’s burnt out from constantly feeling “pressured” to be online outside of typical working hours.

Hart said that she felt a tremendous sense of obligation to always be online for work and felt the pressure to always be “contactable,” which was taking over her life.

“If I’ve even missed a message by a couple of hours when I was busy I feel guilty and respond as soon as I see it,” she told news.com.au.

It’s not as simple as telling Hart to set hours or boundaries because her work doesn’t quite operate like that.

She needs to be online to build her business, personal brand and interact with clients – and none of that works around a 9-5 schedule.

Hart shared that she felt like she should always be “available,” so she struggled to have any work-life balance.

“My photography clients will message me at all times of day and I feel responsible to respond immediately no matter what I’m doing,” she said.

Hart said that even when she experienced a personal tragedy – her grandpa died and she needed to fly to England to be with family and attend the funeral – she was still working.

Even at the peak of her grief she still felt the “pressure” to be available for work.

“I feel a lot of pressure to not let my clients down and even though I had my own family to look after, I was continuing to work,” she said.

Hart explained that she does most of her work from her mobile phone, making it hard to set boundaries.

“This means it doesn’t matter if I’m not at my office, I’m still expected to be responsive and available,” she said.

“I’m also expected to post daily on my social media for work and be completely active there with stories, reels and responding to comments.”

Hart pointed out that Gen Z was “so online” that they never really left work at the door like previous generations were able to.

“Boomers were able to leave work and not have work come home with them on their phones. Due to our phones now having everything we use at work, it’s impossible to do the same as we used to,” she explained.

The result? Ms Hart is completely exhausted and she believes it is making her “sick.”

“Due to burnout, I get sick very easily and very often. Even when I’m sick at home, I continue using my phone to work and respond to clients,” she said.

Hart said the reason she was so exhausted was because she never really switched off.

“I think never being able to truly rest and switch off leads to a much longer recovery time.”

Will Caporn, 21, is based in Brisbane and works in recruitment. While he doesn’t think he has experienced “real burnout,” he has witnessed the pressure of Gen Z to be constantly contactable.

“I do have close friends of mine who are expected to be contactable at all hours, and as such, they can go into the weekends quite burnt out,” he said.

Caporn says he found the best way to prevent burnout is through organization.

“I prioritize completing my tasks each day and scheduling my diary to allocate time to certain tasks by priority,” he shared.

Managing director of u & u Recruitment Partners Craig Sneesby said Gen Z struggled with logging off from work because they were born into a “digital era.”

“Essentially, it is a form of their social DNA. The art of true relaxation is probably a modern-era challenge,” he said.

Sneesby said the best way to avoid burnout was to set “boundaries” for replying to work emails.

“Try to be present in the moment. Set boundaries for replying to emails and don’t become too accessible outside of work hours,” he said.

Sneesby also said it was important to remember that you can’t be “on” all the time, and if you try to be, you’ll just become “fatigued.”