Economics/Class Relations

How much do you need to be happy?

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Alyson Shontell, Fortune

The definition of success is undergoing a generational change.

 

Instead of striving to become the boss, many millennial and Gen Z workers are just striving to be happy. They are content to live modestly as long as they’re living life to the fullest.
Some call this mindset “anti-hustle.” Fortune‘s Trey Williams uses the term coined by Black women, the “soft life.”

 

The “soft life,” Williams explains, is a distant cousin to “quiet quitting.”

 

“Living a soft life doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have a job, it just means your job is not your whole world,” he adds.

 

Worker values have been changing steadily for decades. New York University sociology professor Deirdre Royster told Williams that employees are trading “The American Dream” for a “good American life.”

 

“In the ’80s people asked: ‘How do we maximize?'” she says. “But now people are asking, ‘What’s the minimal amount I need to live a sustainable life?'”

 

If you’re the boss, that concept might sound foreign. How do you motivate employees who don’t want to become you?

 

To learn more about “the soft life,” read Trey’s story, below.
Millennials want to live a ‘soft life,’ and it’s changing how they work

 

More and more, younger generations are opting to live soft lives, rejecting the struggle, stress, and anxiety that come with working a traditional nine-to-five career and grinding out one’s days on life’s hamster wheel.
BY TREY WILLIAMS

SEPTEMBER 11, 2022
 
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Categories: Economics/Class Relations, Lifestyle

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