Does the newly coined “lazy girl” job do any justice to change the narrative around the hustle culture?

where does the grind really begin?

The concept of the “lazy-girl” job has been gaining a lot of press lately. For those of you who are not aware, the lazy girl job was coined by influencer Gabrielle Judge back in May when she wanted to start a conversation around the concept. To quote her, she says “lazy girl jobs aren’t roles where you can slack off, but career paths where your work-life balance should feel so awesome that you almost feel like you’re being lazy.” When I first heard this concept, I was immediately turned off. Maybe its because I’m a Gen X’er who has had to hear time and again how 20 and 30 something’s don’t know the value of hard work and want things handed to them, maybe it’s because I’m tired of seeing the female race constantly reduced to being “girls”. I had to stop and think about the intention behind the definition, and I got it. Everyone is tired. Most are burnt out. Even more are feeling undervalued and unappreciated. But how do we change the narrative instead of having to resort to using terms like “lazy” to start a conversation.

Where Does the Grind Really Begin?

I have two teen aged kids, one is a freshman is college and the other is a senior in high school. You want to know where this grind begins? Look no further than our schooling and college application system. I’m watching my kids push themselves and take crazy amounts of AP classes to be able to “measure up” to other college applicants. My daughter has a 4.0 GPA and we live in California. Her college counselor told her the other day that her Cal State choices for school are a “maybe, borderline a reach”. Excuse me? I live in this state and pay taxes here, yet my kids can’t get into college here? From an early age we are instilling a belief in our children that no matter how hard they work, or what their efforts might be, it is never enough. No wonder the “lazy-girl” job has so much appeal, by the time our kids are in their early to mid 20’s, they are exhausted. Then they have to navigate life, a career and societal expectations all the while watching someone on social media do it “better” or “prettier”. Once they’ve caught their and experienced a bit off success, the pressure once again comes down and burnout happens.

Changing the Cycle

Reflecting back upon my own path and the challenges I’ve endured, I wondered how I can help reframe some of that for my daughter and the next generation. The idea of work-life balance itself is a concept that, I personally believe, can create more pressure of yet another expectation of what we need to strive for. What if we took the time to accept the imbalance instead? The term lazy-girl wouldn’t have to be a thing if we allowed ourselves the time to be lazy and the time to work hard.   There comes a time in every person’s life when things get “hard” and more demanding. What about the lazy-girl way is going to prepare the next generation for those moments? We have to start spending more time on finding ways to keep the pendulum of our lives on a smaller shift back and forth then these radical swings from one way to the other. If we don’t we are going to find ourselves having a conversation in a few years centered around the “productive girl hustle”.