Gen Z is often said to have fallen out of love with work.
But perhaps that places the responsibility in the wrong place. Across generations, people still want to contribute, learn and find meaning in what they do. The more important question may be whether the world of work still gives them enough reason to care.
Not so long ago, work occupied a very different place in many people’s lives. It wasn’t perfect. There were demanding bosses, long hours and difficult days. But for many, work also offered identity, purpose, friendships, a sense of achievement, and the opportunity to learn, contribute and build a better future. Work was about far more than earning a salary.
Today, something feels different.
I was struck recently by a New York Times opinion piece by Emi Nietfeld entitled Gen Z Fell Out of Love with Work. I Don’t Blame Them. Its argument was more nuanced than the headline might suggest. Younger people have watched previous generations burn out, experienced economic uncertainty, seen housing become increasingly unaffordable and entered a labour market being transformed by artificial intelligence.
The traditional promise: work hard, build a career and create a more secure future, can no longer feel quite so certain.
But it left me wondering whether we are still asking the wrong question. Has Gen Z fallen out of love with work … or has work, somewhere along the line, fallen out of love with us?
Across generations, we increasingly hear questions that previous generations were perhaps less willing to ask. Is it worth sacrificing my wellbeing for my career? Do promotions necessarily create a better life? Why should loyalty be expected when it isn’t always returned? Can I be ambitious without allowing work to consume me?
Some interpret these questions as evidence that younger people are less committed, less resilient or less ambitious. I’m not convinced. Perhaps they are simply asking better questions.
The research suggests their relationship with work is more complex than disengagement.
Deloitte’s 2026 Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey, involving more than 22,500 people across 44 countries, found that these generations are prioritising stability, skills and wellbeing over rapid career progression.
Only around a quarter favour fast-paced advancement. Most prefer steadier progress, and around one in five would even move sideways or take a step back to find the right role.
Yet that doesn’t mean they don’t care about work.
Purpose remains important. Learning matters, as do financial security and personal wellbeing. Perhaps ambition hasn’t disappeared at all; it has diversified.
For decades, many organisations operated on an unwritten understanding.
Work hard – be loyal – do a good job – and in return you could reasonably expect opportunity, development, security and respect.
That psychological contract was never perfect, and it certainly wasn’t experienced equally by everyone. But there was an expectation of reciprocity.
Increasingly, that relationship has become more fragile.
Organisations themselves are operating under enormous pressure: economic uncertainty, global competition, technological disruption, restructuring, skills shortages and now the extraordinary pace of AI development.
Those pressures are real. But so are the pressures experienced by the people within them: to be adaptable, innovative, resilient; to keep learning, respond faster, do more with less; and, thanks to technology, remain reachable almost everywhere, at almost any time.
It is hardly surprising that our relationship with work is changing.
Deloitte’s 2026 research also found that more than half of Gen Z and millennial respondents reported digital fatigue from constant alerts, switching between tools and navigating multiple platforms.
Technology may have made work more flexible. It has not necessarily made it lighter.
And this is where I believe the wellbeing conversation needs to mature.
For years, workplace wellbeing has too often focused on helping people cope with stress after it has already been created. Meditation, resilience training, wellbeing apps, yoga. All may certainly have value.
But before asking employees what will help them manage their stress, surely we should ask: What is causing the stress in the first place?
Is it excessive workload, long hours, lack of autonomy, poor management, unclear expectations and boundaries, inadequate resources, a toxic culture? And so it goes on.
Because if the source of the problem sits within the way work is designed, asking individuals to become better at tolerating it is not wellbeing. It is adaptation to dysfunction.
The answer is not to remove responsibility from individuals. We all have a role in caring for our own health and wellbeing.
But organisations have a responsibility too: to create work that is manageable, leadership that is humane, cultures built on trust and respect, jobs that offer sufficient autonomy, clarity and resources for people to succeed, and environments in which people can contribute without being continually depleted by the experience.
Interestingly, Deloitte’s research points in precisely this direction. Its findings suggest younger workers are seeking a combination of money, meaning and wellbeing rather than choosing one at the expense of the others.
That doesn’t sound like a generation rejecting work. It sounds like a generation redefining the deal.
And perhaps the rest of us should pay attention. Because this isn’t really a Gen Z story. Many people in their forties, fifties and sixties are asking similar questions.
Some have experienced burnout or been through restructures or redundancy. Some may have reached a stage of life where time feels more valuable than status. Others simply no longer believe that success should require sacrificing everything else that makes life worth living.
Perhaps one of the most important changes taking place in work today is not that people care less.
It is that they are becoming more discerning about what deserves their care.
People haven’t stopped wanting meaningful work. They haven’t stopped wanting to contribute. They haven’t stopped wanting to learn, belong, achieve or make a difference.
What many are rejecting is work that asks everything of them while giving too little in return. That distinction matters.
Because if we diagnose the problem as a lack of employee commitment, our response will be to try to make people care more.
But if we recognise it as a question of trust, reciprocity and the quality of work itself, the response becomes very different.
We begin asking how work can become healthier. How leadership can become more human. How organisations can rebuild trust, and how performance and wellbeing can reinforce rather than compete with one another.
Perhaps Gen Z hasn’t fallen out of love with work at all. Perhaps they, and many others, are simply no longer prepared to accept a bad deal.
And perhaps that gives organisations an extraordinary opportunity. Not to persuade people to love work again. But to earn back trust by creating work worthy of people’s time, talent, care and energy.
