There’s a phrase millennials and Gen Z have heard over and over again:
“Nobody wants to work anymore.”
But I don’t think that’s the problem.
We want to work.
We want to earn money. We want independence. We want careers we care about. We want to build lives for ourselves.
What we don’t want is to give 40+ hours of our lives every week to jobs that barely give us enough in return to live.
And now there’s something else changing the conversation entirely:
AI.
The job market isn’t just changing because younger generations supposedly don’t want to work. The jobs themselves are changing.
The Traditional 40-Hour Workweek Doesn’t Feel Like the Deal It Used to Be
For previous generations, working full-time was often connected to something bigger.
You worked your hours, earned benefits, built retirement savings, bought a house, raised a family, and eventually retired.
That path was never perfect or available to everyone, but it was at least presented as the deal:
Give your time to a company, and you’ll receive some stability in return.
For a lot of younger workers, that deal feels like it’s disappearing.
We can work 30, 35, or even close to 40 hours a week and still be considered part-time.
We can work nearly full-time schedules without receiving the benefits associated with full-time employment.
Health insurance? Maybe not.
Paid time off? Limited or nonexistent.
Retirement benefits? Not always.
Consistent scheduling? Good luck.
Enough money to comfortably afford housing, groceries, transportation, healthcare, and everything else? That’s becoming harder too.
So when people ask why younger generations aren’t enthusiastic about traditional work, maybe we should be asking:
What exactly are workers getting in exchange for their time?
“You Didn’t Earn the Benefits”
This is one of the most frustrating parts.
Benefits are often tied to employment status, hours worked, eligibility periods, or company policies.
That can create this strange situation where someone works a substantial part of their week for a company but still doesn’t qualify for much beyond their paycheck.
You’re working.
You’re showing up.
You’re giving away evenings, weekends, holidays, and hours of your life.
But somehow you’re still told you haven’t worked enough to qualify for certain benefits.
And sometimes workers aren’t even choosing to stay under those thresholds.
They would gladly take more hours.
The company just doesn’t schedule them.
So how exactly are workers supposed to “earn” benefits they’re never given the opportunity to qualify for?
Maybe That’s Why So Many of Us Have More Than One Job
And this is the part that makes the whole “nobody wants to work” argument especially frustrating.
If younger generations supposedly don’t want to work, why are so many people working more than one job?
A full-time job.
A part-time job on the side.
Weekend shifts somewhere else.
Freelancing after work.
Gig work when there’s time.
An online shop.
Content creation.
Selling art.
Making digital products.
Pet sitting.
Photography.
Apps.
Blogs.
Sometimes what gets dismissed as a “side hustle” isn’t really about chasing some glamorous entrepreneur lifestyle.
It’s another source of income because one job isn’t enough.
For some people, working two or even three jobs is what it takes to cover rent, groceries, utilities, transportation, insurance, student loans, medical expenses, and everything else life throws at us.
We’re told our generation doesn’t want to work while some people finish one shift and head directly to another.
That’s not laziness.
That’s trying to survive in a changing economy.
But Something Else Is Happening: Entry-Level Work Is Changing
There’s another piece of the conversation that I think we’re going to have to talk about more:
AI is changing what “entry level” even means.
Entry-level jobs have traditionally been how people get their foot in the door.
You graduate, get your first position, learn from people with more experience, develop your skills, and slowly work your way up.
But what happens when some of the tasks traditionally given to entry-level employees can increasingly be assisted or automated by AI?
Writing basic copy.
Summarizing documents.
Organizing information.
Creating first drafts.
Basic coding.
Administrative work.
Research assistance.
Customer support.
Data processing.
These are exactly the kinds of tasks that have often helped people gain experience early in their careers.
As AI becomes more capable, companies may start asking a very different question:
Do we hire another entry-level employee, or do we give an existing employee AI tools that allow them to accomplish more?
That’s a major shift.
And it has absolutely nothing to do with younger generations being lazy.
The Entry-Level Catch-22 Could Get Even Worse
We’ve already joked for years about entry-level jobs requiring experience.
You find a position labeled ENTRY LEVEL and then scroll down:
Bachelor’s degree preferred.
Two to three years of experience.
Experience with six different programs.
A portfolio.
Professional references.
And somehow you’re supposed to have all of that before someone gives you your first opportunity.
AI could potentially make this problem even more complicated.
If AI handles more basic tasks, companies may expect new employees to arrive with more advanced skills from day one.
But then we have to ask:
How are people supposed to gain experience if fewer companies are willing to give inexperienced workers a chance?
You can’t become experienced without first being inexperienced.
Someone has to give you that first opportunity.
AI Isn’t Necessarily the Enemy
I also don’t think the answer is simply “AI is bad.”
AI can be an incredible tool.
It can help people learn.
It can help someone brainstorm.
It can help small creators compete with larger businesses.
It can make technology more accessible.
It can help people build apps, websites, businesses, artwork, videos, and projects they couldn’t have created alone.
It can automate repetitive work that humans probably don’t need to spend hours doing anyway.
There are genuinely exciting possibilities here.
The bigger question is how we’re going to use it.
If AI makes workers dramatically more productive, does that eventually mean humans can work fewer hours?
Could the 40-hour workweek eventually become 32 hours?
Could technology give people more time for their families, hobbies, creativity, communities, and lives?
Or will companies simply expect one employee using AI to accomplish what several employees used to do?
That’s the conversation I think we’re heading toward.
The Future Worker May Need to Know How to Work With AI
There’s another possibility too.
Maybe AI won’t simply eliminate entry-level work.
Maybe it will change what entry-level workers are expected to know.
Knowing how to use AI responsibly could become another workplace skill — just like knowing how to use email, spreadsheets, search engines, social media, or other software eventually became normal.
The advantage might not belong to the person who refuses to use AI or the person who lets AI do absolutely everything.
It may belong to the person who knows:
Here’s what AI can do. Here’s what I can do. And here’s how I can combine the two.
Human creativity, judgment, empathy, communication, lived experience, critical thinking, and decision-making still matter.
AI is a tool.
A very powerful one.
And increasingly, a very capable one.
But knowing how to use that tool may become part of being employable in the next version of the job market.
The Side Hustle Has Become Part of Millennial and Gen Z Culture
All of this might also explain why side hustles appeal to younger generations.
They’re another way to build something of our own.
Blogging.
Selling artwork.
Designing apps.
Creating digital products.
Freelancing.
Photography.
Making videos.
Online businesses.
Maybe the future won’t be everyone having one employer for 40 years.
Maybe more people will have a job plus several smaller income streams.
Or maybe they’ll move between traditional employment, freelance work, entrepreneurship, and creative projects throughout their lives.
That comes with its own problems — especially instability and lack of benefits — but it also shows how much our definition of a “career” is changing.
We’re Not Afraid of Work. We’re Questioning the Trade-Off.
I think that’s what older generations sometimes misunderstand about millennials and Gen Z.
We’re questioning things previous generations were taught not to question.
Why does working hard automatically mean working yourself into exhaustion?
Why should your job be the center of your identity?
Why should someone work 40 hours every week and still worry about paying their bills?
Why should a part-time employee need nearly full-time availability?
Why are basic benefits so difficult for some workers to access?
And now:
What happens to young workers when technology starts transforming the very jobs that were supposed to help them begin their careers?
Those aren’t questions coming from laziness.
They’re questions coming from people watching the economy and technology change around them.
Maybe We Don’t Have a Work-Ethic Problem
Maybe we have a work-expectation problem — during one of the biggest technological shifts in modern work.
Millennials and Gen Z aren’t necessarily rejecting work.
We’re rejecting the idea that exhaustion should be something to brag about.
We’re questioning why working full-time doesn’t always provide financial stability.
We’re questioning why benefits remain out of reach for some people who are already working most of the week.
We’re questioning why people need side hustles or second jobs after already working all week.
And now we’re trying to figure out where humans fit into a workplace increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
The next generation of workers may face a completely different entry-level job market than their parents did.
That isn’t because they suddenly stopped wanting to work.
The work itself is changing.
Maybe instead of repeating, “Nobody wants to work anymore,” we should start asking a much more important question:
What is work going to look like when AI can do more of it?
Because millennials and Gen Z aren’t just questioning the old version of work.
We’re watching the new version being built in real time.
This is such an important part of the AI conversation. I keep thinking about what happens to entry-level workers when AI takes over many of the tasks we traditionally used to learn a job. We’re going to have to rethink not just what skills young workers need, but how they’re supposed to gain experience in the first place.