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Do you pass on added responsibilities at the office, have no desire to progress into management roles, and prioritize your 5-to-9 over your 9-to-5? If so, you might be a career minimalist. According to a recent Glassdoor report published in August, career minimalism is the latest corporate buzzword to describe Gen Zs attitude toward work. Minimalism is a choice of lifestyle focused on the bare essentials, stripping back to those things in life that truly spark joy. This simple, uncluttered existence prioritizes the fundamentalssuch as relationships, passions, and personal growthover material possessions. Now, some are saying the same principle can be applied to work. Rather than seeking flashy job titles and taking on added responsibilities for no extra pay, some Gen Zers are simplifying their careers and saving their real passions and ambitions for off the clock. Chris Martin, lead researcher at Glassdoor, tells Fast Company that this strategy is being driven by a change in perspective. This is a conscious shift away from overreliance on a single employer, toward firmer boundaries, alternative definitions of professional fulfillment, and a portfolio of potential income streams for financial stability, Martin says. Its not that Gen Z are rejecting work. They are rejecting an outdated version of work that has been sold to them.” Theres been a well-documented shift in the definition of professional success and making it in today’s economyaway from the hustle culture and rise and grind that colored the experiences of countless millennials and led many of them to burn out. Today, as young workers enter a minefield of mass layoffs, AI, and economic instability, their response isn’t to work harder or chase the carrot of a promotion. In fact, 68% say they would actively avoid moving into a management role, according to the Glassdoor survey. Here lies a clear distinction from the career ambitions of previous generations, who still saw leadership as a goal unto itself. “The traditional career ladder promised workers pensions, stability, and prestige markers as a reward for their long-term commitment. The past few generations of workers have seen these promises broken or hollowed out, and Gen Zs views have changed accordingly, Martin said. For many young workers, the offer of a manager title without a pay increase sounds like a downgrade: more responsibility without any benefit. Their idea of success is more closely tied to balance and financial security, he added. Thats not to say Gen Zers arent ambitious. Despite being dubbed career minimalists, 57% of Gen Z employees have at least one side hustle, compared with 48% of millennials, 31% of Gen Xers, and 21% of baby boomers, according to the Glassdoor data. Gen Zs career minimalism is all about keeping things simple at the day jobthe one that pays the bills and provides securityand investing time and energy in true passions outside of the office. As one Glassdoor community member shared: I always joke that I don’t dream of labor. If people were truly passionate about their job, it wouldn’t pay anything. Passion is for your 5-to-9 after the 9-to-5.
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E-Commerce
I’m a big fan of efficiency, mostly because I’m also a big fan of doing as little work as possible while still getting things done. Thankfully, Microsoft Outlook is packed with hidden gems and clever little features designed to make work life easier. The only problem: They’re buried under a bunch of menus or just aren’t obvious. Here are five of my favorite built-in Outlook features you might not be using yet. Quick Steps “Quick Steps” is a neat little automation feature that lets you create a single-click button to perform multiple actions on an email. For example, you could have a Quick Step that moves an email to a specific folder, marks it as having been read, and then forwards it to a colleague. Or one that marks it as done and archives it. Its essentially a macro for your email, allowing you to automate those repetitive, multistep actions and get them done in a fraction of the time. Click the Quick Steps button in the main ribbon to start setting them up. Focused Inbox The best way to deal with email is to not deal with it at all. For that, Outlook has a feature called “Focused Inbox” that uses machine learning to decide which emails are important and which are just noise. It automatically sorts your messages into two tabs: “Focused” and “Other.” The “Other” tab is where all the newsletters, notifications, and promotional emails go to live in peace. This isn’t a filter you have to set up yourself; it’s a smart system that learns what you care about. To enable it, go to Settings > Mail > Layout, and toggle Focused Inbox on. Ignore Conversation Can you call it a real job if youre not part of at least one long email chain with a dozen other people, and after the third reply-all, you realize the chain no longer has anything to do with you? This is where the “Ignore Conversation” feature comes in. Its a tiny little lifesaver. Select an email in your inbox pane, right-click on it, and choose “Ignore.” Every subsequent message in that thread will automatically be moved to your “Deleted Items” folder. Its an easy, guilt-free way to excuse yourself from a digital conversation you have no interest in participating in. Sweep We’ve all signed up for a service, gotten 100 emails, and then realized we dont want them anymore. Luckily, Outlook has a “Sweep” feature that automates the whole process of mass deletion. It lets you quickly delete all messages from a specific sender, and you can set a rule to automatically delete any future emails from them as they arrive. To use it, click Sweep in the main ribbon while viewing a message from a sender you no longer want to hear from, and select how youd like to treat current and future messages. Drag-and-drop meeting scheduling You’ve received an email from someone, and you need to set up a meeting with them. Just drag and drop the message from your inbox onto your calendar icon. Outlook will automatically create a new meeting invitation, with the email subject as the meeting title and the email recipient as an attendee. Its a huge time-saver when you’re working with multiple clients or colleagues and need to get a meeting on the books in a hurry.
Category:
E-Commerce
We are living through an AI revolution. Boards are green-lighting pilots and buying AI licenses to maximize employee productivity. However, the most powerful performance lever in the modern workplace isnt algorithmic, its human. When people are happier at work, they create, collaborate, and stay. When they arent, the best tech in the world wont stop the value from leaking out of your organization. Gallup estimates that low employee engagement drains $8.9 trillion from the global economy, roughly 9% of the worlds GDP. Engagement also slipped globally in 2024, a reminder that culture is moving in the wrong direction for many firms. Happiness isnt soft, its a productivity system that can be measured. A well-known Oxford study found that happier workers are 13% more productive, based on a six-month analysis of thousands of BT (British Telecommunications) contact-center employees. And, at WorkL, the employee engagement platform I founded, drawing on millions of survey responses across more than 100 countries, we see a striking pattern: National workplace-happiness scores map closely to national productivity. Happier teams are higher-performing teams. AI can shrink a task, but only people can grow a business. In organisations with high trust and a positive mental health culture, AI accelerates learning and frees time for higher-value work. In cultures defined by fear or fatigue, AI simply compresses the day, raises targets, and intensifies burnout. The sustainable edge therefore comes from engineering happiness first and then letting technology amplify it. Consider the working week and how this can impact workplace happiness, productivity, and commercial success. In the UKs four-day-week pilot, featuring 61 companies including 2,900 employees, firms reported a 35% average revenue increase, 57% lower attrition, and 92% intended to continue the model. Theres no doubt that considering employee happiness, will help boost the success of a business. I call it happy economics. Six steps to workplace happiness and how to execute them Leaders often ask me Where do we start? After decades of managing large teams and now measuring workplace experience at scale, I recommend my six steps to workplace happiness. These are business disciplines that both employers and employees should be following. Reward and recognitionPay must be fair and transparent, or nothing else lands. But dont wait for annual reviews to say thank you. Build weekly recognition rituals tied to outcomes, not “presenteeism.” Managers should set and co-set clear goals with their teams so recognition feels earned and specific. Information sharingLack of sharing breeds rumor and disengagement. Adopt a show the work cadence where a monthly all-hands meeting includes reviewing real metrics, a working roadmap, and team-level dashboard for all to see. When people understand context, customers, competitors, and constraints, they make better decisions without escalation. EmpowermentEmpowering employees means involving them in decision-making, valuing their ideas, and integrating their feedback into the company’s strategies. Everyone brings unique experiences and perspectives to the table, and only by considering all views can a team achieve the best possible outcome. While individuals may not be perfect, together, the team can be. Well-beingEmployee well-being encompasses physical, emotional, and financial health. Addressing all three areas leads to improved engagement and productivity. A positive workplace culture can reduce absenteeism, as engaged employees tend to be healthier and more committed. Instilling prideEmployees who take pride in their work and workplace naturally become advocates, sharing their positive experiences with colleagues, potential hires, customers, and the community. Their pride will be evident when they talk about where they work. Building this sense of pride goes beyond motivational talks or performance reviews, it’s about cultivating an environment where employees truly enjoy and take pride in their roles. Job satisfactionA range of factors influence job satisfaction, but two stand out; opportunities for personal growth and the quality of the employee-manager relationship. Employees are an organisations greatest asset, and high engagement is essential for success. Research shows that respectful treatment and trust between employees and leadership are key drivers of satisfaction. Poor relationships with managers are often the top reason employees leave, regardless of the company’s brand strength What to do right now If happiness is the revolution, implementation must be practical. Three moves any company can make immediately: Set a happiness baseline. Run a brief, anonymous pulse survey covering the six steps above, and segment by team and manager. Commit to sharing the results and to two actions per team within 30 days. At WorkL weve seen that transparency alone lifts scores on information sharing and empowerment. Redesign one work practice for time and trust. Kill or cap status meetings; publish written updates instead. Pilot quiet hours or no-meeting blocks. Fund wellbeing like a growth initiative. Choose one high-impact intervention, manager mental-health training, access to counselling, and measure outcomes. The finance case is robust; employers typically recoup multiple dollars per dollar invested. Now add technology back in. When teams are trusted, recognized, and resourced, AI becomes a force for good for the health of the business. Ways of working are adopted and kept because employees helped design them, reskilling lands because its wrapped in conversations with employees, and experimentation flourishes because failure isnt punished. In unhappy cultures, by contrast, AI can magnify control and anxiety. Leaders dont have to choose between AI and happiness. Engineer happiness first, through reward, information, empowerment, well-being, pride, and job satisfaction, and then let AI amplify the human advantage youve built. That is the real workplace revolution. And its one you can start today.
Category:
E-Commerce
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