A young Australian has divided opinion after revealing his plan to ‘lie flat’ in the workforce, as part of a growing cohort of Zoomers who aren’t willing to live entirely for their jobs.
The 23-year-old man took to Reddit to ask for financial advice that might allow him to adopt the ‘lying flat’ approach, saying he sees “no future in being forced to work tirelessly for 30-plus years”.
Working “copious amounts of overtime” and “sucking up to corporate” don’t appeal and he instead wants the freedom to escape both the rat race and the culture of ‘above and beyond’ subscribed to by previous generations.
“I honestly just don’t see myself working until past the age of 60,” he wrote.
Origins of Lying Flat
In the post-Covid landscape, many established economies experienced a ‘great resignation’, where burnt-out workers ditched their jobs for better opportunities, sparking significant upheaval in employment markets.
Then there was the ‘quiet quitting’ phenomenon, which saw predominantly young people decide to put in only the bare minimum and not a fraction more.
‘Lying flat’ is in the same vein but goes one step further, involving a rejection of traditional life goals centred on getting ahead by going above and beyond at work.
The movement is almost a form of opting out of capitalism and living as simply as possible to avoid the need for hard work.
Ryan Gosha, a business and financial analyst who writes macroeconomic analysis via his blog, said the sheer number of young workers opting for a lying flat lifestyle is “surprising”.
“Why are many people giving up? Surely, under capitalism, everyone wants to maximise wealth and acts in pursuit of such,” Mr Gosha said.
“It comes as a surprise to economists that there are people who would rather have just the bare minimum needed to survive and are not overly interested in the pursuit of riches at any cost.”
The lying flat movement first emerged in China in the shadow of the pandemic, where disenchanted young people decided to push back against a gruelling work culture.
Called the ‘996 system’, China’s eye-opening approach to work sees most employees work from 9am to 9pm, six days per week.
That level of overtime would be seen as labour exploitation in the West, but there it has been praised at all levels, from President Xi Jinping down to corporate leaders.
Young workers aren’t interested in that kind of lifestyle because there are few pay-offs.
All they get in return for an extraordinary commitment to their jobs and an acceptance of a fast-paced, overwhelming and demanding way of life is sheer exhaustion.
Lazy or wise?
The young Aussie’s post on Reddit attracted plenty of understanding and sympathetic comments from fellow young people who can’t see the benefit of putting everything they have into work.
But then the conversation jumped from Reddit to professional networking website LinkedIn, where debate raged about the merits of his plan.
A screenshot of the post was shared by prominent accountant Jason Andrew, author of the book Stark Naked Numbers, who described the sentiment as “sad”.
“This is a sad mentality for someone still very early in their career and life,” Mr Andrew wrote. “I don’t know what the answer is, but therapy [or] a coach could be a good start.”
His large group of followers tended to agree, suggesting the young man lacked passion or purpose, was an entitled whinger, and needed to “harden up”.
Others could see the root of young people wanting to “reject the hustle and grind culture” when the economic system now has countless built-in barriers that “toxically mix rocketing house prices [and] huge education fees with unstable work”.
Mr Andrew’s assessment didn’t go down well back on the original Reddit forum, with one user describing him as a “flog” and others mocking his implication that workers should strive to “slave away in a cubicle for 60 years”.
Spreading to the West
Paul Kiernan from the digital agency Thought Lab explained in an article that lying flat is about a “radical simplification of one’s life” so an extreme work culture isn’t needed.
“Lying flatism invites individuals to re-evaluate their priorities, shed unnecessary burdens, and focus on what truly matters,” Mr Kiernan said.
As Jack Kelly explained in an article for Forbes, those who aspire to Lie Flat will do the “bare minimum to get by” and strive for nothing more than “what’s absolutely essential for survival”.
“The mindset is that lying down is a protest against participants in a workplace and economy that they don’t believe in or feel that they are getting a fair shot,” Mr Kelly wrote.
Just as work conditions in much of the West aren’t as extreme as in China, nor is the lying flat approach quite as stringent in countries like the United States and Australia.
It’s probably a blend of quiet quitting and lying flat, where young workers won’t go above and beyond and prioritise living a good life, while accepting things like owning a home or having multiple children are off the table.
A drastic cultural shift
Meg Elkins is a senior economics lecturer at RMIT University’s School of Economics, Finance and Marketing and sees the evolution of workplace culture up-close every single day.
“I teach a fourth year and final year subject that’s preparing students to go out into the workforce, which all business students have to take,” Dr Elkins said.
“So, I’m right at the coalface of what 21 and 22 year olds are thinking, and I’m surprised that a lot of them have ambitions that are way more about work-life balance than career success.
“Whatever was motivating workers in the past is not motivating this younger generation. They’re rejecting the work values of their parents, I think because they’ve watched them work really hard with little reward.”
Dr Elkins said that unlike previous generations, Zoomers are looking at the expectation of investing most of themselves into a job or career and asking: “Why?”
While she doesn’t think Lying Flat is likely to take off in the Australian context, there’s no doubt young people are more interested in working to live, rather than living to work.
And economic inequality is a big reason for the shift.
“The things that motivated previous generations to work hard, like getting ahead, buying a house, getting the better job, those promises were a carrot in front of us, that kept us going, have been yanked away,” Dr Elkins said.
“If those rewards have been yanked away, you might start to wonder why you’re on the hedonic treadmill. You don’t know what you’re fighting for.”
Australia has both the lowest birthrate and the lowest rate of marriage on record, pointing to systemic problems that feed back into the changing relationship people have with work.
“What it says to me is those normal rites of passage that we’ve had as indicators of happiness and fulfilment and success in life, some people in Australia are not making.”
And for many, it’s a case of simply not being able to afford to make those big and momentous decisions.
Employers must adapt
It’s not that Zoomers are lazy workers, but they have different priorities and are less willing to make huge sacrifices for the sake of a job, Dr Elkins said.
“Say a law firm is preparing for a big court case, there are young junior lawyers who will probably work until 7pm to get their work done, while older senior lawyers and partners will still be there are midnight,” she said.
“For those juniors, working back to 7pm instead of finishing at 5.30pm feels like a big commitment. Midnight would be above and beyond.
“It’s not that they’re not conscientious – I think they’re just very aware of boundaries.
“And maybe in a way we need to respect that because they will eventually shift workplace culture and perhaps much more to an equilibrium that gives us all work-life satisfaction.”
In the meantime, she said workplaces must re-evaluate how they do things as they wade into “unfamiliar territory”.
“The modus operandi for most companies has been relying on employees to go above and beyond. Now, they’re getting young workers for whom going above and beyond isn’t something they’re willing to take on.”
Claudine Mangen is an expert in responsible organisations and an associate professor at Concordia University and said simply splashing cash won’t shift attitudes.
“Employers need to revisit the workload they place on their employees,” Ms Mangen wrote in analysis for The Conversation.
“They should consider how realistic it is for employees to complete their work within the required time frame.
“They also need to address their culture and question how it can be toxic, notably concerning how work is done, and how toxicity can be addressed.
“Finally, organisational leaders need to listen to their employees and set a tone that is supportive, shows empathy and is not merely rhetoric. Words have to be followed by actions to ensure the work environment fits the needs of employees.”