English Version | Here’s to the fools who dream

Salomé Santos is 23 years old. Since starting her first job in March 2021, she has worked for four companies on a full-time basis and several as a freelancer. "It's a case of job hopping," a human resources specialist will probably say as a kind of diagnosis. The trend, often associated with Gen Z (people born between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s), is characterized by short stays in the workplace in search of better working conditions, such as a higher salary. However, when interviewing Salomé, these were not the reasons that stood out whenever she recalled her resignations. "[The job] didn't fulfil me," she often admitted. Job hopping, quiet quitting, bare minimum Mondays... We've already lost count of the names invented to describe Gen Z's behavior patterns in the workplace. It's not a new strategy: when human beings find it difficult to understand something, they tend to lock it in fictitious boxes, because once the problem has been identified, it's easier to act. But does this work for analyzing such a diverse group of young people? The more we try to understand Gen Z, the more Gen Z feels misunderstood.

Let's go back to Salomé. She is currently working as a content writer for a multinational technology company and says it has been a positive surprise: "It wasn't something I was expecting to accept, because it was a completely different area, one I would never see myself working in. (...) [But] I have been there for over six months now and I'm really enjoying it. For the first time, I feel that my work is being recognized." In addition to feeling valued, Salomé emphasizes that the flexibility - in terms of location and working hours -, the healthy relationship with the team and the satisfactory pay all contribute to the success of this experience. Factors that, when absent, have also motivated her to leave the companies she has worked for. Are these obstacles "enough" to justify resigning? The answer to this question has caused a great divide between Gen Z and other generations in the workspace. Amongst the older generations, a new diagnosis is heard: lack of commitment. What, for a significant proportion of Zoomers, is a professional red flag, for members of Gen X (people born in the 60s and 70s), for example, is a simple barrier to overcome on the corporate ladder. To this, Salomé replies: "Lack of commitment is not related to lack of responsibility. We [members of Generation Z] are also looking for commitment from the other party. We want to be taken seriously so that we can take the company seriously." The fact that her generation doesn't settle for any job opportunity is, in her view, a positive quality. "When we realize that it is over, we are not afraid to take risks. We don't take anything for granted, we look for another solution. It is not that we don't take [the work] seriously, but we take other issues more seriously, such as our health (mental and physical), and having time for the things that matter. We want work to be a healthy part of our lives, not something that is disrupting everything else."

For work, one must give blood, sweat, and tears. It is a narrative we absorb from an early age, even if unconsciously, through news about high unemployment rates, social pressure to climb the corporate ladder, and irrefutable rejections of four-day working weeks. Alice Luísa Santos, 26, felt it herself. "When I was at university, we [members of Gen Z] experienced scary stories about unemployment. We were made to believe that we had to go anywhere that wanted us, do whatever it took, because it was a blessing to have a job." In 2018, Alice joined a communications agency as an intern and stayed there for the following five years, reaching a middle management position. From the outside, she appeared to be a success story, but she never questioned whether she was happy on the inside. "I was young, I didn't know how to set limits. And people without boundaries won't set them for you. I wanted and needed so much to prove my worth through work... And I hadn't cultivated my interests and relationships to the point where they took precedence over work. It was exactly the opposite. Work took precedence over everything, and I validated myself through it," she told Vogue Portugal. In December 2022, she resigned, but the road until there was, in her words, a "work of deep therapy". Recounting her years at the agency, Alice remembers the constant stress: "I mirrored my model of work to the rest of my life. If I got upset with someone, I had to sort it out straight away, because there was no time to waste. It got into my body; productivity got into my body. I couldn't sit still; I couldn't waste time not thinking about my tasks." Now working as a freelancer, she says she has "much more control" over her time and her life, but the sense of urgency hasn't completely disappeared. "Even today, I can't be relaxed at 10 a.m. if I don't have my computer on. I work in communications. I'm not a nurse, I'm not a doctor, nobody will die if I don't do this now," she says.

Different jobs require different levels of responsibility. However, does this difference translate into the working conditions offered by employers? "I love what I do, but I feel that if everything stays the same, I won't be doing this for the rest of my life. Fatigue will win out in the end." These words belong to Francisca Mota, 26, who has been working in healthcare since 2020. She is currently a nurse in a public oncology hospital and says, in a worried tone, that she often jokes with her colleagues about having gone an entire shift without going to the toilet. "We often neglect our own health to look after the health of others," she shares. Even so, Francisca remembers more difficult times. In 2021, she worked for a semi-private hospital, where shifts were as long as 16 consecutive hours. "The teams were very tired, even people who had joined straight out of college." After five months, Francisca quit her job, but she had already gathered more than 260 hours of overtime, which she was only paid for after asking for legal help. A few days later, she was starting at a new hospital. "There's a general shortage of nurses, but there are a lot of us coming out of schools every year (...). I have colleagues who were working in other areas during university to pay for their course and never went back to nursing, because the quality of life is better, even if it is working in a clothing store," she emphasizes. Then there's emigration, which she herself has already experienced: "We've managed to earn a much better salary abroad, a more relaxed life. On a professional level, we were able to have our careers recognized." The nurse describes the months she spent in Ireland as a health assistant, at the peak of the pandemic, as the time when she had the most “quality of life”.

There are those who leave the country out of obligation, there are those who leave out of choice. And there are those who experience a combination of both. Miguel Magalhães is 27 years old and works for a multinational consumer goods company in London. Although he has had some professional experience in Portugal, when the time came to apply for his first "real" job he chose destinations beyond the Portuguese borders. "It was a difficult decision, but easy at the same time," he confesses. "The pace and responsibilities I have here are very different from those I had in Portugal. Portugal doesn't offer opportunities on this scale [Miguel is a senior brand manager for an internationally renowned brand] to younger people." Looking at the labor landscape in his home country, he traces many of the problems to a "great inability to manage" teams: "[Managers have] difficulty motivating people and that's why many people work for hours and not for productivity." In London, Miguel has flexible working hours, a practice that is still uncommon among Portuguese companies. "The day is mine to manage, the responsibilities are mine and the company believes I will fulfil them, otherwise they wouldn't hire me," he comments.

Flexibility was a topic raised by almost all the interviewees. For Salomé Santos, a content writer, this is the basis for the labor market revolution: "It doesn't make sense for jobs to have eight compulsory hours a day. There may be a day when I need to work nine hours and another when I need to work three, especially in creative areas. We're not always creative at the same times every day." Alice Luísa Santos shares the same opinion: "[It's important] to understand people's needs and realize that people's lives need to be managed. Responsibility is not lost when you give this kind of flexibility. On the contrary, people come more motivated, with a greater will to do things, to make a difference." Miguel Magalhães sees it in his own company: "A lot of people tell me that they want that person's job because they see them come in, for example, at 10 a.m. and they know they're coming from the gym. You can tell he's a happy person who adds a lot to the meetings. It's much easier to see the future of the company by these examples than by empty promises." For Miguel, leading by example is the key to welcoming Gen Z into the workplace. However, he points out that there is also work to be done on the other side: "It's very easy [for Gen Z] to blame the older generation. But we have a lot of people from our generation who are frustrated, who complain, but who don't do what they could do to get out of where they are. It's not just about what leaders should do, but also what our generation should do to have opportunities."

And what is Gen Z doing? Salomé Santos is exploring her various professional passions through freelancing. "Since I want to try lots of things, and I'm still not sure what I want to do for the rest of my life, I have found a way, in addition to my full-time job, to do other things that I enjoy. It's not only a source of income, but also a source of pleasure," she shares. Alice Luísa Santos swapped the corporate ladder for setting up her own company and found the balance she was looking for: "I may be poorer, I may not have access to such great lives, but everything I do is guided by my values, by what I believe in, by the people I care about. And that's success, that's gratification." Francisca Mota wants to invest in her education. However, she feels that, given the state of nursing career progression in Portugal, this won't pay off: "I love doing this, but on those bad days I think: 'I'm not even recognized, why am I still here like a martyr?' I notice the same in my older colleagues. They are already so tired that there are things they won't even fight for, because they know it won't be worth it. We [young people] come here wanting to fight... But it's not going to change."

For Francisca, Salomé, Alice, Miguel, and all the young people who feel represented by their words, change is needed. But perhaps the change is not as uniform as it seems. Looking at the collected testimonies, it wouldn't be wrong to say that in order to welcome Gen Z into the workplace, more flexible working hours need to be allowed. Nor would it be wrong to say that the solution lies in adopting hybrid models or rapid career progression accompanied by higher pay. It all helps, it all has value. However, to reduce the professional aspirations of an entire generation to three pragmatic solutions would be to ignore the plurality of personalities, opinions, and ways of being that characterize Zoomers. It would not do justice to their talent, nor to the value that these young people bring and will continue to bring to the world. Nevertheless, we risk concluding with a metaphor that, although reductive, puts us all in the same boat. This metaphor comes to us through Alice's words: "There are people who have goals: to buy a house, to buy a car, to reach a certain position. These goals are islands, these people are governed by islands. But sailors aren't governed by islands. They are governed by the stars. And the stars are values, ways of being, ways of seeing. If I'm guided by islands, I'll get anywhere anyway. I won't look at the means, I'll just get to the island. When I get there, I'll think: 'Now where do I go?' But if I'm true and follow my constellation of values, I'll get to good islands and I'll always know where to go, because I'm guided by my principles." Let's focus on what matters. Society's role is not to guide Gen Z, let alone stop them from looking at the sky. The only thing other generations can do is turn their islands into a safe harbor, a place where new boats can dock. And this not only benefits those who arrive, but also those who already live there.

*Originally translated from The Coming Back Issue, published September 2023. Full credits and stories in the print issue.