Young people are not quitting at work, but “they refuse to let their quality of life suffer because of their jobs,” the Senior Professor of Public Health and Education says.
Amid multiple crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, Hertie School Senior Professor of Public Health and Education Klaus Hurrelmann sees young people’s attitudes towards the importance of their working life shifting.
“Many millennials and post-millennials recognise that they cannot plan their careers anymore, and they don’t believe they will be as wealthy as their parents,” Hurrelmann says in an interview with ZEIT ONLINE from 7 November. They do not want to be married to their work and “refuse to let their quality of life suffer because of their jobs,” he argues.
Although this phenomenon is sometimes called “quiet quitting”, young people are not quitting, they are simply choosing to do the bare minimum at work to keep things running, Hurrelmann says. While older employees and managers might not understand this attitude, due to a lack of skilled employees, “young people can afford it”, he adds.
Read the full interview (in German).
Hurrelmann also talked about this topic earlier in October in this article (in German).
The Hertie School is not responsible for any content linked or referred to from these pages. Views expressed by the author/interviewee may not necessarily reflect the views and values of the Hertie School.
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Klaus Hurrelmann, Senior Professor of Public Health and Education