For decades, the cultural mandate in Australia has been hustle hard for your employer, and you’ll be rewarded.
But increasingly, Gen Z and Millennial workers are demanding more from workplaces.
Hot off the heels of ‘quiet quitting’, ‘acting your wage’ is a movement empowering workers to do the bare minimum requirements of their job.
A trend, yes. But maybe not so smart, say business and career advisors.
The new term coined on TikTok, encourages employees to “respectfully decline work they are not paid to do,” so they can preserve their energy for creative endeavours and not be taken advantage of by their employer.
To put it simply, the belief is that an employee’s duties and workload should reflect their pay, and not encroach on a healthy work-life balance.
Logan business coach Tony Meredith says while work-life harmony is important, if an individual wants to progress in their career, they should act “the wage they want”.
“Having better work-life harmony is absolutely important because we work to live, we don’t live to work,” Mr Meredith said.
“However, if you’re an individual who wants to go and build a career and progress through the company, then perhaps operating in this way may not serve you because your employer is looking for people to differentiate themselves.
“I say to my clients that you want to be looking for people who are starting to take on the role and parts of the role that they want to aspire towards.
“But it’s not all or nothing, it doesn’t mean that hey, if I’m gonna build a career, I don’t have a life.”
Instead, Mr Meredith says it’s up to the employer to foster happiness and a conducive work culture.
“Employees don’t leave jobs or don’t stay with jobs for money– it’s important, but it is just one element,” he said.
“We need to spend more time as business owners, managers and leaders to understand what our employees’ goals are.
“Recognising that whilst they’re at our place of work, and they’ve got a job to do, they’ve got lives as well, and so there might be a way that we can help them facilitate their own goals.
“And how do we create happiness? Because when we have happy employees, we have productive employees.”
Local 16-year-old student and part-time employee at Tamborine Village Traders, Felix Cosovan, says he is willing to work hard for the right employer who respects his boundaries.
“As long as you have free time you don’t mind working at your job, you should go out of your way to show your employer you work hard,” he said.
“My boss is amazing, anytime that I need to catch up on school or family time, I always let her know and she’s like, ‘yeah, that’s perfectly fine, I’d rather you put school first before anything.’
“You have to find a balance between your free time, your work and study.”
While many on social media have been critical of the “entitled” and “anti-capitalist” trend, some say it’s healthy.
Microsoft’s latest Work Trends Index this year found Australian workers suffered a higher level of burnout at work compared to anywhere else in the world.
The report found that 62% of Australian employees were experiencing burnout, compared with a global average of 48%.
World Health Organization defines burnout as a syndrome, resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
