‘I feel completely drained’: young professionals swamped by ‘infinite workdays’ | Work-life balance

It’s 10pm in Seoul, South Korea, however Hyun Jin Lee just isn’t heading residence. The latest faculty graduate – an worker within the IT trade – is at a compulsory workforce dinner.“I find yourself working late nearly day by day,” laughs Lee. “By the tip of the day, I really feel fully drained, like I’ve used up all my power [and] I can’t actually do something on weekdays after work.”She begins the workday at 9.30am and ends most days at 10pm, generally pushing to midnight. On a single workday, Lee receives about 200 messages. With fixed conferences and collaborative work filling the day, evenings are sometimes the one time Lee has to make amends for particular person duties.That is removed from uncommon, based on new analysis. Microsoft’s 2025 work development index report discovered that many staff are more and more grappling with “infinite workdays”, which begin earlier than dawn and stretch late into the evening. They’re interrupted by some 270 pinging notifications alongside the way in which, about one each two minutes.Many younger professionals are scuffling with this new actuality. “If I pushed myself [too] laborious someday, I attempt to go away work early the following day to get some relaxation,” Lee mentioned. “There’s normally this unstated strain to not do business from home, even when it’s allowed, however I do it anyway as a result of I’ve a lot work, [so] commuting appears like a waste of time, and I’m simply exhausted.”This conventional work tradition is disillusioning gen Z as 94% of the era are prioritizing work-life stability over climbing the company ladder, based on analysis by Deloitte.Sal, a New York-based compensation specialist who declined to supply his full identify for privateness causes, believes his era is dealing with new hurdles within the office corresponding to rising psychological well being considerations, and stagnant wage will increase within the face of inflating residing prices.Regardless of these challenges, Sal, 24, mentioned he’s nonetheless anticipated to evolve to an outdated working construction, placing in lengthy hours with out the payoff older generations had. “We’re graduating with a excessive quantity of debt [from university] after which working a job that’s burning us out, and it’s not even paying for this debt,” he mentioned. “Lots of people my age are job hopping as a result of they’re burnt out or can’t discover longevity of their roles.”Sal’s first 12 months in his present function led him to hunt remedy as a result of the workload gave the impression to be a “fixed queue” and he felt perpetually anxious regardless of “being in a spot that’s higher than most individuals in my era”. He was recognized with a basic nervousness dysfunction.Even in South Korea, a rustic recognized for its notoriously lengthy working hours, gen Z is rejecting this life-style.“Younger folks actually worth their free time after work, and like having sufficient relaxation, versatile work environmentsand extra freedom,” mentioned Lee. “The youthful era believes working extra time, too, usually can generally be seen as an indication of poor time administration, so folks don’t assume working lengthy hours is all the time a very good factor.”For some, lengthy working hours are inevitable. Others are selecting to endure them quickly, within the hope of shopping for again their time later.Jane, who additionally declined to reveal her surname, is working two full-time jobs with the purpose of escaping company life in 4 years, when she turns 30. Based mostly in Toronto, she splits her 70-hour workweek between a 9-to-5 advertising supervisor function and a 5-to-11 name service consultant place. Each are distant.“My first 9 to five internship expertise in college was so horrible that it made me very anti-career and anti-work, to the purpose the place I wouldn’t do that till I used to be 65,” Jane mentioned. “The older administration clearly anticipated workers to make work their total life.”In Jane’s earlier advertising function with a special firm, she drowned in infinite workdays which finally led her right into a spiral of despair. The administration workforce scheduled conferences off-the-clock, chastised workers who left on time, and anticipated staff to verify messages 24/7, together with on holidays like Christmas.“I’d simply be very anxious on a regular basis, and I’d lose sleep over it,” Jane defined. “I really feel like getting sucked into work and over-obsessing whereas pondering that that’s your life is certainly the mistaken strategy. Work-life stability is so essential.”Jane skilled burnout quite a few instances since coming into the workforce after faculty. Nevertheless, she now units agency working boundaries and communicates her bandwidth to her workforce. She refuses to work off-the-clock and prioritizes time with family members as a substitute.“What I’ve realized is that the one solution to repair burnout is to depart the corporate, as a result of if the atmosphere makes you careworn, you can not totally mentally defend your self,” Jane mentioned. “I’m working to reside, not residing to work.”