3.5 hours to live: Generation Z challenges the working model

“9 to 5? That would leave me with a mere 3.5 hours to live my life. That can't be right!”

Sound familiar? This is how Julian Kamps sums up his experience after a short time in a regular workday in his viral TikTok. Many employees can identify with this description, which is why the debate about the classic working time model has been stirring up millions of people again in recent days. While some took this as an opportunity to once again call Gen Z “lazy” and “unwilling to work,” the debate about the traditional working time model that this sparked is long overdue, as social researcher Dr. Kilian Hampel says.

According to Hampel, young people are ultimately just asking aloud how well the traditional 9-to-5 model still fits into an era characterized by efficiency, flexibility, and the pursuit of mental health. Amid ongoing crises, economic uncertainty, and a broken promise of prosperity, the younger generation is not concerned with comfort—but with rejecting the idea of working themselves to the bone at any cost, as previous generations did and often paid dearly for.

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