Millennials’ relationship with work is broken. We want work-life balance. And yet we want to turn our hobbies into income-generators, side-hustles, effectively desiring to turn our passion into work.
So are we turning the life side of the ‘work-life’ see-saw into ‘work’ too? So when we say ‘work-life’ balance, it is not so much the dichotomy of work and life but really, the kind of work that gives us great amount of autonomy without necessary the pressure of livelihood hinging on it, and the kind of work which supports us and fulfils our dreams financially but may not offer so much autonomy and control.
On one hand, we are starved of work and even willing to pay for internships. On the other hand, we are so overworked because we turn our hobbies into work too. The reality, I think, is something to do with our search for our sense of identity. Because we have such freedom and work was quite a significant obsession for the boomers (and by and large their insecurities around livelihoods and material-insufficiency), we dig deep into it for our sense of identity. If only we can take a step back and scrutinise the void in our hearts we are trying to fill, maybe, we would just be searching in the right places.