After ‘lazy girl job’ goes viral, conservative headhunters respond

After a term coined by a Generation Z TikTok influencer went viral—“lazy girl job”—Campus Reform contacted several conservative headhunters and college career counselors to understand the mindset of Generation Z in the workplace.

For background information, 26-year-old Gabrielle Judge, a self-described “Anti Work Girlboss,” explained on TikTok in May that a “lazy girl job” is something that an employee can “quiet quit.”

@gabrielle_judge Career advice for women who don’t know what remote job to apply to. You can bay your bills at not feel tired at the end of the day. Women are here to collect those pay checks and move on from the work day. We have so much more fun stuff happeneing in our 5-9 that is way more important than a boss that you hate. #corporatejobs #jobsearchhacks #remoteworking #antihustleculture #9to5 ♬ original sound - Gabrielle👸🏻

Chaz Cirame, the founder of Big Fish, a recruiting firm that primarily staffs free-market nonprofits, told Campus Reform that a low percentage of his candidates want a “lazy job.”

Taking a ‘lazy job’ can hurt entry-level employees out of college because so much of a career trajectory comes from learning from other people and hustling during the first few jobs, Cirame said. (Cirame intentionally omitted “girl” from the term, quipping that it’s “good for virality but not good for gender relations.”)

“But there are some early-career folks that have this impression that the red carpet will be rolled out to them in the workplace,” he added. “They tend to have little experience and believe they don’t have to work hard and not make many sacrifices to own that career.”

Big Fish does not recommend “seat fillers” to its clients, Cirame assured Campus Reform. Rather, the job applicants Big Fish recommends are not “lazy” in part because many seek mission-driven employment.

Stephanie Keaveney, a Senior Manager of Outreach at Talent Market, echoed the same sentiment as Cirame.

“Speaking from the perspective of working in the nonprofit sector, I don’t think that we have seen this specific mindset crop up in people who are looking to work at mission-driven organizations,” Keaveney told Campus Reform. Talent Market mainly helps free-market nonprofits find applicants to fill open positions.

[RELATED: Nonprofit drafts model legislation to combat bias report systems]

“But the idea of Gen Z having a higher priority on things like flexibility and work-life balance is definitely something that I think is true in the nonprofit sector,” Keaveney added.

Jim Freeman, director of the College of the Ozarks’ Vanek Center for Vocations and Callings (VCVC), said students prioritize work-life balance more today than they did in 2014, the year he began employment at VCVC, yet they “understand [work] and embrace it as a God-given gift.”

This is, in part, because College of the Ozarks students must work 15 hours per week at the school to pay for their tuition, Freeman told Campus Reform.

“Work is part of who we are as humans,” Freeman told Campus Reform. (This is a stark contrast to Judge, who said that ‘lazy girl jobs’ allow people to “go live our lives and be amazing humans.”)

Andrew Crapuchettes, the founder and CEO of RedBalloon, also said humans need “the friction and stress of trying to interact with the world,” otherwise known as work. While it’s normal to want to maximize profit and minimize work, employees do themselves a disservice when they watch TikTok videos instead of working hard for their employer, he said.

”A job is more than just a nine to five hobby,” Crapuchettes told Campus Reform. “It’s a defining feature of who you are. It’s your career. It’s your vocation. It’s your opportunity to make an impact on the world through your work. When you try and avoid that aspect of your life, you are not a whole person in the same way.”

New York University Stern School of Business Professor Suzy Welch wrote in The Wall Street Journal in July that her high-achieving 20-something-year-old students share a trait with ‘Lazy Girl Job’ proponents: a strong desire to avoid anxiety.

“I admit that there have been times as both a professor and manager that I have wondered—and I am not alone—’Aren’t these kids just dealing with adulthood, and adulthood is hard?’” Welch says, describing the ‘garden-variety’ anxiety that adults must make tradeoffs such as taking a three-day weekend versus getting a promotion.

Welch said her students’ anxiety is both fueled by their “desire to achieve,” referencing Yale University cognitive scientist Laurie Santos, and also by their well-intentioned Baby Boomer parents’ attempts to shield them from experiencing anxiety, according to Dr. Jennifer Sotsky, a psychiatrist who specializes in Gen Z anxiety.

But while staying in a ‘safe space,’ such as a couch or bed, can be tempting, it’s detrimental, Crapuchettes said.

[RELATED: University offers ‘safe space’ program to educate LGBTQ+ allies]

”[Judge] even says safety is a really big deal in that [TikTok] video,” Crapuchettes told Campus Reform. “What’s the safest spot? In my bed or on my couch, and as long as I have enough money, I don’t have to do anything, and that sounds great.”

But derivatives trader and retired NYU professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes in several books that humans are made to work, and people who stay in bed or on a couch all day die sooner than those who work, Crapuchettes said.

”If you are a young person, or even older person, and you realize that there’s a real joy in a hardworking day, you are going to be significantly differentiated from most of the job seekers out there,” Crapuchettes said. “If you are feeling like you’re stuck in a woke business where they don’t respect or like your worldview, you are a different kind of worker than most people out there --this ‘lazy girl’ job seeker. A lot of employers are looking for you.”

The career services departments at Hillsdale College declined to comment. Liberty University did not respond to Campus Reform’s request to comment in time for this publication. 

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