I’ve been unsettled these past few months about my changing attitude towards work. I can’t help but see myself resonating with my generation’s disillusionment, and it’s escalating my anxiety about the future.
I feel like I’ve been cheated right after university—”too educated” for humble jobs, yet somehow I’ve forgotten that our kind of work today is actually not the norm but the exception. When I reflect on what my mother told me about how much money was needed to buy 1,200 square meters of land in her time, that same amount today would only afford me a mobile phone. Something fundamental has shifted, and I’m not the only one feeling it.
The global trend
Most of you have heard of ‘quiet quitting,’ originally coined in the US in 2022 to describe employees who do the bare minimum work. But what started as disengagement has evolved to include those who simply clock in on time, leave promptly, and aren’t motivated by promotions or overtime pay.
But did you know that there’s also a parallel movement in China called ‘bai lan’ or ‘lying flat,’ where young people reject the intense work culture and choose to do just enough to get by? I recently watched a documentary about this movement, and what struck me was how global this phenomenon has become.
These movements aren’t just about laziness. They’re responses to economic pressures: inflation outpacing wages, unaffordable housing, and watching our parents sacrifice everything for careers only to face layoffs or burnout. When hard work no longer guarantees security, many of us are asking: ‘Why sacrifice our health and relationships for a system that doesn’t reward our efforts?’
As Alfred Wu from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy explains in From 996 to ‘bai lan’: Why China’s young workers are choosing to ‘rot’ than work hard:
“They are university graduates… people who have a PhD… but when they enter the job market, they need to pick up very humble jobs.” People are competing for a slice of the pie that is “way too small.”
This leads to “very, very high” anxiety levels among young people. Feeling like “they cannot change their life,” many have resorted to what Wu calls a passive lifestyle—not wanting to work hard and strive for more, simply because your current life isn’t so bad that you can still afford gadgets, pay for travel, and enjoy experiences.
The uncomfortable question
While a passive lifestyle sounds appealing, I have this nagging question: What if laziness is becoming an excuse not to face the discomfort of “hard work”? What if we’re giving in to the comfort of doing the bare minimum because it’s easier than confronting the real issues?
I can’t dismiss the economic pressures that discourage us from striving—because so much feels out of our control. But I also can’t ignore that there are workplaces that genuinely exploit workers: stealing wages, undercompensating, requiring unpaid overtime, creating hostile environments, retaliating against complaints, and taking advantage of desperate circumstances.
This is where my search for answers gets complicated. If these systems are broken, how do I reconcile that with what I was taught about work excellence? How do I live out Colossians 3:23’s challenge to “work at it heartily (from the soul), as [something done] for the Lord and not for men” when the system itself feels rigged?
The Bible is clear that employers who exploit workers face God’s judgment: “Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who mowed your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Armies” (James 5:4). So the question isn’t whether exploitation exists—it’s how we respond with wisdom and integrity.
Where my search led me
My disillusionment deepened when I read The Pathless Path, which helped me understand that what happened to our generation isn’t just bad luck. The author writes about entering adulthood thinking we could copy-and-paste what our parents had done, but discovering it was more complicated. The factors that supported the Baby Boomers and made their lives meaningful—economic growth across all sectors, generous pensions, company loyalty—were “anomalies of the past.”
Seth Godin’s words hit particularly hard: “The educated, hardworking masses are still doing what they’re told, but they’re no longer getting what they deserve.”
This rang the same tune as what my mother told me about government pensions—how I could depend on one when I retire (so I should stay with one employer for life), even when she was dissatisfied with how it turned out for her. Her loyalty didn’t give her the livable pension she expected. The systems no longer align with what she was taught by her parents’ generation.
This realization led me to a deeper question: Do I only have to choose between quiet quitting and grind culture?
Finding a third way
In church, we were taught that neither “quiet quitting” nor “grind culture” reflects God’s intention for us. God’s wisdom leads us to faithful stewardship that honors God, serves others, and preserves our capacity for the full life He intends.
The wisdom that comes from the Lord helps us navigate these workplace trends by giving us three things:
First, wisdom to recognize exploitation versus legitimate work. Not every challenging job is exploitation, but not every complaint about work conditions is entitlement either. We need discernment to know the difference.
Second, seasonal timing for when to work hard and when to rest. The Bible tells us that along with work, we are designed to rest. We ought to have the discernment not to toil endlessly, but know when to take a rest, trusting that God will provide what we need: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:1-2).
Third, understanding that satisfaction in work is God’s gift. If we only work for our benefit, trapped in short-term thinking, quiet quitting becomes a way to relieve economic pressures closing in on us. It’s easy not to care beyond our short lives.
But what if we put the next generation into perspective? What if we could redefine our reasons for work and tell ourselves a new story about why we work?
Why we work
The Bible gives us compelling reasons that go beyond personal comfort or even personal success:
We work to support ourselves and not be a burden on society: “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands… Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).
We work so that we can be generous: “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this way you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35).
When I consider this framework, I realize that working only for my immediate benefit keeps future generations from having a life well lived. As the book Longpath points out, if we only consider life within our lifespan, it’s easy not to care about what life would be like after our deaths. We might say, “Let the next generation worry about themselves while I enjoy my life today.”
The antidote
It seems to me now that the antidote to quiet quitting or bai lan isn’t just personal—it’s generational. It’s seeing ourselves beyond the present, recognizing that there is hope, and understanding that the work we do now will extend to the next generation, even when we don’t yet see the greater picture.
What I like about being part of Christianity is the sense of belonging and the wisdom I gain about how to live life. The church community has taught me that we don’t have to choose between burning out and checking out. There’s a third way: faithful stewardship that works for purposes beyond our immediate circumstances.
So I’m choosing a different story. Not quiet quitting, not grinding—but work that serves beyond my lifetime, rest that trusts in God’s provision, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two. Even when the systems feel broken, even when the economic pressures feel overwhelming, I can still choose to be faithful with what’s in front of me today.
Because maybe that’s exactly what the next generation needs from us: not perfect systems, but people who chose faithfulness even when faithfulness felt costly. People who worked with integrity even when integrity wasn’t rewarded. People who believed that their small acts of stewardship mattered, even when they couldn’t see the full picture yet.
That’s the story I want to tell with my work. That’s the legacy I want to leave.
jessa 