For decades now, American workers have adhered to an unspoken deal that, in order to be successful professionally, some sacrifices need to be made. Whether it be checking work emails after dinner, taking work calls while on vacation, or being willing to be available to your boss on a Sunday, these behaviors became commonplace demonstrations of professional commitment. No one ever said any of it out loud, but through osmosis, employees came to accept that behavior as the standard in order to glean the professional rewards that they were conditioned to value.

A new report from Software Finder, a software comparison platform, poses some interesting questions about the deal we’ve made with the workplace. In a survey of 1,006 American workers, 71% of respondents felt pressured to be available outside of working hours. Millennials and Gen X reported slightly higher levels of pressure, with 72% stating they felt pressure to respond to work after hours, compared with 65% of Gen Z. However, the real takeaway might be that 69% of respondents felt that their after-hours availability had not meaningfully impacted their careers, and just 8% directly linked a promotion to being available outside of working hours.

We’ve grown accustomed to the narrative that Gen Z is breaking workplace norms, often speculating that they lack the ambition or commitment of their predecessors. However, these numbers make us think: Rather than wonder why Gen Z seems less willing to conform to a workplace culture that expects them to be always on, maybe we should be wondering why older generations are still conforming to a workplace culture that seems to offer little reward.

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