12 Totally Valid Reasons Gen X Doesn’t Want To Work Anymore

Generation X, the Forgotten Generation, the Latchkey Generation, the Oregon Trail Generation; these are just a few of the names for the disaffected, sarcastic youth of the 1980s.

 Now, they are in the fully grown adult workforce, approaching retirement age, and finding their lifelong cynicism validated.

Gen X grew up with the promise that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can have a nice, middle-class life. They've watched that promise crumble and fall and are mad about working side hustles and a full-time job.

Here are the real (and valid) reasons Gen X doesn't want to work anymore.

From day one, Gen X was taught that they only had to work hard and not break laws, and in exchange, they could have a pretty OK life. Basic needs like housing, medical care, electricity, food, and a home life were guaranteed as long as they went to work and did their jobs.

Decades of struggling for the middle-of-the-road American life have left Gen X exhausted and burnt out. They don't want to work without the economic stability they've been promised their whole lives.

Gen X watched their workaholic parents get paid enough to provide a nice life for their family, but they have never seen the same benefits. They're simply unwilling to pass that emotionally absent trauma along to their own kids anymore, and they aren't going to work at the cost of their family.

They fully realize the whole point of working is so that you can have a life outside of work, and without that, they don't see the point in providing their labor for others.

Gen X was the last generation to hear tales of "I started as a janitor and worked my way up to the C-suite." Stories like that can be filed alongside unicorns, dragons, and other fairytale dreams that will never be seen in real life.

Gen X has struggled to get advancements with upward mobility, and now sees those opportunities going to bright-eyed and bushy-tailed graduates fresh out of college with no practical experience. 

Gen X doesn't want to report to new hires that they must train while getting paid less. Skipping Gen X for promotions in title and pay can risk losing them as employees entirely.

The rise of automation and remote work has left some Gen X members disconnected from the typical office environment. They're pleased to learn new tech and transition to working from home, but are frustrated by the mixed and often contradictory messages from employers.

They want stability, and not the constant fluctuation between demanding employees work from home or demanding they work in the office.

In recent years, Gen X has been looking around at work and asking, "Are we the baddies?" This has led to a priority shift in purpose-driven work that aligns with their values.

Gen X doesn't want to work for companies that do things that are seen as bad for the world or set labor standards below acceptable levels.

Gen Xers who were lucky enough to get a stable career with retirement options are now looking to bail out of the workforce early and are in a position to consider early retirement.

They want a chance to enjoy life away from the 9-to-5 grind that has dominated their whole working lives, especially as they see many of their peers questioning whether they can ever afford retirement.

Few Gen Xers have enjoyed the stability of a career entirely with one company that they saw as benefiting their parents. As internal promotions and raises have been stifled, Gen X has had to seek new employers more often than boomers to keep up with even basic cost-of-living raises.

As the generation slips closer to retirement age, employers have a twisted fear of investing in an employee who might retire. 

This leaves Gen X pulling their hair out and shrieking, "I'm like 40, and that 23-year-old is going to quit in like a year when they want a promotion!"

Gen X is having to make difficult choices about how to care for their aging parents, and that can often trump professional goals. Many feel sandwiched between caring for their children and their parents, leaving little energy to go above and beyond at work.

Employers that don't create room for this dynamic will likely lose Gen X employees. Forcing anybody to choose between family and work is a lose-lose situation.

If working 40 hours a week isn't going to remove or even lessen financial stress, why would anybody want to do it? 

Gen X tried working away their money problems and have gotten diminishing returns on it their whole lives. If America is ever going to see a general strike, you can bet Gen X will be leading it.

Labor laws gave us things like weekends and not dying of black lung after working 16-hour shifts in the coal mines instead of going to kindergarten, or at least that's what Gen X heard from their elders while growing up.

Gen X has watched working conditions decrease for decades and now says things like, "In my day, we called cryptocurrency 'company scrip' in history class." 

Employers that play fast and loose with labor laws will see Gen X ghost their job faster than Gen Z ghosts a lousy date.

An increasing number of Gen Xers are losing job opportunities because they can't access essential medical treatment. The longer temporary problems go untreated, the longer they turn into long-term and maybe permanent issues, and Gen X is at a point where they are feeling the effects of aging.

They aren't going to take jobs that jeopardize their health and well-being, and they prioritize jobs that will allow them to access medical treatment and the time to make use of it.

Gen X has a burning hot rage about the deteriorating conditions of life in general: Their coming of age was marked by the falling of the Twin Towers, their home-buying years were marked by the financial collapse of a housing bubble that ricocheted through stock market retirement funds, and a pandemic ripped through their middle age.

Now, divisive politics are delivering the final blow to the remaining working years left to the generation known as X. The whole generation is just angry about how life is going, making it hard to muster up fake enthusiasm for anything that isn't making life better.

Generation X actually does want to work, but they might not want to work for you anymore. They want a 40-hour work week with a living wage that allows for healthcare and a week-long vacation in Disney World once a year.

They don't want jobs that view workers as disposable, and their tolerance for less-than-ideal working conditions goes down as age takes a toll on their bodies. 

Gen Xers are happy to work from home or in an office, but they want to see a return on their labor, which is rapidly disappearing from the job market.