Stretching Your Dollar: The 'Lazy Girl Job' Trend Explained

<div class="block">Julie Castro-Abrams, CEO and founder of How Women Lead, joined &#39;Stretching Your Dollar&#39; to what the &#39;lazy girl job&#39; trend is and how more people are getting onboard with the movement. She said the idea gained traction after the COVID-19 pandemic, when people realized &quot;there is more to life.&quot;</div>

Stretching Your Dollar

There's a new trend brewing among the younger generation and it may sound better than it actually is. It's called the Lazy Girl Job and it's been going viral on tiktok with some sharing their experiences trying it. Joining us now, Julie Castro Abrams, the CEO and founder of how women lead. And she's here to explain the trend and why it may not be the best route for you. Julie. Welcome. I've been looking forward to talking to you all day. I've seen this all over Tik Tok. So first let's start with what is the lazy girl job trend? Well, all of us had this experience in COVID. We like we is there more, there's more to life like uh you the the the crisis, both health crisis but also sort of working from home and the it all feeling a little bit depressed. So I think this is a reaction. It actually people say it's like the follow on to the quiet quitting. But I think all of us have had a reckoning with ourselves at work and the balance and, and life. So I think that's really where it started. The point being you're gonna do the minimum, bare minimum and in fact, go look for a job that is the bare minimum where you can, uh, you know, sort of, um, step back uh, in your career, I bet. So, let's first talk about how this trend can be harmful to women in the workplace. Well, I think first and foremost, anything that defines you as a lazy girl is probably not so great. Um, I think the other thing is if you are shifting to a career where you have less responsibility, um And, and you're, you're showing up as being less committed, it's not necessarily good for your career trajectory over your lifetime in your twenties. And, you know, you're scaffolding your career, you're, you're laying the foundation so you can have that better job where you have more flexibility, you get more pay um uh and get more respect. And I, I fear that by the time you're sort of ready to start a family and sort of build the, you know, build the other parts of your life, you're not gonna have the foundation already already there and it's gonna hurt us all on the flip side. Talk to me about the benefits. I think all of us have had this, you know, historical um uh experience with, you know, work that it, especially for women where we're asked to work too many hours, take responsibility for things that are far outside our job description. And I think women are exhausted So I, I do think that this is an appropriate sort of a little bit of a reset for us, but we definitely don't want to be redefined or make career choice. He says, I just feel like, how about you figure out how to set up good boundaries and create a better uh a better relationship to work and not sort of be victimized or, or, or act like a victim when somebody um when the job environment feels like it's not working for you. You actually led me to my next question, how do women create a work life balance without being dubbed the lazy girl? I would never want to recall that. No, absolutely not. Um And, you know, there's a gene, it's certainly a generational thing and I'm not 20 years old. Uh But, but this is the thing. I manage a lot of people and especially if you're still working remotely, right? And I think that's one of the lazy girls things is make sure you can work remotely and don't have to go into the office. Uh Nobody knows how long it's taking you to get your work done. You actually have to be, have agency, take responsibility for yourself and say, hey, you asked me to do these 20 things. I'm prioritizing these eight for today and I'll do the, the rest tomorrow and Wednesday and I'll get whatever is done. You know, after that, if you cannot negotiate in that way, create transparency and just stand in your agency. Um You're going to continue to be in these moments of tension and crisis. So building that muscle uh about how you, you know, show that I'm managing my priority list really well. Um And you know, I, I, I'm not a victim here. I think that's critical. According to a Deloitte survey about women in the workplace, 44% of women have reported harassment or micro aggressions that they experience. How do you advise a woman to speak up or be more comfortable talking to those issues with? Hr you know, I think this is a really challenging one. I think for like, you know, your hr departments aren't always your best advocate. Sometimes it, it's not uh it's not gonna be good for you to go and say, you know, this isn't fair and, and things are bad. I think if you can couch it and I, I wish you didn't have to do this. But I think if you can couch it and saying, hey, I'm concerned about the company if this happens to other people. And I wanna let you know my experience so we can fix it systemically uh as an organization as opposed to making it necessarily all about you. So you're sort of showing your leadership and care for the company. I know that probably hard to swallow for some people. But I think that's the best strategy. I think that's good advice last. But certainly not least negotiating, always very tricky. Now, a report from the Center for American progress found that women's earnings stall mid career. What are your tips for women to negotiate higher and better salary packages? All right. So unfortunately, um we have an issue with negotiating as women, not us having the capacity to negotiate, but how people react to our negotiation. So when you ask the research says the best and I wish this wasn't the case. Again, the research says the best way to negotiate is for you to, to give it context. Um And say, listen, I have some uh I have some responsibilities at home that are gonna require me to make better compensation. Therefore, I need X percent at work um in order to be able to balance my personal and, and work responsibilities well, and I think unfortunately, that is couching things in, in that way is, is um today considered uh the way you need to do it. I, I just think also always saying here's here are my performance metrics, you said, do you know 10 of this? I did 15 and I did it early and it was high quality and excellent. Um Always being able to show your, you know, without emotion, um your performance. I think that's, that's the trick Julie Castro Abrams. Thank you so much Julie. We appreciate it.