CAREER GOAL OF THE MOMENT: The ‘Lazy-Girl Job’ Is In Right Now. Here’s Why. Rather than lean in, young workers say they want jobs that can be done from home, come with a cool boss and end at 5 p.m. sharp.
Some people would call Victoria Bilodeau’s decision to work as a freelance digital marketer a move to gain work-life balance. She calls it a “lazy-girl job.”
Bilodeau, 23 years old, says she used to work 10-hour days as an environmental technician, helping clean up low-level radioactive dirt for $26 an hour. Now, she logs about three hours a day promoting makeup and skin-care products online. She earns less than she used to, but in her newly abundant free time, she exercises, meditates and plays with her cats, Jinx and Fang. Living with her boyfriend in Belleville, Ontario, helps defray expenses.
“I really do have such a chill life in comparison to what it was,” she says.
Bilodeau and scores of other women online are bragging about their work setup using the hashtag #lazygirljob. To fans, the ideal lazy-girl job is one that can be done from home, comes with a chill boss, ends at 5 p.m. sharp and earns between $60,000 and $80,000 a year—enough to afford the basic comforts of young-adult life, yet not enough to feel compelled to work overtime. Veterans of such jobs say roles such as “digital marketing associate,” “customer-success manager” and “office administrator” are good bets for achieving the lazy-girl lifestyle.
Also, it’s unfair if women get paid less than men. But if you want to see real workplace hustle, check out the “Digital Content Creators.” Those women leave everything on the floor.
Meanwhile, the Insta-Daughter comments: “This girl was way more useful cleaning up the radioactive dirt.”