As The Jefferson Post’s economic reporter, I’ve heard my fair share of horror stories from bosses and employers about Gen Z’s lackluster work ethic. It’s a tempting narrative for a man in his fifties to buy into. Yeah, the youths are a bunch of lazy whiners that expect everything in life to be handed to them. Let’s just ignore the fact this is the generation my generation raised.

But still, something didn’t sit right with me. When I was a younger man, I was bursting with ambition and energy at work. I saw the corporate ladder towering over me and pledged to make it more like the corporate rocket ship. I couldn’t believe that in only a few decades the youths had been completely drained of that spirit. So I ventured out into the homes of many Gen Z young professionals to get a first hand look for myself.

The first stop on my journey was with Jamie Carson, a 20 year-old working I.T. for a friend of mine’s company. When I arrived at his cubicle, I was greeted by the sight of him playing some sort of word game on his phone.

He greeted me politely enough after that, but the interaction certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. When I asked him about it, he told me that he didn’t see a problem, since there wasn’t anything he needed to attend to at that moment. I asked him if he was concerned about what his boss would think. He just laughed at the prospect. “If that old coot wants to fire me over me not inventing ways to look busy, let him.”

It was then that Jamie showed me his true focus, a side-hustle where people would buy custom drawings from him over the internet. “It’s my front-hustle,” he corrected. “If all goes well, this is what I want to be living off of in five years. Why bust my tail for a company looking to pay me as little as they can get away with, when I can sow and reap for myself?” It was then that it all clicked.