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Rare is the day that passes without the publication of a trend piece about the difference in attitudes towards work across the generations. But what are those differences really saying?

Younger workers job hop—but that’s nothing new.

Despite the fact that the Great Resignation ended and, in the US, the rate of quitting has flattened for the last year, job hopping is alive and well among the youngest employees. One 2023 study found that 83% of Gen Z workers count themselves as a part of the job hopping trend, which might be why they’ve gained a reputation for flightiness. 

“I’m a job hopper who’s worked four jobs in six years,” twenty-seven-year-old Bremda Acosta wrote recently in Business Insider. “I can take risks in my twenties—but I plan to stop in my thirties.”

In fact, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that this may not be so generational as public discourse has led us to believe. According to the BLS, older millennials born between 1980 and 1984 have held an average of seven jobs by age 28, and 8.6 jobs by 34—about one less than Baby Boomers in both cases. Getting new experiences in lots of places is an often recommended approach to early careers. And the idea of looking for meaningful work and “rejecting this idea of working for the man” was common among the young Boomer generation, writes UNC Carolina-Chapel Hill sociologist, Arne Kalleberg, in Fortune.

Contrary to public perception, younger generations affected by the financial crisis have tended to hold onto jobs longer, prioritizing stability over satisfaction. The pandemic increased job hopping rates again. There’s also been increased urgency to leverage new positions as a way to increase salary in the face of inflation. And while the Baby Boomer generation job-hopped for meaning in largely stable economies, Gen Z and millennials feel increasingly less loyalty to companies where the likelihood of obtaining a pension are rare.

“I’ve never been offered a pension,” writes Acosta. “It’s much harder now to purchase a home with our salaries than for previous generations. If you can leave for a higher salary rather than waiting for a raise, you should.”

For those interested in strategies to counter job-hopping, McKinsey offered an interesting perspective from the high burnout field of nursing. The report suggeststhat, among other tactics, intentionally developing mentorship and collaboration between nurses of differing tenure can improve the work experience for all nurses.

What retirement looks like may be changing.

As Baby Boomers continue to retire and Gen X creep up on retirement age, their approaches to retirement may be changing. 

Workers and employers are increasingly leaning into phased retirement—known colloquially as “flextirement.” The Financial Well-Being Index estimates that some 61% of organizations already allow for this. But just like remote working before it, which happened at first more on an ad hoc basis, phased retirement is getting more structured. 

The idea is, older workers gradually decrease their hours, whether by working as W-9 contract employees, or at reduced hours, such as 30-hours a week, while retaining pro-rated benefits. This helps organizations reduce massive brain drainas workers retire, helping to train the next generation of workers and impart decades of hard won wisdom, while allowing the worker to focus on other aspects of their lives. 

Gen Z through Gen X workers are also more concerned about their lack of retirement savings, particularly with Gen X being the first generation to have to rely primarily on private 401Ks. Resigned to having to work longer, a phased retirement at least represents taking the foot off the gas.

It feels at a philosophical level not too far from the causes behind digital nomadism—where workers operate from anywhere in the world rather than being rooted to one location. It’s not just for younger workers anymore, with more than 17 million Americans now identifying as digital nomads, an increase of 131% since 2019. The two trends are united in workers fitting work around their lives, rather than the other way around.

It’s yet another way that the once traditional boundaries between work and other aspects of our lives are shifting, adding more complexity to a major life transition. Insead offers a helpful framework for individuals and organizations supporting others in orienting to the psychology of retirement, while HBR goes deeper on strategies for organizations looking to redesign retirement.

For those grappling with what life looks like when work is no longer the centerpiece, Hudson has partnered with Chip Conley’s Modern Elder Academy to offer a 6-day, experiential retreat focused on reorienting yourself for a purposeful and vibrant “bonus round” of life. This event will be led by our own Pam McLean at MEA’s ranch in Santa Fe, NM this September.

New performance measurement for a new generation.

Research indicates that people can only pay attention to one screen for an average of 47 seconds, down from 75 seconds in 2004. Similarly, survey after survey shows that no one actually works for 8 hours straight.

Gen Z founders are taking these realities to heart in the policies they set for their employees.

The wearable healthcare tracker company, Whoop, pays its employees $100 for “sleep performance” that averages over 85%.

In this roundup from Fortune, founders report implementing policies that range from not allowing meetings during the post-lunch slump, shifting to “just get your work done” policies rather than requiring a strict 9-5 orthodoxy, and CEOs sitting down with employees from across the ladder for temperature checks.

“There’s a desire to be heard on a higher frequency and better quality level,” says Jenk Oz, founder of the news and culture website, Thred. “This idea of having a quarterly or twice-yearly meeting about how you’re doing doesn’t really work with Gen Z.”

Of course, this last point is nothing new. Employees expect meaningful development to be a feature of performance management. As we’ve previously shared, this requires dynamic processes that combine formalized measurement and reviews with on-going developmental conversations with managers.