These young Calgarians say they want a 'healthy' career, not to work themselves to death

Janira Moncayo landed three part-time jobs in fine arts when she graduated from university — and she took them all.

Anxious about making it in a tough field, she threw herself into work, regularly filing 56 hours a week. But it was too much. Her stress levels skyrocketed and she would frequently end her days crying from the pressure.

"All of my time was dedicated to working," said the 23-year-old, who came from Ecuador in 2018 to attend the Alberta University of the Arts.

Now she's joined others of her generation in pushing back against what she sees as an unhealthy obsession with work. She adopted a new philosophy and is now just working one job.

"I would like to live in a place where you can feel comfortable and not work yourself to death to try to prove something or even try to make a living." 

She sounded poised and sure of her choice at CBC Calgary's Young Calgary launch, a partnership with the Calgary Public Library designed to hear from more young adults in the news.

"So right now, I'm trying to really ground myself to figure out, is this thing that I'm doing actually making me feel good?"

Researchers and labour insiders have been tracking this generational shift in perspective across North America.

Janet Lane, a director of the Canada West Foundation, says young adults in Calgary are no different. Many say they'll put more emphasis on work-life balance and are demanding changes in local worksites already.

With an ongoing labour shortage among some professions in the province, they have some power — but that's not unlimited, she said.

Last Friday, more than 200 young adults came out to Calgary's Central Library to take part in the mixer. They shared their thoughts with journalists on everything from dating in this city to where teens hang out and their dreams for their work life. 

In Calgary, they'll enter a workforce in transition, not just as governments and investors prioritize clean energy over oil and gas, but also as artificial intelligence shifts what jobs humans are required to fill.

Many looked anxious as they talked about an economy that is defined by its booms and its busts. Others mentioned how the oil and gas industry doesn't align with many of their environmental values, causing them to look at different fields.

But the biggest theme at the library that night was that work shouldn't consume one's life. A few seemed driven to succeed no matter what, but most said mental health should come first. There are non-negotiables, they said, that were neglected by past generations of workers. They said they're not going to do the same.

At the mixer, CBC Calgary invited attendees to write about the kind of work life they dream about.

"A healthy one," wrote one participant. 

"A successful career while still having time for my family," wrote another. 

"Work my own schedule."

That's exactly what Lane heard when, in 2022, the Canada West Foundation released a report that tracked trends among the province's youth. The organization ran focus groups for young people and surveyed 2,000 young adults online. 

"They don't want to have the job be the only thing that drives them," Lane said. "They want to be able to enjoy life beyond the doors of the office or the factory or the hospital or wherever they work."

Most gen-Zers around the globe share that view, and should it not be met, they're willing to move on — McKinsey & Company found that 77 per cent of gen-Z respondents in the U.S. said they were looking for a new job, almost double the rate of other respondents.

Perhaps this generation will change as they grow older and take up the jobs familiar to past generations of workers. But given the massive changes on the horizon coming to Alberta's economy, Lane sees another possible outcome. They might actually create at least some of the change they're looking for.

"The economic situation, that is in flux, means we just don't know if there is going to be a recession and, if so, how deep," she said. "But this generation, unlike generations before, is actually in the driver's seat to some extent. Because there are choices."

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