Voices Anand Neelakantan Debashis Chatterjee Ravi Shankar Utkarsh Amitabh Dr Deepali Bhardwaj Swami Sukhabodhananda THE new sunday express MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment october 5 2025 SUNDAY PAGES 12 Krina Thakker and Jaspreet Singh Chawla Out of Office Gen Z is rapidly abandoning the traditional 9-to-5 for flexible careers that allow authenticity and viable work hours G By Shilpi Madan en Z doesn’t do cubicles—they’re all for creative playgrounds. They chase flexibility autonomy and work-life balance, not rigid hierarchies, and “twinning” , , careers—juggling a corporate job with a passion project—is the new normal. Job-hopping? Totally fine. Being glued to emails 24/7? Absolutely not. They tackle challenges others say they can’t, see work as both a milestone and a badge of financial independence, and value personal time, family and friends over pointless loyalty Offices , . need to be lively fun, and inspiring, because this generation works smarter, not longer, and , thrives on freedom, flat hierarchies, and the soft life aesthetic of a 12-to-5 grind done their way Call it The Big Reset—because that’s exactly what’s happening to India’s work culture. . The rules of work are being shredded, redrawn, and GIF-ified. In response, companies are no longer only chasing profit margins; they’re blurring boundaries, embracing employee individuality , and designing workplaces for a generation that was raised on TikTok trends and memes. By 2025-end, Gen Z will make up 27 per cent of India’s workforce; and by 2030, Indian businesses are expected to employ 30 per cent of the world’s Gen Z talent. This emerging workforce in India is redefining career norms with an emphasis on flexibility creativity and , , personal wellbeing. For many in this cohort, job-hopping is no longer frowned upon; instead, it’s a deliberate strategy to gain diverse experiences and accelerate career growth. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and freelance marketplaces are enabling side hustles. The traditional office environment is being replaced by hybrid models, wellness-centric workplaces, and experiential facilities like meditation rooms or team retreats. Unlike previous generations that equated success with climbing a single corporate ladder, Gen Z prioritises mental health, work-life balance, and meaningful engagement over rigid hierarchies. Not exactly a stand off, but this change is not to say no contrasts exist; many young professionals follow conventional careers, particularly those from prestigious B-Schools. They seek stability and influence within established multinationals, embracing structured career ladders and formal managerial roles. For example, a fresh Business graduate from Harvard might join a global consulting firm with a clear trajectory toward senior executive positions. Their satisfaction comes from mastering corporate strategy , leading high-stakes negotiations, and gaining recognition in the boardroom, rather than pursuing side hustles or unconventional gigs. This juxtaposition highlights a generational crossroads in India’s workforce— one segment chasing flexibility and creative fulfillment, another continuing to value tradition, hierarchy and , the power game—illustrating that career aspirations are diverse rather than monolithic. The reason for the bend in the river is a yen for independence of the outlier. “I can’t take orders from anyone,” confesses Dhruvin Gala, a 21-year-old management graduate in Mumbai—he would have been a corporate climber aiming to be VP at 40 had he not an individualistic streak. At 18, he was organising clubbing events, working on a flat fee from nightclubs to create IPs including the guest listing, DJ and production details, collaborations, and menu curations. But he didn’t wing it; he actually made a DIY manual by joining “a friend’s father’s company initially to cut my teeth in marketing, but the 9-to-7 job left me with little time for anything else. I started my own streetwear brand in 2020 with my classmate. She retired in 2022 at the age of 21,” shares Dhruv. He re-oriented the company and now imports pickleball equipment from China (with seed funding from his father). “As a psychiatrist, I “Gen Z is more see one mature, aware, of the deepest concerns exploratory, and being its leveraging adept at subtle impact on how their learning children and previous compared to young adults lear think.” generations.” Dr Sandeep Vohra, Tarun Pandey, Istituto Founder, No Worrory Fashion Marangoni Mumbai Noand Design Training Centre Tension Healthcare “I want my own successful brand. Plan B? Dad’s business is there as a safety net,” reasons the young entrepreneur. He isn’t keen on getting his masters—why spend `60 lakh and then come back to end up as the third-gen nepo kid? At 15, his younger sibling is streaming online as a successful YouTuber. Staying on with one company for over five years is a Gen X, boomer trait now. For 23-year-old Hemaangi Bhat in Mumbai, her job (which she found via social media) with a PR firm is the fourth gig in five years. She completed her masters in luxury management in Milan and returned to the city to work with the corporate fabric and then made the switch. “Office needs to be lively an interesting place to work , in,” she says. A glance at LinkedIn shows job switches are quite frequent. The spectrum has diversified with Gen Z dipping fingers into a multitude of career options including setting up cloud kitchens, launching coffee and matcha brands, organising morning raves and bake raves, and more. For 20-year-old Trishank Somaya from “One of the biggest challenges we face while working with Gen Z is their relationship with discipline and long-term focus, which makes prioritisation challenging.” Deeksha Rajani, Mumbai, reselling sneakers came naturally “I’ve sold Yeezys and . Jordans for cool sums, reselling the moment I caught the drops. Then access turned easier for everyone. Now reselling concert tickets offers huge margins with the circuit gaining momentum.” ‘Me time’ is Z time. Twenty- five-year-old Rohan Surti from Bengaluru, is in his fourth job in eight years. “Money is good but I certainly look at PTO (Personal Time Off) gaining more priority in a couple of years,” he says. He freelanced as a photographer in a previous flexi-hour marketing job and now as a publicist, observes many in Gen Z coffee badging—coming in for a few hours to lock in presence, have lunch, “We have and depart by 3.30 pm broken stereotypes, as a to WFH later. “I’ve creative generation. observed the disenchantment in Without the influence of Gen the millennials who Z where would Gen X and spent years collating boomers be?” precious databases Nitya Tandon, who considers her that we can access in age group to be a bridge between the seconds through an early Gen Z and InstaDM. There is a late Gen Z definite shift in our work perspective, and speed. But I refuse to be “We have a flat hierarchy. This works well as Gen Z brings in fresh thinking, voicing their ideas openly, and even taking leadership on projects early in their careers.” Tushar Dhawan, Plus91Labs, Gwalior Be, Gurgaon 100 per cent available for 100 per cent of the time. That’s just a rule I have set for myself, so no carrying a laptop home after work.” Sometimes, though rare, personal challenges define a departure from the 9-to-5 grind. Says 23-year-old Anjali Patel from Mumbai, who is supporting her parent, “The traditional work template isn’t workable for me. Creativity needs to meet the commercials.” Anjali has worked on branding and writing projects for United Nations, ComiCon, World Photography Organisation, and guest lists too for lifestyle events. For today’s young professional, work is not just a milestone but a statement of financial Turn to page 2