No ‘lazy girls jobs’ allowed: meet the Gen Z ‘hard graft’ braggers
Madeleine Ross
5 min read
Miles Merry views his viral parodies of 'finance bros' as a means of developing a personal brand and progressing toward his goal of starting a business
The common perception of Generation Z is that they are lazy, entitled and annoying to work with. But now they’re fighting back online.
Young people entering the corporate world have amassed social media followers in their hundreds of thousands as they talk through the good, the bad and the ugly of office life.
While employers moan about the unreliability of Generation Z, failing to turn up to interviews and demanding to work from home, some are embracing the corporate world while preaching the value of setting boundaries and maintaining a work-life balance.
Some influencers offer instruction on interview technique and office wear. Far from touting “lazy girl jobs” that have been associated with Generation Z, these creators instead push aspiring employees to work more efficiently, and to achieve promotions and pay rises.
One such influencer is Claudia Zhu, or “Cloudsjoo”, as she is on TikTok. She boasts more than 200,000 followers and shares videos titled: “Expensive things I don’t regret buying,” and “Outfits I actually wear into the office”.
A consultant working at Monitor Deloitte and a graduate of the London Business School, she explains how to answer difficult technical questions in job interviews, and demystifies corporate acronyms such as KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) or OOO (Out Of Office).
Zhu says she is trying to democratise information about recruitment. Her videos regularly offer reassurance about applications, and in one she says: “Here’s something that other people won’t tell you. A job, at the end of the day, is just a job, and that’s fine.”
It is not just those looking to slog in the City who are turning to social media for advice. Accounts like My Legal Career and MedbyFio branch out from financial services, offering guidance to aspiring lawyers and doctors. Maia Crockford, who runs the account My Legal Career, which has 54,000 TikTok followers, says she started her accounts in order to show it was possible to become a lawyer without doing a university degree.
Maia Crockford started her account to showcase routes into the legal industry that don't require a university degree
She says: “I felt a lot of pressure to attend university and a huge lack of support in applying for apprenticeships despite knowing that I wanted to enter the workplace as soon as possible.
“I think that audiences enjoy observing and learning from those who have actually trodden the path that they wish to take; it feels a lot more personal and relatable.”
She says that she is very aware of what she shares online, working in such a heavily regulated industry. Crockford adds: “I would advise audiences to consider who it is they are taking advice from. Can the individual speak from experience? Check their credibility – have they actually achieved what it is they are giving advice about?”
But while some Gen Z influencers are earnest and challenge stereotypes about their generation head on, others take a very different approach.
Corporate influencer Miles Merry, better known on Instagram as simply @m.iles, leads an online pack of sardonic “finance bros”. The 24-year-old, who got his first job in finance after his masters degree, shares tongue-in-cheek videos depicting his working life. He films short segments from his day, piecing them together with snarky voiceovers to create “A Day In The Life” or “Come With Me To The Office” videos.
While his videos are not intended to be career advice, and the man-about-town persona he adopts is affected, his lifestyle is aspirational to many, featuring glamorous portrayals of after-work dinners and designer clothes.
Merry parodies the worst traits of “finance bros”, with quips including: “I had a lunch today with someone I absolutely love (myself).” Other jokes include: “It’s easy to think that being hungover is just a state of mind, until you need to steal the pregnant lady’s seat on the Tube.”
While many might be nervous about sharing the opinions he does so publicly, the influencer says that clients have always been positive about his videos – and that he gets recognised inside and outside the office “constantly”.
He says: “I explained it to colleagues through a business perspective, which is that I purposefully create captivating content with the sole aim of generating more views, to develop a personal brand, and consequently grow my own business. When it’s framed like that, they understand.”
Despite being a Gen Z working in finance, he says he doesn’t have a preference between working from home or working in the office. But he adds: “It’s easy for those who’ve already reached the top by climbing the corporate ladder to advocate for policies like five days in the office.”
He has turned his persona into an opportunity, and has been invited to the Bank of England to preview new bank notes, and he is cashing in on his 269,000 Instagram followers by launching a jumper brand called Signet Sunday.
But it would be a mistake to think that Merry’s tongue-in-cheek videos mean he doesn’t put in the hours. Instead, he wanted to showcase what it is like to work in finance in London, despite his schedule meaning that he can get home from work at 11pm, and stay up until 3am editing videos.
He says: “I guess my calling in life has always been to maximise shareholder value, although recently I’ve realised perhaps I should maximise my own.”
Miles says that younger employees are more likely to have their eye on the door, and to want to eventually grow their own business rather than always work in an office job. But this shouldn’t be taken as younger workers being lazy, he says, just that they are motivated differently.
He says: “More people like me have plans to build an elevator in their own building instead. But even so, that requires taking a leaf out of the older generations’ book, which is that you still need to put in the graft.”
