Value shift: Boomers vs. Gen Z: Workaholics vs Leisure fans

Boomers vs Gen Z: the differences couldn't be greater. While the boomer generation is said to be hard-working and prone to workaholism bordering on burnout in order to achieve their life goal of financial security, Generation Z's main life goals are meaningful work and leisure time.  

But how did this shift in values in the world of work come about, and how does it affect behaviour in terms of choosing education and career paths, for example? We explore these questions in the following article.  

Secure your dream job later on by preparing for grammar school early!   

Table of contents

• Who belongs to the Baby Boomer generation and Generation Z?
  • What is the baby boomer generation?
     
  • What is Generation Z (Gen Z)?
     
• What led to this shift in attitudes towards work?
  • The myth of the desire for home ownership as a unique characteristic of the baby boomers
     
  • Better social safety nets nowadays
     
  • Tax-free leisure time instead of tax-free undeclared work
     
  • Gen Z not as tough as Boomers
     
• Boomers vs Gen Z: Overview table
   
• Conclusion

Who belongs to the Baby Boomer generation and Generation Z?

The division of certain age groups into generations based on shared generational experiences in childhood and youth originally comes from Karl Mannheim's sociology of the 1920s. Previously, it was assumed that a generation spanned 30 years until the next generation arrived. 

In the second half of the 20th century, the division into generations was used by advertising professionals to assign specific consumer behaviour to each generation, and by human resources professionals to attribute a certain work ethic to the members of a generation.

The term ‘baby boomer generation’ was initially used in a value-neutral way, as it was only used to describe the observation that the birth rate rose sharply after the Second World War. It was only later that other characteristics and values were attributed to the boomer generation.   

But who actually belongs to the baby boomer generation and who belongs to Generation Z, and what values do these generations have? The answers to these questions are important for understanding the differences between these two generations.

What is the baby boomer generation?

The baby boomer generation (also known as the boom generation) refers to the generation after the Second World War, because birth rates rose during this period. Specifically, in Switzerland, this generation includes people born between 1946 and 1964. After that, birth rates declined sharply, which is associated with the spread of the contraceptive pill, hence the term ‘pill-gap‘.  

Given the large number of people born at the same time, there was a certain amount of competitive pressure among baby boomers. However, due to post-war economic growth, there were enough jobs on the labour market, at least for the first baby boomers. It was not until the oil price shocks of the 1970s and 1980s and a minor recession in the 1980s that there was a slight increase in the unemployment rate in Switzerland to around one per cent, which is low compared to the rise in unemployment at the end of the 1990s as a result of the housing crisis. 

A characteristic feature of the baby boomer generation is that they generally grew up in modest circumstances and were influenced by parents who had experienced years of deprivation during the war.  

From the outset, baby boomers strove to build something for themselves through hard work; ideally, this would be enough to buy their own home, even if it meant taking out a loan. 

The reason why baby boomers were so willing to work hard and wanted to ensure their own financial security was not only due to the modest circumstances immediately after the war. Social security networks, such as compulsory health and unemployment insurance in particular, were only gradually introduced in Switzerland. Illness or job loss could therefore have meant financial ruin for a baby boomer. The boomer generation therefore strove for financial security in order to have a nest egg for hard times; it was a matter of survival.  

In order to earn enough money through work, boomers focused on their careers and sacrificed their private lives – in particular, they put leisure time on the back burner. The boomer generation is also said to have a tendency towards constant overwork with a ‘can't say no’ mentality, i.e. a tendency to be workaholics. With this attitude to work, boomers are said to have contributed to burnout.

With their high level of motivation, baby boomers were always willing to take on responsibility, for example in management positions, which usually meant giving up regular working hours.

What is Generation Z (Gen Z)?

Generation Z (Gen Z) is the generation that follows Generation Y, which in turn follows Generation X. Specifically, Generation Z includes people born between 1995 and 2012.   

Gen Z is characterised as a generation that grew up in prosperity and has a desire for meaningful work. Generation Z also strives for a good income, but they demand a high salary before they have proven their performance. Gen Z does not want to live in a meritocracy, but in a meaningful society with the same level of prosperity. Their goal in life is not financial security, but as much free time as possible. For this reason, they reject flexible working hours and working from home in order to have a clear separation between work and free time and out of fear of being exploited by their employer.  

Unlike the baby boomers, Gen Z is generally not willing to take on responsibility, for example as a manager, as this would mean irregular working hours and thus impair their work-life balance. In a survey conducted by the auditing firm Deloitte, only 6 per cent of Gen Z respondents said they would aspire to a management position.

What led to this shift in attitudes towards work?

There are various factors that explain why this shift in values has occurred across generations, from the baby boomers to Generation Z.

The myth of the desire for home ownership as a unique characteristic of the baby boomers

The purchase of a home is often used as a symbol of the change in values between generations, with it being the ultimate goal of baby boomers, while Gen Z is supposedly not interested in buying a home and therefore has no interest in working harder to earn enough money to finance their own home.  

However, the symbolism of changing values based on the alleged shift in attitudes towards home ownership over time is unconvincing for three reasons:

• Surveys show that many Gen Zers also want to own their own home; in February 2025, this figure stood at 46 per cent, while the previous year it was even 58 percent. Recently, there has been a shift towards wanting to own a flat rather than a house; in 2024, around 20 per cent of Gen Z wanted their own flat, but in 2025 this figure rose to 34 per cent.
   
• At the same time, real estate prices have risen dramatically in recent decades, making it very difficult to afford your own home. So it is less a question of wanting to own a home and more a question of being able to afford one. From 1970 to 2025, real estate prices in Switzerland doubled after adjusting for inflation; while the price index value was around 75 in 1970, it will have risen to around 160 in 2025.
   
• In addition to high property prices, another hurdle to buying a home is saving up equity, which is almost unattainable for Gen Z because they have hardly anything left at the end of the month, particularly due to the now extremely high rents.
  
  Between 1966 and 1977, when many baby boomers rented their first flat, the majority of employees spent 15 per cent or less of their household income on rent.
  
  Under such conditions, there was enough money left over at the end of the month to save and build up assets.
  
  Today, the average gross rent as a percentage of disposable household income in Switzerland is 27.8%. The lowest 20% of income earners spend up to 51% of their disposable income on gross rent, according to calculations by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
  
  Those who have to spend more than a third of their income on rent find it difficult to save anything if their income is in the lower and middle range. It is therefore not surprising that Generation Z is unable to build up wealth through saving given the high cost of rent. 

Read also our article «High income without a university degree thanks to the dual education system».

Better social safety nets nowadays

The fact that Gen Z is no longer primarily concerned about financial security is based more on other factors than the supposed inaccessibility of home ownership. Generation Z grew up in times of prosperity and takes this for granted to a certain extent, seeing it as an automatic guarantee that will also apply to Gen Z.   

Furthermore, there is a better social safety net today than there was when the Boomer generation entered the labour market. Boomers initially had neither compulsory unemployment insurance nor compulsory health insurance and always had to be prepared for emergencies by saving up a nest egg to ensure their survival.  

Nevertheless, today's social security systems also come at a price: high health insurance contributions reduce the monthly household income available. And claiming unemployment benefits or supplementary benefits such as contribution reductions takes away one's dignity.

Health insurance only became mandatory from 1996 onwards

In Switzerland, health insurance has only been compulsory in all cantons and for all persons since 1996. Previously, health insurance companies could refuse people with pre-existing conditions because they represented a so-called “bad risk”.  

But the introduction of compulsory health insurance has brought about even more changes, such as the reimbursement of hospital stays. Before 1996, health insurance companies could limit the duration of benefits for hospital stays, which most insurers did, to two years.  

Before compulsory health insurance, many people lived with a high financial risk because, in the worst case, an illness would have meant financial ruin.  

And by the way: those who live in modest economic circumstances may be entitled to contribution reductions for their health insurance contributions. This option has existed since the introduction of compulsory health insurance. 

Unemployment insurance

Compulsory unemployment insurance (ALV) has only been in place in Switzerland since 1977. Before that, there were already unemployment insurance schemes, for example through trade unions, but not all employees were insured against unemployment.  

Many of the first baby boomers therefore started working without the security of unemployment insurance. This meant they had a correspondingly great need to save up a nest egg in case they lost their jobs.

Maternity insurance

The maternity insurance introduced in Switzerland in 2005 also provides short-term financial assistance, entitling working mothers to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave after giving birth. Quite a few mothers extend their leave, which is then either unpaid or partially financed by their employer.  

Interim conclusion: social security systems

Before receiving money from health insurance, however, you first have to pay the costs yourself, for example in the case of hospital treatment, up to the amount of the deductible and the co-payment; unemployment insurance only pays 70 to 80 per cent of your salary, and only for a limited period of time, and paid maternity leave is very short at 14 weeks.   

Gen Z no longer has to fight for survival in an emergency, but social security does not guarantee financial independence. In the worst case, you may even end up on permanent social assistance or disability insurance if your unemployment insurance or employer's daily sickness benefit insurance has expired.

Tax-free leisure time instead of tax-free undeclared work

In addition to the search for meaning in life, there is another explanation for why Gen Z places so much value on leisure time and does not want to take on responsibility due to the irregular working hours associated with a management position.  

Boomers did not earn their supposed wealth solely from their main income, but supplemented it with additional jobs, often in the form of undeclared work, i.e. tax-free. Undeclared work used to be much more widespread than it is today and was often tolerated by the authorities. Nowadays, however, undeclared work is much more closely monitored and punished than it used to be. For Gen Z, the equivalent of undeclared work is leisure time, which they value particularly highly as tax-free time, but they don't earn any money in their free time. With a share of 28 per cent, many Gen Zers work part-time, which gives them even more free time, even though Generation Z already has financial difficulties.

Overall, taking all generations in employment into account, working hours in Switzerland have fallen dramatically. While in 1950, the average worker worked just under 2,400 hours per year, by 2015 this figure had fallen to just 1,500 hours. In other words, in 1950, the weekly working hours of a full-time employee were 50 hours, and today they are 42 hours. As a result, income from bonuses, which are often calculated per hour worked, has also fallen.

Gen Z not as tough as Boomers

However, Generation Z does not just crave leisure time. Gen Z is also simply not as tough as previous generations, especially the baby boomers.  

Employers often expected the boomer generation to come to work even when they were ill, for example with the flu. Of course, this was not advisable, and it is good that those days are over, not least because the flu is a contagious disease that can pose a particular risk to certain groups at work.   

Mental illnesses were also often dismissed as luxury illnesses or malingering in the past. Today, we know better how important it is to treat mental illnesses and to stay at home when unable to work.

Boomers were expected to grit their teeth and bear it, which explains why Gen Z is no longer as tough. Generation Z prefers to study, in the hope that their future job will not be as exhausting as, for example, an EFZ or EBA profession such as technician or craftsman.  

The number of apprentices in relation to the resident population has been declining steadily since 2020. More than half of young people between the ages of 25 and 34 now have a tertiary education qualification, which includes university studies. 

Whereas in the past it was said that if you were poor, it was your own fault, today the education system, among other things, is blamed if you have not made it to university (keyword: equal opportunities in education) and therefore have a low income. This conclusion is doubly wrong, as it depends heavily on the initiative of the individual student whether they make it to grammar school, then obtain their school-leaving certificate and finally a university degree. On the other hand, it is possible to earn a high income in Switzerland even without a university degree. 

Boomers vs Gen Z: Overview table

Conclusion

The values between the Boomer and Gen Z generations have shifted. Whereas financial security used to be about survival, today it is about being independent, for example from unemployment insurance, supplementary benefits such as contribution reductions and social assistance.  

However, Gen Z finds it difficult to earn enough money to achieve financial security. High rents and real estate prices make saving and building wealth almost impossible. Above all, however, the pressure on Gen Z, who are ‘only’ striving for financial independence in the context of financial security, is nowhere near as high as the pressure felt by the Boomer generation when they were fighting for financial survival or making financial provisions so as not to end up ruined in an emergency.

The reduced pressure in terms of financial security has also shifted the primary goal in life among the generations. While the primary goal in life for baby boomers was financial survival, for Gen Z it is finding meaning in life, both through meaningful work and as much free time as possible. As a result, Generation Z does not strive for responsible management positions where they could earn more money. This is because management jobs mean irregular working hours and therefore less free time.  

The resilience of the new Generation Z has also decreased compared to the boomer generation. Today, people prefer to study at university rather than train for one of the many EFZ or EBA professions, which are perceived as exhausting. Boomers were generally more willing to work hard because their performance enabled them to achieve their life goal of being financially prepared for emergencies. 

However, the boomer era is also partly glorified. It is often claimed that in the past, one salary, usually the man's, was enough to support the whole family. However, this was usually only true for high earners, such as bankers or senior executives. 

To the outside world, it may often have seemed that the man brought home all the money. In reality, however, wives often secretly worked alongside their husbands – not necessarily illegally. They had to do this secretly because the whole family would have lost face if anyone had found out that the man did not earn enough. Cheating and lying one's way through life was part of everyday life back then.   

However, Gen Z does not want to hide behind such lies, but rather wants to achieve self-fulfilment and present this to the outside world. 

BMS instead of grammar school: Start preparing for BMS now!

Sources

• Gymnasium Preparation 4th Grade (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Generation (society) (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Baby-Boomer (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Baby boomers are reaching retirement age (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• The Swiss labor market since 1920: Long-term trends (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Why Gen Z and Baby Boomers despair of each other at work (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Generation Z (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Generation Z is flopping in the workplace (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Deloitte Gen Z and Millennial Survey 2025 (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Not even half of Gen Z still dreams of owning a detached house (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Real Residential Property Prices for Switzerland (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Against state-run housing management, information on the vote of September 25, 1977 (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Affordability of housing – An analysis for Switzerland (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• High income without a university degree thanks to the dual education system (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Health Insurance Reform - 30 Years of Health Insurance: Milestones and Unresolved Problems (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Contribution reduction (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Unemployment insurance (ALV) (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• 20 years of maternity insurance – the late breakthrough (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Inhuman and economically damaging: Facts about the old quota system (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Part-time work continues to increase – with significant differences (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• From post-war boom to job miracle – the sharp decline in working hours in Switzerland since 1950 (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• For the first time, there are more university graduates than people with vocational training in Switzerland. A programme is needed to strengthen vocational training (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• 52 percent of young people in Switzerland now have university or college degrees (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• Equal or unequal opportunities in education? (last accessed: 31.1.2026)
   
• BMS Preparation in Zurich (last accessed: 31.1.2026)