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Its time to stop being so humble at work. When it comes to forging a career path in a moment that is shaped by increasing flexibility, pervasive layoffs, and less company loyalty than ever, following the old rules and quietly waiting for opportunities to be awarded will no longer cut it. Wildly counterintuitive The reality is that today, career success requires us to be more outspoken, vocal, and self-directed. For many of us, this feels wildly counterintuitive and deeply uncomfortable. As elder millennial and Gen X workers, we were raised inside of cubicles and taught to keep our heads down, assimilate, and pursue a slow climb up a prescribed career ladder. Meanwhile, we watch as our younger counterparts boldly start their own companies, juggle side hustles, draw clear boundaries at work, and build their identities online. I coach executives all the time who privately express distaste at seeing professionals muddy the boundaries of what we are, and are not, allowed to say, express, or expect in work settings. It appears too entitled, or tone deaf, for these workers to think and talk about their needs and wants so much. But the truth is, many of us struggle to self-advocate simply because weve lost track of what we need and want in the first place. Years of seeing this behavior as selfish has kept us locked in place until we eventually crash, crack, or simply lose ourselves altogether. Its time for a reframe. Getting what we want Here is what Gen Z knows, and what we all need to learn: When we take the time to explore and advocate for ourselves more vocally at work, it helps us and our colleagues to succeed and thrive. Running too hard up someone elses ladder will inevitably lead to burnout and helps uphold those outdated norms that need to change and evolve. Meanwhile, knowing ourselves and pursuing what we want will ultimately lead to a healthier workplace culture that endorses individual needs and identities, rather than stifles them. As leaders, this is something we need to practice as well as preach. So, for anyone who feels a little queasy about this change and unsure where to begin, I offer you this list of four ways to be more selfish at work. Step 1: Revisit your past desires The very best way to begin this process for anyone who feels adrift or unsure what they want in their careers is to look backwards and revisit the past. I find that this is helpful because, quite often, career success makes us feel disconnected from who we are and what we really want to do. We get so fixated on one trajectory or stuck in the industry or skill sets we have cultivated that we lose sight of whats even possible beyond that. So, I always begin with my clients by going back to some of the earliest moments in their lives. We discuss questions like: What were you like around age 10? What did you want to be and why? Where did you go to college? What did you study? Why? Where did you almost go? What did you almost study? Why did you change paths? We are looking for early interests, then breaking them down to examine what it was that piqued your curiosity. I want to know what it was about a place or topic or theme that appealed to your identity, or what forces and beliefs and obligations led you to pick one thing over another. Revisiting these old passions and big decisions help remind you what has motivated you in the past, and the insights will be revealing because of what has changed, or what has stayed the same. Free writing, talking with a friend or colleague, or bringing these questions into therapy can help immensely. Make sure to take notes on observations and patterns that emerge. Step 2: Explore favorite moments Moving forward in time, I like to ask people to consider their favorite days or moments at work and in life. This isnt about what you are doing so much as connecting the activity to the way it can make you feel. Questions to consider might include: Describe a typical favorite day at work. The kind that leaves you buzzing. What are you doing? Are you alone? In groups? A combination? What is your ideal weekly cadence? Is it a mix of live and virtual? High stakes and low key? When you design your perfect day off to spend alone, what are you doing? Why? Has this changed over time? Personally, I did this exercise at a moment when I felt irretrievably stuck in my job and unable to divine my next steps. What it revealed for me was that, while I love people, I dislike managing them. I had conflated the two for a long time, in part because of my preconceived notions of what career success looks like. When left to my own devices, Id rather spend my work time alone, and my personal time with people. That insight helped unlock new angles on my goals and needs going forward. Step 3: Seek out new inspiration The biggest limitation that many of us face in designing our own career path is simply a lack of imagination and inspiring examples. The further we go in one industry, company, or trajectory, the more entrenched we become in one version of how its done. So, as you spend time revisiting your past and becoming reacquainted with your desires, make sure to cast your networking reach wider to see what others are doing. Invite in new thinking, pay attention to other modes of working, and ask lots of questions. There are two great ways to get started: First, brainstorm. Think of people whose work lives and job situations you admire. Maybe its a solopreneur you know, or a friend who works in a field you covet, or someone who has achieved a work-life balance you always pined for. Reach out to these people. Ask them how they make it work, how they address the things you worry about most: money, rates, income, fluctuations. We are always constructing obstacles that stop us from pursuing big dreams. Your goal is to name those, then talk yourself through them by seeing how others have tackled these barriers. Second, turn to LinkedIn. Curate your feed. Find people who do the kind of work you might enjoy or secretly admire and follow them. Follow who they follow. Expand your universe with people in different fields or situations and engage with them in the comments, build relationships. Seek out advice from these people, too. Invite in new ways of thinking. It will be revealing, I promise. Step 4: Speak up at work and beyond As your aspirations and ideas become clearer, start putting your needs and wants in writing. Think about one step you can take to get you closer to where you want to head and start asking at work for a small but significant shift. Maybe to begin, you just need some space. Consider a relocation, or a change in work schedule. Maybe you need accommodations to work remotely more often, or you want to try a new project on the side to build a new skill set and pilot something. Ovr time, with each ask, youll get stronger at self-advocacy. Each time you challenge a rule thats been set or implied about what you can and cant have or do, you will increase your belief that you can design things in a way that works better for you. New surroundings For me, my first big change after nearly a decade in one job was to physically move. After my family relocated, I found it easier to dream of other things Id like to change, as if I had released myself from a fixed sense of who I was and what I could become. I also found myself getting less afraid to try things or ask for things that I had assumed I couldnt have. Step by step, I left my job, built my own business, started speaking more, and built a platform to write in a way Id always longed for. It didnt happen overnight. But with each step I regained my confidence in my instincts and found it easier to tap into what I want and need. Give it a try. Listen to yourself. Examine your past. Surround yourself with fresh thinking and people who believe in you. And start getting much more selfish at work. Maybe youll surprise yourself with where it leads you.
Category:
E-Commerce
As a proud Gen Xer, I remember that most of my college buddies and I had similar aspirations: land a full-time job, hope the hours werent too brutal, pay off our loans, maybe buy a car and, one day, a home. Now, as the CEO of a company with a growing Gen Z employee base, Ive found it fascinating to see how different their outlook is. This generation isnt interested in hustle culture if it doesnt lead to something meaningfulor sometimes, even if it does. As a growing number of studies show, the youngest cohort of professionals isnt focused on ownershipthey care more about access. Theyre not blindly chasing higher salaries or leadership roles. Those things still matter, but finding purpose in their work is just as important. Their ambitions may be different from mine at their age, but I dont disagree with them. In fact, I think its possible to find that elusive trifecta at work: money, meaning, and well-beingif leaders are paying attention. And increasingly, they have no choice. Gen Z cant be ignored; theyre the ultimate influencers. As Janet Truncale, global chair and chief executive officer at EY, puts it, Gen Z is like a gravitational force pulling all other generations into its orbit. Heres how leaders can embrace Gen Zs demand for purpose and flexibility at work. Give employees options for how to approach tasks When I entered the workforce, working remotely was virtually unheard of. For Gen Z, its nearly a baseline expectation. Many came of age during the era of digital nomadism. Some finished school entirely online. In short, Gen Z is used to a high degree of autonomy. Micromanaging simply wont work for this generation. When assigning work, consider delegating not just the task but the how as well. Trust employees to figure out the best way to meet objectives. For example, if a younger employee is tasked with a presentation, let them choose the formatslide deck, short video, or live demoinstead of prescribing every detail. If theyre emailing a client, let them use their voice, instead of insisting they imitate the boss (as long as theyre appropriately professional). This kind of trust builds confidence and sparks creativity. Whats more, it helps younger employees feel a sense of ownership over their work. Break hierarchies and keep communication open In the past, workflows followed a strict order, and expertise flowed from the top down. But at Jotform, weve seen firsthand that every generation brings unique value. Expecting new employees to listen but not be heard is not only outdated, its a disservice to your organization. Gen Z, for example, is fluent in tech and social media, whether theyre editing iPhone photos or explaining why Snapchat still matters. To harness their strengths, leaders should move away from rigid hierarchies and overly structured processesthese can lead to burnout and frustration. Instead, create space for two-way dialogue and cross-generational collaboration. Create open channels for communication, like all-hands meetings, online feedback forums, and AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions with leaders. When all voices are invited to contribute, weve found that innovation accelerates in the day-to-day. Focus more on outcomes, less on hours Rather than sticking to the traditional nine-to-fine for the sake of clocking 8 hours, Gen Z is focused on working smarter. One growing trend: microshifts. As outlined in a recent workforce report from business software provider Deputy, Gen Z is reshaping shift work through short, flexible blocks, typically six hours or less, that support more adaptable schedules. These slightly shorter shifts help employees juggle responsibilities like caregiving or ongoing education. Gen Z now accounts for 51.5% of all microshifters, and the majority say it improves their roles. It makes sense: when were able to manage outside responsibilities alongside work, were more energized, more present, less stressed, and less bogged down by busywork. You dont have to give employees total control over their schedulesa little flexibility goes a long way. At Jotform, our office hours are fairly traditional, but within that structure, employees are trusted to manage their time. If someone needs to step away for a personal obligation, they can shift their workday, as long as quality doesnt suffer. That kind of autonomy supports both productivity and well-being. Gen Z employees get the flexibility they want, and the company gets the focus, brainpower, and creativity it needs.
Category:
E-Commerce
Media portrayals of college life often show the dorm as a melting pot, where students from a diversity of backgrounds get thrown together to learn about life beyond the classroom. But the reality is that just one in five coeds in the U.S. today actually live on campus in such a setup. Many live off campus, a majority face significant affordability challenges, and stable student housing is far from a givenan ongoing crisis that threatens the achievement of higher education. An experiment in housing affordability, which turned a dilapidated motel into a new home for students, is a case study in building cheaper, more affordable student housing, and ideally an example of how to create a more equitable college experience. Recently opened in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, Abigail Court offers a new model for serving the significant population of college students in dire need of affordable housing. What was once a falling-apart motel has been remade into a series of 70 studio apartments with an airy common room and a brick-lined courtyard. It houses students from Mt. Hood Community College, Portland State University, and Portland Community College. Its the work of College Housing Northwest (CHNW), a Portland nonprofit focused on designing and building affordable, accessible spaces for students. For this 55-year-old nonprofit, Abigail Court became a new model for funding and creating a space thats better suited for students to study. [Photo: courtesy CHNW] As the nations college population began an upswing starting in the 1960s and 70s, due in large part to expanding access to more Americans from different economic backgrounds, the cost of collegeand especially housing near schoolbegan increasing as well. Room and board, the fastest-growing expense for students, can often be more than tuition, said Jim Rader, CHNWs executive director. There was an expectation when the organization started in the 60s that any college student had family support and didnt need to worry about housing costs. A 2025 report from Temple Universitys Hope Center, which studies challenges in college life, found that 48% of U.S. college students are experiencing housing insecurity today, with 14% having experienced homelessness. Student housing is also one part of the affordable housing puzzle that often doesnt get addressed, and its a crucial one, since enabling students to make it through to graduation helps them better their earning potential and access better housing later in life. According to Sara Goldrick-Rab, a sociologist and academic who studies college affordability, existing research clearly shows that housing access and affordability greatly improve educational outcomes for students. A multiyear study Goldrick-Rab ran in Tacoma, Washington, found that federal housing assistance for students not only increased their graduation rates but also improved their overall physical health; they had fewer emergency room visits, lower rates of food insecurity, and fewer interactions with police or law enforcement. Its a huge deal, Goldrick-Rab said. About 50% of college students are struggling with rent. [Photo: courtesy CHNW] Today, the nations colleges and universitiesincluding community colleges, which often draw more working-class and low-income studentshave begun to build out more dorms and housing meant to help close the gap, but institutions dont have the means to meet the scale of the challenge. Goldrick-Rab believes many institutions starting to build out housing simply arent experienced as developers or landlords. In addition, two of the nations more prominent affordable housing programsLIHTC, or the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which finances new housing construction, and Section 8, a voucher program to help assist with rental paymentsdont apply to college students. Along with a booming for-profit student housing industry (the surging sector of commercial real estate saw $8.5 billion in transactions last year alone), this lack of public funding has created a college housing market much like the larger rental market in the U.S.: lots of high-priced, market-rate options, a handful of highly subsidized units for those most in need, and a widening gap for those with low to middle-range incomes. CHNW was able to afford to do the Abigail Court project via an Oregon state program called Project Turnkey, which launched in 2020 to help create housing for Oregonians displaced by wildfires. Alex Wallace, a real estate manager at CHNW, heard about the program and decided to see if it might be applicable to college students. CHNW proposed to use funds to turn the Ponderosa Inn of Gresham, Oregon, into a new kind of student residence, and was awarded about $6 million from Project Turnkey to acquire the property. [Photo: courtesy CHNW] The nonprofit spent another $8 million to adaptively redevelop the lodging into modern student housing, which added up to about $112,000 per unit, less than half what Wallace estimates it would take to build a brand-ne dorm from scratch. The whole build-out, which took 18 months, opened last September with rent for a studio set at $915; its now 100% leased, and a state-funded rental assistance program helps 32 students pay functionally zero rent. In May, CHNW got approval to use state tax credits for affordable student housing, and hopes to use this ability to buy a 100-unit building near Portland State University that it can convert into a similar housing project. Hotels and motels of this size are great for small housing, Rader says. We go into these areas where theres a community college, its often in need of revitalization, and these renovations can help revitalize the community.
Category:
E-Commerce
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