To the Editor:
Re “Gen Z Fell Out of Love With Work. It’s Easy to See Why,” by Emi Nietfeld (Opinion guest essay, July 26):
As a Gen Z student preparing to enter the work force, I believe that personal ambition is far more compelling than blindly pursuing the corporate grind. Recently, while waiting in line for a concert, I struck up a conversation with a stranger who told me about a story he was writing — about a man building a piano in postapocalyptic America. I soon joined his Wednesday night “drunk writing group,” where I discovered that my greatest sense of fulfillment comes from following creative impulses.
It is passion, not rote progress, that guides our paths forward. One of my friends traveled to Ukraine to serve as a drone pilot. Another reports from the Middle East. A third spends weekends backstage interviewing underground rap artists. None of them followed a conventional script, yet each is building a career around a genuine curiosity.
To me, those acts of curiosity comprise ambition. Rather than defining ourselves by external markers of success, we increasingly define success by whether our work reflects our authentic selves.
Ambition hasn’t disappeared. It has simply become harder to measure.
Jayna Rohslau Brooklyn
To the Editor:
As a millennial who immigrated to the United States from China nearly 20 years ago, I was surprised — and proud — to realize that the way I now think about life aligns more closely with Gen Z’s sentiments than with my own generation’s.
I’m 43 years old and have spent most of my adult life in a capitalist society that is almost the opposite of the communist system in which I grew up. Ironically, the values instilled in me as a young person in China — working hard, pursuing prestige and valuing titles and status — closely resemble the characteristics the author attributes to millennials.
Over the past decade, working at two U.S. institutions exposed me to bureaucratic systems, toxic workplace cultures and subtle forms of microaggression. My strong work ethic often became something others took advantage of. Instead of feeling valued, I felt exploited — and eventually burned out.
That experience forced me to ask what I truly wanted out of life, rather than what looked impressive on paper. Moving here from China, earning a doctorate and working at prestigious institutions are accomplishments I’m grateful for, but they are no longer how I define success.
Today, I value flexibility, autonomy, meaningful work and financial security over prestige and job titles. Experience, more than what generation I belong to, has reshaped what success means to me.
Tingting Reid Cambridge, Mass.
To the Editor:
As a baby boomer who has worked many jobs that I was not in love with, I realized that the only way to become a self-sufficient adult was to work and earn enough money to live on. I found over the years that working, often at jobs that could be boring or demeaning, led to jobs that were more fulfilling.
I bought a house in 1983, when the mortgage interest rate was about 13 percent. As a woman with an advanced college degree, I have worked at jobs where all they wanted to know was how fast I could type. But I worked, and kept working.
I raised three children when day care took over half of my salary and working mothers were suspected of putting their own needs ahead of their children’s. Fortunately, I am financially comfortable now because as an adult I never wanted to rely on my parents for the roof over my head. I hope that this generation will realize that work, no matter what kind, will lead to self-sufficiency and self-respect.
Elyse Cole Carlsbad, Calif.
To the Editor:
Emi Nietfeld finds despair and optimism in her analysis of Gen Z, but I think she attempts a problematic translation by casting today’s generation in its predecessors’ terms.
Ms. Nietfeld sees hope in Gen Z members’ acceptance of their fate and admires their “Zen-like ability to enjoy today in spite of tomorrow.” And in the $600,000 salary they want to feel financially secure she finds “sky-high expectations.”
I see neither enjoyment nor expectation; I see their rude awakening from the American dream, recognizing that it was never meant for them. I don’t think Gen Z fell out of love with work — they were never really offered a chance to love it.
I find it odd that we want them to love whatever hand-me-downs we leave them, and on whatever terms. Let’s be wary of imposing our paradigms onto the lives of people so different from us, no matter how nostalgically satisfying it is.
Ms. Nietfeld concludes: “I wish they understood how the dream itself illuminated the path a few feet ahead of me, until I stood on solid ground.” Maybe that’s what they understand about us, and they’re just not interested.
Thomas DiPiero Paris
To the Editor:
It’s so simple. Why would I dream of labor? I am 26 years old, and I am about to earn my master’s degree from an Ivy League university. Despite that, I know there’s no guarantee of a return on investment.
The goals I have for my life are relatively simple: Find a career I like and do well in it, get married, have kids and buy a house. But of course, in order to have those things, you need a lot of money.
The average wedding in the United States costs around $36,000, a child birth can cost $40,000 and a house or an apartment can cost anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions. It’s hard to dream of a corporate career when the only people you see hitting those milestones are influencers who post their makeup routines and clothing hauls.
Katie Xue New York
To the Editor:
As a Gen X-er, I remember the laments about how lazy and disconnected my generation was when we were in out 20s. They called us slackers — there was even a popular movie of the same name.
The transition between childhood and adulthood is a difficult and confusing time, where we are full of wants and enthusiasms of all kinds — at the beginning of the choices that narrow our world. It will be fine.
People find their callings and drivers, growing confidence in employment as they build real world skills. Fashionable discontent and ennui give way when there is something to care about or invest in, whether it is work, family or a side quest.
The kids will be all right.
Olivia Fox Novi, Mich.
Maligning Fauci
To the Editor:
Re “Senate Committee Votes to Hold Fauci in Contempt of Congress” (news article, nytimes.com, Aug. 6):
Of all the outrageous things that have happened in President Trump’s second term, this is one of the worst. The pictures of the smug, self-righteous Republican senators parading their outrage as they malign Dr. Anthony Fauci summarize everything wrong with our country today.
The president can flout the law with impunity, while these senators, hoping to score points with him, and presumably with their voters, choose to pursue Dr. Fauci on wild charges.
It seems that everything that is actually good is called bad, and everyone who is actually a hero is called a criminal. What is wrong with our country? When will American voters wake up from this nightmare and elect a responsible government, one that actually represents us and embodies the ideals of our Constitution?
Tim Shaw Cambridge, Mass.
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