No. 25 - CAREER MINIMALISM 🤏🏾 🤏🏾

CAREER MINIMALISM 🤏🏾🤏🏾

December 3, 2025 • Issue No. 25

I have no problem giving credit where it’s due, so I have to give a shout-out to Gen Z. I’m not onboard with all of their trends, but they definitely ate in a few key ways. 1) They created a Crocs-friendly society and 2) their branding ability is spot-on. Every so often, I’ll read an article about a ‘new’ trend only to find out that it’s an existing trend with a snazzy new name. Prioritizing ease is Soft Life, exercising boundaries is a Strict Program, being a brown-noser in any setting is Aura Farming. And now there’s Career Minimalism ✨. The hashtag has been circulating on TikTok as early as April, but Forbes put it in a headline earlier today.

How did we get here?

If the phrase Career Minimalism ✨ conjures aesthetic ideas for you — neutral tones, soft textures, clean lines — then you’re already halfway to understanding this term. Minimalism, as a design idea and a lifestyle, is about finding joy in less and gained traction as a reaction to the 2008 financial crisis. Career Minimalism ✨ is a predictable pendulum swing away from the #girlboss, rise and grind, hustle culture ethos of 2010s. Many millennials were in college or entering the workforce as the economy recovered from the housing bubble and its had lasting impacts on our earning potential. Enter the side hustle, your job on top of a job (what previous generations would call moonlighting) to compensate for low salaries. As we’d all find out in 2020, this was just a slow-cooking recipe for burnout.

Gen Z, from the lonely comfort of their phone screens, have seen where ‘getting to the bag’ has gotten us. Millennials left a lot of clues: Medium articles about the empty feeling in the corner office, entire Youtube channels devoted to quitting once-coveted jobs in tech and finance, TikTok videos that echo the “32 Ways Adulting Has Gotten Harder” listicles from the Buzzfeed era. We had to find out the hard way that there was no pot of spiritual or emotional gold waiting at the top of corporate ladder. Wisely, Gen Z has decided to hop over our struggle and land in the lesson: the key benefit of a job is not identity or purpose, but stability.

Now, it’s 2025. In a landscape dotted with surprise layoffs, promotions that increase responsibility but not salary (aka ‘dry promotions’), and murky expectations around using AI that threaten entry-level positions, it makes sense to clock in rather than lock in, and focus on earning and doing just enough to maintain.

Is this for me?

Deciding if Career Minimalism ✨ is for you is a personal choice that depends on your goals. Most of the TikTok users who’ve made videos about choosing this route put a premium on the same value: freedom, especially in how they spend their time.

This can mean major trade-offs in other areas like income, mental challenge, and prestige. Imagine how different your life might be if you’d stayed in an entry level position — most likely your responsibilities wer light, your tasks were repetitive, and your paychecks were thin. If you’re supporting or starting a family, letting your wages stagnate without any plans for generating additional income may not be an option for you right now. Every trend is not for every body.

How can I try it?

Regardless of your situation, or even what job you have right now, there’s a big payoff to using Career Minimalism ✨ as a decision-making frame anytime you’re faced with a new opportunity, request, or responsibility. Career Minimalism ✨ asks us to determine if ‘more is really more’ and if ‘more is really better.’ Once you’ve figured out the metric you want to use, put it in the blanks below (freedom, esteem, sparkle, time with my kids, etc.) You can repeat this exercise if you have multiple metrics.

1. How will this add to _________?

2. How will this subtract from _________?

3. Which is more, more likely, and will occur more often?

Sally’s Situation: Sally has been asked to apply for a lead role in 2026 for a team that she’s already on. This new role would formalize the project management work she does for the team and comes with a 10% salary increase, an updated job title, and a half-step up on the org chart. It wouldn’t change who she reports to but she would need to report to her supervisor about the team’s progress on a regular schedule. She would be accountable if the team fell behind. Sally is a single mom of two elementary school age children and her metric is 'spending time with her kids’.

Sally’s Answers

1. How will this add to spending time with my kids?

   With the salary bump, we could probably take another family vacation to see Grandma and Grandpa.

2. How will this subtract from spending time with my kids? 

   It’s already a hassle to chase the team around for their progress updates, and I worry that needing to give formal reports will mean rough weeks or late nights at work as the report due dates get closer. This could mean being MIA around report time, which might be 2-4 times a month on top the occasional late nights I already work.

3. Which is more, more likely, and will occur more often?

   This position won’t give me more time with my kids. If I do use it for a grandparents trip in the summer, it would just change where we spend the time we were already planning to spend together. It’s more likely that I’ll work late than it is that we’ll take the trip, since I’d have to plan it, coordinate with my parents, and take the days off. Since the trip would be once a year, I’ll definitely work late more often than getting home early or being able to pick them up from afterschool.  

The bottom line

If nothing else, the existence of Career Minimalism ✨ implies the possibility for an opposite: Career Maximalism. And of all of the things you could ‘maximalize’ (apologies to my English teacher!), you get to decide if it’s career, family, personal time, hobbies, a side hustle, sleep, travel, reading, or anything else your heart desires.

In my first ever internship, I worked with a woman named Renee who’d been in the same job position for 21 years. She came to work at 9:00am, she did her job, she went home at 5:00pm. She joined in for office birthday parties, but didn’t attend other social events. Her desk was covered in pictures of her family and the only thing she’d talk about was them. Back then, her life felt like a cautionary tale. She came to work and performed her function on repeat. Now, I can see that she ran a Strict Program when it came to work and boundaries. Renee, a Baby Boomer and true Career Minimalist Pioneer, was just ahead of her time. 💎

If you’re interested in exploring Career Minimalism with an executive coach, book a no-fee consultation with me. My calendar is open through mid-January.

P.S. Do you know someone else who would be into the idea of ‘Career Minimalism ✨’? 💕 Share this newsletter with a friend.

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