‘Snail girl era’ and ‘bare minimum Mondays’: What these trends signify

The latest trends to hit TikTok have taken the thunder from the “girlboss”, as many are over the grind and would rather take it easy.

“Snail girl era” and “bare minimum Mondays” are the latest trends that highlight Gen Z’s approach to work. While previous generations were of the mindset that you need to work hard, the younger crowd are increasingly seeing the importance of a work/life balance as the “live to work” mentality fades.

So, what do these trends mean? It’s reported that Hello Sisi founder Sienna Ludbey is behind coining the term snail girl era.

“The snail girl goes slow, retreats when she needs and follows the path at her own pace,” said Ms Ludbey.

Bare minimum Mondays are more self-explanatory: do as little as you can to begin your work week. This term was reportedly coined by TikToker Marisa Jo Mayes.

“Before I started doing bare minimum Monday, I was physically making myself sick with stress. I couldn’t produce anything because of the level of burnout I had reached,” Ms Mayes explained.

While it may be easy to label these trends as “lazy”, there’s more to it than that. According to Dr Lena Wang, associate professor at RMIT University, this signifies more younger people looking after their wellbeing.

“These trends don’t signify laziness. Instead, there is a great level of self-compassion and self-consciousness being reflected. Younger generations are rejecting a lifestyle that focuses on the pursuit of external-driven rewards such as money, fame and status, which has been the focus of older generations for many years,” Dr Wang said.

“These life goals serve their purpose when we are pursuing financial security but may eventually become less rewarding once we have reached a certain point in our financial status. Many people are now realising that living a fulfilling, rewarding life is more important than those external rewards.”

There is merit to wanting to enjoy a life outside of work. While this doesn’t mean everyone should quit their jobs, these trends serve as a reminder to take some time for yourself every once in a while.

“Living this rewarding life often involves pacing ourselves so that we get the time to properly enjoy little things in our day-to-day lives. Additionally, I do think the trends are one of the responses to the pressing mental health issues in our society,” Dr Wang outlined.

“Increasing mental health awareness encourages more people to take a step back and think about how they want to live a better life and to practise self-care more meaningfully. In terms of people’s interpretation of these trends, everyone will approach this differently depending on their own values.”

She continued: “People who place a high value on the importance of work and extrinsic rewards may continue doing what they usually do. But this trend would speak well to people who have experienced burnout, which may have forced them to take a harder look at their current situation and consider a different way of living.”

These feelings aren’t new, and these trends aren’t the first of their kind. Earlier this year, it was “lazy girl jobs”, which highlighted the same feelings: “an ever-growing misalignment between companies and individuals,” said senior marketing lead at The Dream Collective, Angelica Hunt.

Before that, it was “quiet quitting”, which shares plenty of similarities with these latest trends.

Employers can do their part to mitigate these issues by understanding that burnout is a very real issue for workers. Rather than reprimanding those who are exhibiting signs of these trends, reflection on the state of the workforce’s wellbeing may be beneficial.

Dr Wang commented: “I think that certainly requires a shift in mindset for the business. I think many businesses already noticed that the younger generation has very different values and needs when it comes to work and the balance of work versus life. Hence, to attract the best talents, they would need to be shifting their practices, too, to place more attention on creating workplaces that provide employees work/life balance.”

“We should not worry too much about ‘business failing victims to these concepts’ as most employees would still want to work hard and to achieve their goals because that [gives] them sense of meaning and achievement – those are part of our basic human nature. What we are seeing is a trend that people start to say no to excessive work demand and to put more conscious efforts into self-care.”

She concluded: “Ultimately, doing so is in line with organisations’ priorities, as no businesses want employees to fall sick and absent from work, which is more costly. I would suggest organisations and especially HRs to proactively take into account these trends in designing their policies and practices to deliver benefits both to employees and companies.”

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.