They Tried to Fix the System. It Burned Them Out.

Millennials entered the workforce with ambition, degrees, and a promise: work hard, get ahead.

What did they get instead? Recessions, unpaid internships, and the slow realisation that the system was broken long before they showed up.

Now they make up 35% of the global workforce (World Economic Forum, 2023). They're managers, team leads, startup founders. They’re juggling KPIs by day and freelance gigs by night. They brought work-life balance, mental health, and remote flexibility into the corporate conversation.

But here’s the dark side: 73% of Millennials say they’re burnt out at work (Deloitte, 2023).

They’re tired of fixing what they didn’t break. They tried to humanise the workplace. They wrote the slide decks, led the culture committees, and booked the yoga sessions. And they still got laid off via email.

They’re starting to ask the same question Gen Z asks at the gate: Why are we still doing it like this?

It’s time employers got serious about wellbeing. Not just the occasional mindfulness webinar, but real systemic change. Policies that support mental health. Cultures that normalise breaks. Managers who measure success by outcomes—not hours logged. Because when your largest workforce segment is running on empty, no amount of free fruit will fix it.

Millennials tried to fix the system. Maybe the real fix is burning it down and building something better.