Boomer professor says Gen Z need to ‘get out of the house’ to be successful
A university professor has been mercilessly mocked by Gen Z after boldly telling the younger generation what they have to do to be successful.
Do you spend more than seven hours at your home each day?
Well, sorry to inform you but you are damaging your chances of “success” – that is according to New York University Professor Scott Galloway.
Professor Galloway ruffled some feathers recently when he boldly proclaimed that young people “should never be at home” if they want to succeed in life.
The 58-year-old made these comments during The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, revealing his key advice to the younger generations.
“You should never be at home. That is what I tell young people. Home is for seven hours of sleep and that’s it,” Professor Galloway said.
“The amount of time you spend at home is inversely correlated to your success professionally and romantically.
“You need to be out of the house.”
A clip of his comments was shared to the Wall Street Journal’s TikTok page, sparking more than 22,000 comments, with the majority not taking so kindly to his words.
“That is one of the craziest statements I’ve heard,” one commenter said.
“Wild take,” one person added, while another branded his views “problematic”.
Others thought the marketing professor “must be kidding”, pointing out “success is not the same for all”.
One person joked: “Aww what a nice throwback from 1991.”
Another questioned: “Why are we always being told life has to be as unpleasant and difficult as possible? I like being at home.”
The overall theme of responses came down to the fact that “outside is expensive” and rent and house prices are too high to not make the most of your home and subscribe to such an old-school view of success.
That wasn’t the only hot-take Professor Galloway shared at this event, telling Gen Z people that a work-life balance wasn’t possible if they wanted to be in the “top 10 per cent”.
“You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once,” he claimed.
“While we all know that guy or gal who has a great relationship with their parents, is in amazing shape, has a food blog, donates time at [animal welfare group] the ASPCA and is a DJ on the weekends, assume you are not that person.
“If you expect to be in the top 10 per cent economically, much less the top 1 per cent, buck up. Two decades plus of nothing but work. That’s my experience.”
It will come as no surprise that Professor Galloway is a staunch advocate from working from the office and believes working from home can be a hindrance to success.
He previously told CNN that “young and ambitious” people need to “get into the office”.
“Your career trajectory is a function of relationships. There are two or three people qualified for every job and the decider of who gets the promotion will pick the person they have the best relationship with,” the marketing professor said.
“Before you collect dogs and spouses, get into the office. Establish mentors, establish friends and also, establish partnerships — a third of relationships begin at work. We have taken away a great platform for establishing relationships. Don’t give up on it.”
He is far from the only person who holds this view, with many people- particularly older generations – agreeing with this line of thinking.
Earlier this month CEO of CR Commercial Property Group, Nicole Duncan, branded young Aussies as “just selfish” for wanting to work from home and pushing back against calls to return to the office.
“In our younger days we caught trains, buses, ferries to get to work. Yes, it did take two or three hours, but you’ve got to be in the office because you don’t know what you don’t know,” she told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“And, until these CEOs make a decision and get bolshie about this, it’s not going to change but the unemployment rate is still too low.”
Ms Duncan said businesses like hotels in Sydney are “suffering” because there is less business travel because much of the work and meetings can be done online.
She also complained about workers being distracted while doing their jobs from home.
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