Ben Sanderson spent $15 on a movie ticket he never planned to use for the film. Instead, he sank into the New York theatre’s recliner, pulled his beanie over his eyes, and fell asleep. Ninety minutes later, he walked out feeling like a new person and went straight back to his desk.

“I had one of the best naps of my life,” Sanderson said. He called movie theaters the “perfect place to nap in NYC” for commuters who live too far from home to sneak back for a break from the office. 

And when he posted about it on TikTok, over a million people watched, with users sharing their own favorite spots to check out. 

Another user went one step further and shared her list of top places in New York to leave your desk and cry it out, including various subway stations, the Williamsburg Bridge, and even the Zara Soho’s fitting rooms. “You can feel safe losing it there,” @posh_vip added.

And while her video was on the light-hearted side, she’s far from alone: Nearly half of Gen Z office workers say they’ve been reduced to tears by workplace stress, research has found.

Gen Z have been calling their 9-to-5s soul-sucking since 2023

If this all sounds familiar, you may remember that TikTok video of a young woman crying over her “crazy” nine-to-five schedule—described as “Gen Z girl finds out what a real job is like”—which went viral in 2023. 

The post racked up millions of views with many ridiculing the college graduate—but as it turns out, the overwhelming majority of Gen Zers agree that traditional nine-to-five jobs are “soul-sucking.” 

Rather than just crying about it on lunch breaks, plenty are opting out entirely: picking up multiple income streams that flex around their schedule, quitting to become their own boss or full-time content creators, or heading into the trades instead—a path that’s seeing a huge resurgence in popularity among the generation that watched millennials burn out at a desk. 

In fact, the largest 2025 survey of young new hires in the U.K. revealed that around 40% seriously considered quitting within their first year in a corporate job.

But for those still stuck behind a desk, the reality isn’t that Gen Z simply can’t handle a real job. It’s that the modern office has gotten harder to survive.

Burned-out Gen Z desk workers are finding ways to escape their toxic bosses

Return-to-office mandates have brought back more than just commutes. Turns out, increased face time has come with a side of backstabbing, finger-pointing, credit-stealing, and calculated sabotage. 

One report concluded that workplace incivility is out of control: Over 208 million instances of office hostility occurred in American workplaces every single day, in the first quarter of 2025 alone.

And it’s not just young entry-level staff who are guilty of toxic behavior—even bosses are at it.

In fact, research from Resume Now found 61% of employees have been thrown under the bus at work, with nearly one-third saying they see it happen weekly. One in four workers say their manager has set them up to fail. 

To top it off, Gen Z are consistently told they’re the hardest generation to work with, that they don’t know how to act or dress appropriately for an office, and that they’re about to be replaced by AI anyway.

And it’s all bubbling up: Gen Z is so miserable that they’re dismantling Harvard’s long-established Flourishing Measure. For the first time ever, instead of happiness hitting a peak while you’re young and declining until mid-life, it’s now depressingly flat until around age 50.  

Yet despite their clear burnout, most can’t afford to simply quit; not with the cost of living squeezing every paycheck, AI already closing in on entry-level roles, and one of the toughest job markets in years waiting on the other side. So it’s little wonder the youngest generation of workers is looking for a way out—even if that’s a fitting room at Zara. Or using medical leave to protect their mental health and job hunt.