DAMON DAHLEN
THE THIRD METRIC
the Families and Work Institute
suggests they are acting on what
many of us are feeling. A study titled “Times Are Changing: Gender
and Generation at Work and Home”
showed that men and women’s desire for more responsibility at work
slides between the ages 25 and 44.
That shift in focus could be generational. Millennials and those
straddling Generations Y and X
know downward mobility all too
well. They witness how little sleep,
and how many emails and competing demands the most successful
boomers and elde r Gen Xers withstand. They also know how stressed
they are. An American Psychological Association survey published
earlier this year found people ages
18 to 33 are more stressed than
Americans in other age brackets. It’s no wonder some 20- and
30-somethings have decided that
living for their jobs probably won’t
fulfill them, and have begun devoting their energy to the things that
might — including their marriages.
For now, these pairs are outliers.
They are also privileged. Most of
the spouses we profile have fouryear college degrees, and several
have flexible schedules — a very
rare scenario among American
workers. (Meghan and Josh live in
HUFFINGTON
08.18.13
“Society’s definition
of success [is] not working
for anyone... It’s only
truly working for those
who make pharmaceuticals
for stress, diabetes, heart
disease, sleeplessness
and high blood pressure.”
Canada, where flex work and self
employment seem to be slightly
more common.) But they’ve also
adjusted to lower, sometimes inconsistent incomes, altered their
career trajectories and made sacrifices in the interest of living better.
Maybe education and socioeconomic status are essential ingredients in marriages as low-stress as
theirs. But according to them, it’s a
deliberate change in values that has
made all the difference between a
thriving marriage and a failing one.
What if they’re onto something?
Arianna
Huffington
and Mika
Brzezinski
(right) host a
conference,
“The Third
Metric:
Redefining
Success
Beyond
Money &
Power,” in
June 2013.