To think, actually, hard work doesn’t pay off?

[AkaBaka]

I have had a typical millennial experience. Raised by a single mother in a council house and wanted better, so worked hard at school, went to university, graduated into a recession, built up a career, and bought a house. Am now scraping by in a similar sized house to my childhood home, raising my kids in a similar way as my mother did in terms of hobbies and lifestyle.

I have stepchildren who, much as I love them and they have many wonderful qualities, are lazy and unmotivated with little drive. I am forever telling them that hard work pays off.

But does it? For their generation, especially for non-academic kids like them, there seems little point in striving. Now I have kids of my own, I’m seeing the benefit of working fewer hours with less stress over a “successful career” that doesn’t even give me a very comfortable lifestyle.

AIBU to think hard work doesn’t pay off?

I am a generation Xer - it's interesting how much stock people still put on a degree as the supposed path to a well-paid job.
I am now in my fifties and there is little difference in outcomes among my friends. A couple left school at 16, a couple got degrees and another got a higher-level qualification we have all done our own thing and been reasonably successful. The most materially successful was my friend who left school at 16.
Too many people are too narrow in their thinking - It's either a degree, a trade or a minimum wage job, but there are lots of people earning very well who have gained skills to the level of OND/HND, etc.
The focus should be on high-value skills not education.