Piper Hansen selfie.
  • Piper Hansen graduated this spring and has been working full time for less than a year.
  • She says it's really depressing to work a 9-to-5 schedule.
  • Piper also says Gen Z workers can see there's a possibility for a better way of living.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Piper Hansen, a 23-year-old who just started her first full-time job in Louisville, Kentucky. Her employment has been verified by Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I work in a YMCA office and I find my job really rewarding, but it's difficult to not feel like it takes up most of my life. I've only been working full time for a few months since graduating from college in the spring and I'm already so downtrodden by it all.