Each new cohort of workers faces scrutiny over its commitment, and for Gen Z the accusation centers on an unwillingness to stay reachable once the workday ends. Fresh survey data indicates the exchange they are pushing back against is unevenly weighted.

A June 2026 survey of 1,006 U.S. employees conducted by Software Finder found that 69% of respondents said staying available after hours has not meaningfully advanced their careers. Only 8% credited it with a promotion, while 12% attributed a raise or bonus to it.

The drawbacks are easier to spot. Forty percent of respondents said after-hours availability had worsened their work-life balance, 38% said it had increased their stress, and 32% said it had deepened their burnout.

That imbalance between sacrifice and payoff arrives as employers become less generous with advancement. Workday data reported by Fortune showed promotion rates declined in 10 of the 11 industries the company tracks during the first half of 2025.

The mismatch captures the trade-off workers are weighing: the payoff respondents attribute to after-hours availability is small, while its documented costs to work-life balance, stress, and burnout are widespread.

Always-on workers see modest gains at a steep cost

The survey separates always-on employees from those who set firmer limits around their time off. The always-on group does report more benefits: 57% said their availability supported their career, versus 8% of those who set boundaries.

Promotions tell a different story. Just 17% of always-on workers credited their availability with a promotion — still well above the 2% of boundary-setters who said the same.

The cost, however, is steep. Always-on workers were 2.8 times as likely as boundary-setters to report worsened burnout, 2.6 times as likely to report worsened work-life balance, and 2.4 times as likely to report worse sleep.

Time away offers little respite. About 73% of workers check work messages while on vacation, and 51% have answered a work email during time off.

Stepping back carries its own perceived risk: 49% of respondents worry that setting boundaries could damage their careers. That concern is not unfounded. In a 2025 study covered by Fortune, managers judged employees who disconnected after hours as more productive but less committed and less deserving of promotion — even when their performance reviews were identical.

Gen Z feels the pressure less than older colleagues

The generational split emerges here. Gen Z respondents were the least likely to feel pressure to respond after hours, at 65%, compared with 72% for both millennials and Gen X. Even so, roughly two-thirds of Gen Z workers still feel the pressure to stay reachable — the generational gap is one of degree, not a wholesale exit.

Feeling less pressure has not shielded them from the toll. Burnout worsened for 34% of Gen Z workers — the same share as millennials — compared with 26% of Gen X.

Jeff LeBlanc, a lecturer at Bentley University, labels the old arrangement “performative availability” in a recent Fast Company column: treating visibility, rather than results, as proof of commitment. He contends that Gen Z's resistance challenges workplace norms rather than reflecting a lack of drive. “Gen Z hasn't shown that they don't value hard work,” he writes.

Millennials and Gen X, many of whom now hold management roles, may be part of the problem. LeBlanc writes that those generations “might be compounding these expectations” for the workers who report to them.

The dueling findings sharpen the stakes: the 2025 study found managers penalize perceived detachment even at identical performance levels, while the new survey shows how rarely availability is rewarded with advancement. Whether promotion criteria move toward measured results, or visibility remains a proxy for commitment, is the question both data sets leave unresolved.

The cost of showing up

The strain reaches beyond a single survey. In Deloitte's 2026 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, which gathered responses from more than 22,500 people across 44 countries, 48% of Gen Zs and 45% of millennials said they feel burned out.

Those same respondents are rethinking the climb itself. As Fortune reported in June, only 6% of Gen Zs and millennials in the Deloitte survey named reaching a leadership position as their top career goal.

Emma Codd, Deloitte Global's global inclusion leader, stated the stakes plainly in the report: “When showing up becomes more important than being well, inequities deepen, and the cost shows up in burnout, attrition, and lost potential.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.