I was lucky to be able to give up work early, encouraged by the machiavellian behaviour of significant numbers of my colleagues and the sheer laziness and unwillingness to engage by the students I was teaching; hell is, after all, other people! It took a long time for me to 'work out' that taking a large drop in income but increasing my time away from those with whom I wouldn't chose to spend time, was a better way of spending this short life.
I think the COVID 19 pandemic and lockdowns have highlighted the triviality, in the mind of young people, bringing them to the conclusions that took me decades to arrive at, that working long hours for a company that makes, distributes and sells…paperclips/printer toner/cardboard packaging or whatever, and that company doesn't really care about your well-being either. Why would they devote their short lives to such entities?
In addition, my friends in Japan tell me that, although Japanese people spend long hours at their desks, they work no more than their Western counterparts and fill their hours 'doing nothing in particular' on their computers. Perhaps they've realised they can spend that time with their friends watching children's cartoons… sorry…anime or reading comics…sorry manga.
Here in the UK, increasing numbers of people are trying to continue 'work from home' because it gives them a better quality of life, since they don't have to spend time and money commuting, buying food at work places etc etc. Company bosses don't like it as they want workers at their desks in a building away from their homes. Thus many are dropping their working hours, going part time or even doing something completely different for money.
The pandemic opened Pandora's box, and workers took the 'red pill'. I think it's going to be very difficult for governments /companies to put this genie back into the lamp.