Gen-Z workers want empathy, diverse, inclusive workplaces, fast promotion, study leave and training, health insurance, and even doggie daycare! They (and all workers really) have a giant wake-up call coming as employers take back the power after the wave of flexibility and focus on employee wellbeing.
Yet still, Millennials, Gen-X and Boomers are lining up to call out their lazy, impatient and entitled behaviour.
A study of small business owners found that 68 per cent believed Gen-Zers were the “least reliable” of all their employees. One business owner went in hard on Gen Z’s “absolute delusion, complete lack of common sense, and zero critical reasoning or basic analytical skills.”
So, is this entitled narrative true, or are Gen Z, as the latest entrants to the workforce, just experiencing inter-generational backlash?
Older generations always disparage younger generations. It’s the “kids today don’t even know they’ve been born” mentality.
A Queensland business owner Rachel Lynch recently saw a disturbing confrontation at a cafe where a young worker was reduced to tears.
She noted former generations may have been motivated by this behaviour, but it won’t work on Gen Z.
Remember when you were young? Don’t let history repeat
Growing up as a Gen Xer in the Nineties, the Boomers called us the Slacker Generation.
Encapsulated by Richard Linklater’s Slacker, a movie that came out in 1991, we were all unenthused by life, cynical, and disaffected.
Or dumb, according to an entire genre of slacker movies that followed: Jay and Silent Bob, Clerks, Mallrats, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Reality Bites, and Wayne’s World.
Yet in the Nineties, the unemployment rate was over 10 per cent, and in my working life, the prevalent work culture meant working extra hours to show dedication.
I vividly remember sitting at my desk until 7pm most nights because my boss wouldn’t go home, even though I’d finished my work.
Then came those hipster do-gooding Millennials, who were characterised as the “Me, me, generation” who didn’t care about the community but were also somehow woke at the same time.
I also know a tonne hardworking Zoomers, kids that are tradies, hairdressers, artists, engineers, comedians, nurses, working their arses off to pay their rent.
I recently wrote about the wave of Gen-Z bosses, like Milly Bannister, who are throwing out the rule book from the top-down, and often toxic, leadership style that came before them.
Bannister prioritises a work-life balance and the health of her employees comes first. And I think there are plenty of bosses out there who could learn from her.
Gen-Z facing unique challenges – let’s give them a break
So, it’s time to give Gen-Z a break.
Every generation faces unique challenges, but Gen-Z and the Alphas that follow have a lot coming down the future pipeline.
Consider the dire, extortionate housing market because we forgot to build enough new housing for thirty years.
There’s the planet-changing climate emergency or the AI coming for their jobs.
So, if they say yes to a work-life balance, good on them.
They are going to spend the rest of their lives dealing with the mess we’ve left them.
