Perhaps the most defining reason why Gen Z might be finding themselves out of jobs is their rejection of traditional work culture, which emphasizes long hours, constant availability and immersion in one’s job.
Meaning that they don't have to succumb to antiquated rules and social paradigms.
Kudos to them. I am (a very late) GenX, and I always hated that mentality. I work to live, not viceversa.
Yeah, expected bullshit cuz Forbes, but the psychologist actually knows what they're talking about about.
Doesn't outright say it, but the "problems" are all outdated shit boomers insist on keeping around because it's what they're used to.
Like, "face to face communication" not only isn't important now, it hasn't been for a long fucking time.
Even when you need to talk to someone one on one to figure something out. IM gives you a record of what was discussed to refer to
If I've got 20 things going on and someone wants a face to face or even a call, I'm very unlikely to remember the details a day later. IMs or emails, I can go back and get all the discussed info in like 2 minutes.
We're asking these kids to do shit that was outdated before they were born because the people in charge are at best in their late 60s and still are scared of computers.
They're just pissed life passed them by and the skills they have are outdated.
I love the ability to keep a perfect history of my communication, which IM/slack/email gives you, but if you have a complex issue to solve that requires the input of multiple people, face to face conversation can get to the bottom of the issue many times faster than back and forth messing. Not only can you speak quicker than you can type, but you can convey additional information in tone of voice and facial expression.
And I hate to praise AI for anything, but it's not half bad at given you a written summary of what was talked about.
I say all this as someone who really doesn't enjoy talking to people face to face, and would much rather just send messages.
Voice/video calls work just fine in that case. The minor gains of being in physical proximity aren't really necessary for good communication.
Not only can you speak quicker than you can type,
I'm not exactly "young" anymore but I can type on a keyboard waaaaay quicker than I can speak.
But the article is specifically talking about "face to face". Getting a couple people to jump on a Teams call to sort something out isn't something impossible for Gen Z.
They just don't like the "face to face" bullshit that comes with working in an office.
I'll take a team meeting online on a call over having to do it in person, everyone show up early, and all the distractions that come with an in person meeting. It just wasted time for "socializing" with people you don't want to socialize with. Co-workers don't need to be friends, and definitely aren't family.
Gen X and Y are the same, it's just Gen Z is the first to be overwhelming raised by those two generations.
X/Y can put up with it because we grew up with people like that.
For Gen Z it's literally like having to put up with their grandparents bullshit, something they only had to tolerate infrequently, and recent graduates just went thru years of distant learning.
So they know all the "face to face" shit is extreneous
Most english conversations are conducted at 110-150 words per minute, unless you're a 1% level typist (or have a speech issue) you can definitely talk quicker than you type.
This is true, but on the other hand, no one can really interrupt you typing, and reading is faster than listening, so depending on the group it may still be more efficient.
You should read up on non verbal communication. As an older boomer, I am perfectly happy with working from home and a catch up on zoom/teams/slack with my team 99% of the time, and very much against return to office. But sometimes I do need face to face communication with team members I’m concerned about, or with customers.
Well, this is all very subjective. Idk what you do for a living, but there are massive differences between fact to fact communication and IM/email.
To say it's outdated is just insane and flat wrong.
Face to face communication is important, though. My job is 100% remote, but we have a quarterly meet up that's always way more productive than a zoom call.
Nah. Like most things, “it depends”.
Unfortunately many customers in my industry are of the older age set and they aren't glued to their devices or computers so the only way to get them quickly is by phone. That still works for immediately resolution of issues. I prefer email for the CYA aspect but some issues can't wait days or weeks of back and forth. A phone call with that older generation is fast acting.
The kids are alright.
rejection of traditional work culture, which emphasizes long hours, constant availability and immersion in one’s job
That has been my philosophy as an older millennial. Life is meant to be lived, not slaved away helping grow someone else's bank account. Older folks really hate being told nah, I'm not going to come in for unpaid work. Sorry for ya. Pay me.
Also around your age. I don’t know what to do without work. I love long hours and being on call. I enjoy being reliable, and needed. That said, I don’t expect anyone under me to do that. I’ll never call them on a weekend. Maybe a text?
I was a pseudo-manager of a small team, and my only problem with the Z’s was his inability to focus on work—at work. Like, I want to take his phone away. I want to block video sites. His work ethic was atrocious. He was, however, a likable guy and since I wasn’t his actual manager, I only complained upwards.
A few months ago my company did a round of layoffs and, to my surprise, I was the one who got the axe in my department. They cut the only person who cared about working?!
So this has put me in a bit of a tailspin. I’m now pretty pissed about putting in any kind of effort. When I look for jobs now, I’m pretty hesitant to go for the jobs I normally would, ones with great responsibility. I feel like this situation has stolen something from me. My desire to work! And as I said… I don’t know what to do without it.
Probably had a lot to do with how much each person got paid.
You’d think for $130,000 USD he’d put in some work. Or is that not enough for a Junior developer?
The problem they're ignoring is the employer's rejection of traditional work culture themselves. I'm Gen X and even back then the very first job I got, I was trained by a computer rather than an actual human. It took me quite a while to teach myself a lot of basics about how to behave in the workplace, never having proper hand on guidance from anyone, and things have only gone farther off the rails since. Now with Gen Z work is far more impersonal, on top of having almost no prospects at all for starting/raising a family with their income from it.
Employers really need to look in a mirror when they complain about 'kids these days.' We're already a solid 3 generations deep in abdicating responsibility to actually teach the next generation personally, and those in charge just keep pushing harder on solving their problems with more and more technology.
Unfortunately, people running those companies are draconian figures.
Actually a decent read with some thought behind each statement.
Im a border Zillenial so I get to see both sides of this.
I recognize the older way of thinking, and I'm willing to go above and beyond because I personally love my job, but my younger cousins and siblings aren't so lucky. But the article is right they don't put up with any bullshit.
Rude manager trying to power trip? They gone.
Horrible inconsistent part time hours that won't provide stability? They gone and aren't willing to go through the system, work for years, only to get a promotion to AM and limit themselves that way.
Boss putting new responsibility's and expectations without performance acknowledgment or a raise? They gone, they didn't sign up for that without being paid for it.
They don't want to waste their life strggling and hating employment.
Life is worth living.
Gen-Z are, for the most part, the children of Gen-X. This article, and your assessment of Gen-Z is almost a copy/paste of what was written and said about Gen-X exactly thirty years ago.
Gen-X ended up doing their own thing and creating some really cool shit. My hope is that by refusing to conform, Gen-Z, like their parents before them, will forge their own path.
I've just started watching Hacks. They do a great job of highlighting the differences between Z and boomers.
The things that were just plain terrible in the workplace the boomers just lived with and worked around like sexual harassment horrified and shutdown the Gen Z character, while the boomers just figured ways around it best they could being woman without much say in their times. They were laughing about it in retrospect, especially rejoicing in the sexual harasser boss being dead.
Those women put up with a lot of sh8t and trail blazed for their time. That's not to say any of it was right. As a Gen X it's interesting the different worlds we all have been raised in.
The article is not half bad at all, and definitely makes some good points. One thing I would like to point out (and the reason why I tend to object to pigeonholing titles of articles such as this one), is that out of the three points made in the article, only one of them is somewhat unique to GenZ:
2. They Are Speaking A Different Language
Another issue that may be contributing to Gen Z’s workplace challenges is communication. While members of this generation are often hailed as digital natives, that doesn’t always translate into strong interpersonal skills in a traditional work environment. Growing up immersed in social media and text-based communication means many young employees may struggle with face-to-face conversations, especially those expected in professional settings.
A 2022 article from Harvard Law School explains that Gen Z workers entered the workforce during the pandemic. This generation began their careers when it was acceptable to send a quick text — something they are very comfortable with — instead of having a team meeting. They missed office facetime at a crucial point in their career development. This potentially created a gap in their learning and left them unprepared for industries where meetings, presentations and in-depth collaboration are the norm.
The problem arises when workplaces expect Gen Z to conform without offering any middle ground. This communication gap can easily lead to misunderstandings, mistakes or even the appearance that these workers are not engaged — when in reality, they are just using different methods to communicate.
The other two points (and I suppose I will let you decide whether to read the article and make this determination yourself rather than quote it all) are entirely being experienced by many, if not most, of the rest of us, in the toxic waste pit that is this timeline’s current corporate work culture.
The last thing I would point out is that over the last seven years, I have absolutely observed more misunderstandings and inadvertent, undesirable, and unfortunate, shenanigans and miscommunications, resulting from the ever-increasing dominance of text-based communication between everyone in a given organization. I would posit that for those of us who are fortunately permitted by our corporate overlords to remain remote, or at the very least hybrid, this is a challenge that we are all dealing with.
Your last paragraph is on point. At some point you have to realize that text doesn’t convey context and people can take what you say wrong. Text has its use but calling is often a lot faster to convey info when it gets more complex than one single point.
Live meetings are very valuable when done right. Flying the team in for regular face to face onsites is hugely valuable. Forcing people to do stupid commutes for some arbitrary amount of days, with no set meeting schedules or other legitimate reasons, is monumentally stupid. Many of us will not take those kinds of jobs again. I’d rather manage a Wendy’s that’s close by.
Implicit conflict created by screens and asynchronous communication is actually a well studied subject. It's not imaginary or some conspiracy to get people to the office. Microsoft, Oracle and IBM all studied this in depth in the late 90s and early 2000s during the dot com boom because they wanted to get rid of office overhead.
Remote teams can work, but not for every situation, or for every team, and it requires a specific management skill set which is not widely taught in management school. Basically right now everyone is wrong about this. Executives are wrong in thinking that everyone needs to be in the office, and workers are wrong in thinking that there is no value at all to co-working in person.
On the one hand this is fake news clickbait.
But on the other hand this is why we gotta ban TikTok!!! \s
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