Exploring why Gen Z are considered ‘bad workers’ in an increasingly hostile job market
By ANJALI IYER — amiyer@ucdavis.edu
I spent winter break in New York City surrounded by family, a substantial number of German tourists and what appeared to be a never-ending stream of finance interns in quarter-zips. Most areas of the city were packed to the brim with an influx of travellers eager to celebrate the holiday season. One day, on a particularly hectic street, I overheard a conversation that piqued my interest as I waded through the gridlocked crowd: it was an older gentleman ranting about the “concerning” trends he saw among Generation Z workers.
The man expressed his immense disdain towards Gen Z’s approach to work, citing the post-pandemic preference to work from home as proof of this phenomenon. He went on to complain about how new hires at his workplace also seemed to disregard the importance of dressing professionally. He described (in horror) how he once witnessed a Gen Z hedge-fund salesperson wearing socks with a visible Nike logo, lamenting that this debacle would have been unforgivable back in the 1980s.
As I eavesdropped, I found myself rolling my eyes at what initially seemed like a rather tone-deaf tirade. But, by the time I had wandered out of earshot, I was rather puzzled by his unrelenting vitriol toward Gen Z. Are Gen Z employees actually lazier than their millennial and baby boomer predecessors, or is our different attitude toward work culture indicative of wider socio-economic phenomena?
The difference between baby boomer and Gen Z work culture is undeniably stark. Gen Z employees have a significantly more value-based approach to work and are more likely than boomers to reject employees that don’t align with their personal ethics, according to a 2024 Deloitte survey. This approach is likely due to the fact that Gen Zers tend to prioritize personal fulfillment over aspirations to climb the corporate ladder; compared to millennials and baby boomers, Gen Z workers were significantly more likely to quit within two years of employment if they felt dissatisfied with their employer, according to Deloitte’s 2023 survey.
This change in dynamic is often interpreted by members of older generations as a generational contempt for hard work, as Gen Z employees are less inclined to stay at a company if their priorities and needs aren’t sufficiently met. However, the notion that younger generations are generally unemployable, bad workers is entirely unfounded and relies on a narrow definition of success and productivity.
Furthermore, every generation has a tendency to be overly critical of those that come after them. Millennials were once notoriously the subject of baby boomer jokes over perceived overspending on menial items, as though one could put a downpayment on a house simply by refraining from buying lattes and avocados. The stereotype of Gen Z as unreliable and narcissistic workers likely derives, in part, from the typical intergenerational tension. However, the frustration that boomers have with Gen Z workers seems to also come from a fundamental difference in outlook and experience.
In the 1960s and 70s, it was relatively simple to land a job straight out of college and work until retirement, all while comfortably supporting a spouse and family. Corporations were seen as a necessity and an overall benefit to the American way of life. Nowadays, at least among my peers, the idea of being grateful and loyal to one’s employer is considered outdated, and quite frankly, laughable. The empty promises of neoliberal Reaganomics stagnated the middle class, and following generations watched chief executive officers (CEOs) become grotesquely rich during the pandemic by exploiting their workers.
Needless to say, Gen Z disillusionment has culminated in a paradigm shift in how we view big corporations and those in power. Gen Z’s corporate skepticism is only further validated by the actions of big businesses, who have already begun laying off workers in favor of an even more cost-effective option — artificial intelligence (AI).
For most, it’s impossible to stay motivated and excited for a professional career when you’re constantly being reminded of the futility of your future job prospects. I think back to a particularly painful Uber ride, where upon learning I wanted to be a journalist, my driver proceeded to spend the rest of the ride trying to convince me that the rise in AI would render my future aspirations entirely obsolete. He explained that his teenage son once had similar dreams to mine, describing how he had coerced him into pursuing a pre-law path for a more secure future.
I’ve noticed that most baby boomers and Gen Xers who complain about Gen Z employees lived through a time when the American dream was still, to many, an attainable reality — raising kids in a middle-class income household was a feasibly comfortable achievement. For older generations, employment was often a means to a happy and fulfilled end. Gen Z’s nihilistic approach to work seems appropriate in an era where there are more unemployed people than job openings, and every application is almost certainly scanned and rejected by an AI bot. I think we would all benefit from more empathy in a broken system that ultimately fails us all.
Written by: Anjali Iyer — amiyer@ucdavis.edu
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