Gen Z: Beyond the Stereotypes

Impatient. Lacking work ethic. Unserious. These descriptors appeared in an article posted earlier this year on LinkedIn that lamented the shortcomings of young people in the workplace. Many readers assumed the adjectives referred to Generation Z employees. But they didn’t. The words had been pulled from a 1950s issue of Life magazine and described Baby Boomers, who were, at that time, new to the workplace.

According to Megan Gerhardt, Ph.D., a professor of management at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business in Oxford, Ohio, it’s not uncommon to see today’s young employees so described. “The first burst of a new generation into the workplace always causes ripples,” Gerhardt says. “They’ve learned new tools and types of expertise that may not easily fit with established ways of doing things. But each generation learns the tools they need to survive in their own time.”

Not too long ago, Millennials were the boogeymen of the workplace, thought to be more concerned with avocado toast and participation medals than falling in line with office culture. Before that, animosity was directed at the purportedly disaffected slackers of Gen X, who, according to The Washington Post in 1993, were “the first generation in American history to live so well and complain so bitterly about it.” Even Aristotle once complained of his era’s youth, “They think they know everything and are always quite sure about it.”

Gen Z—a cohort born between roughly 1997 and 2012—is predicted to surpass the number of Baby Boomers in the workforce this year and will make up 30 percent of the workforce by 2030. Their critics say they are unwilling to do “real work” and dismiss them as disloyal job hoppers.

They’re often called demanding, always wanting more—flexibility, perks, money—and, worse, they seem to feel they’re entitled to it. A whopping 74 percent of managers and business leaders surveyed by ResumeBuilder.com reported that they find it more challenging to work with members of Gen Z than with workers from other generations.

Are these complaints credible? Or are they simply a case of older workers predictively criticizing those younger and less experienced?

It depends on whom you ask. Not everyone has such a bleak view of Gen Z employees. Many experts praise Gen Z as a uniquely individualistic, values-driven group. These young professionals prize “developmental and career advancement opportunities, an inclusive workplace and open communication,” says Rose Ann Garza, SHRM-SCP, chief human resources officer for Kerbey Lane Café in Austin, Texas.

As they have with other generations, business leaders must make the effort to understand the behavior and attitudes of these new employees to attract, retain and motivate them.

A Matter of Perspective

Every generation has its cultural touchstones: wars, recessions, economic booms, civil rights struggles. For Gen Z, the COVID-19 pandemic has understandably had a huge impact on their outlook and values, says New York Times bestselling author and leading career and workplace expert Lindsey Pollak, but it’s not the only influence. She says that many members of Gen Z saw their parents lose their jobs during the Great Recession and have witnessed unprecedented wealth disparities. They’ve also seen the rise of the gig economy, know they have the option of quitting their job tomorrow and driving for Uber, and are more comfortable with diversity.

“They are a very diverse generation, and they’ve seen LGBTQ+ people and people of color in leadership positions,” says Pollak, who wrote The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace (Harper Business, 2019). “The first president they really remember is Black, and that’s huge.” As a result, she explains, social justice is very important to many members of Gen Z, and some won’t hesitate to speak up when they perceive inequities in their organizations.

That proclivity to object to situations they find unjust—especially in the workplace—can be jarring to older generations. “A Baby Boomer likely learned the norm that respect is earned by putting your head down, keeping your mouth shut and putting your nose to the grindstone,” says Gerhardt, co-author of Gentelligence: The Revolutionary Approach to Leading an Intergenerational Workforce (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021). “When it was your turn for promotion, you would be tapped on the shoulder and told.”

In general, younger generations have been taught the opposite—that calling attention to yourself and getting noticed are the chief drivers of career advancement. “A Millennial likely learned that the way you earn respect is to get yourself to the front of the line and speak up before someone else does; otherwise, that opportunity will pass you by,” Gerhardt explains. “For Gen Z, putting your head down and keeping your mouth shut in a hybrid or remote world of work is likely a recipe to never be recognized.”

Gen Z’s tendency to self-advocate and job hop may partially be attributed to watching their parents’ careers be upended by the Great Recession—and, for many more, by the pandemic. This may result in a cynicism the children of more prosperous eras do not share, Pollak says. “When you share the criticism with Gen Z about them not being loyal, they laugh and ask, ‘Are ­corporations loyal? A corporation wouldn’t hesitate to fire me,’ ” she notes.

Gen Z also finds meaning in markedly different places than their parents. Given that the Gen Z demographic is less likely to be religious or involved in civic groups, many of them derive meaning from their work and their relationships with colleagues, Pollak says. It follows that they are more likely to want to talk about their feelings when at work. This is a generation that grew up casually sharing personal details of their lives—those that older generations were often told to hide—with strangers online, Pollak notes.

According to a report from the Walton Family Foundation, a sobering 42 percent of Gen Z members experience symptoms of depression, and many are comfortable talking about it in the workplace. Not only that, Pollak says, but they expect their companies to respond by offering mental health support: “Not every boss has to be a therapist, but they need to know where to refer people who are going through difficult times.”

Soft Skills

This all may strike older workers as inappropriate in professional settings, and they may perceive their younger colleagues as lacking an understanding of the implicit “soft skills”—including professional communication, emotional intelligence and time management—that grease the wheels of an agreeable workplace culture.

A survey conducted last year by SHRM and Handshake—a San Francisco-based company that connects younger workers with employers—of more than 2,100 individuals relatively new to the workplace or about to graduate and nearly 1,200 established HR professionals, found that companies have a dim view of their youngest employees’ social skills. The report, Preparing the Next Generation of Talent for the World of Work, found that while 57 percent of young professionals say they possess good communication skills, only 33 percent of employers say the same of their younger workers. Similarly, 51 percent of young professionals rank themselves high in time management skills, compared with only 20 percent of employers who see their younger workers as efficient.

The extended isolation brought on by the pandemic and the digital culture in which Gen Z has come of age may have something to do with these misaligned impressions, Pollak says. Gen Z has grown up communicating with one another using very different mediums than previous generations. “Gen Z is the first truly digital native generation,” Pollak notes. “They’ve never known a time before the internet, social media and cell phones.”

Some employers have found Gen Z so inept at soft skills that a few major consulting firms—including PwC, Deloitte and KPMG—are offering their young workers specialized training to help them develop work-appropriate communication skills, learn how to listen for verbal cues and read body language—in short, to understand how to “read a room.” Pollak says many Gen Z workers are grateful for the guidance.

“I sometimes tell younger workers, keep a pair of nice shoes or a tie at your office just in case. And they’re like, ‘Thank you! No one ever told me that,’ ” Pollak says. After years of working remotely, young professionals are sometimes baffled by the more subtle workplace norms, Pollak says. So if employers want their employees to adhere to them, making expectations clear goes a lot further than seething when your younger workers fail to guess what those expectations are.

“Don’t be afraid to be clear,” Pollak stresses. “To be clear is to be kind.” Gen Z doesn’t want to be micromanaged, she says, but they do want some guidelines, such as knowing their expected work hours and the best ways to communicate with their managers.

That also applies to what it will take to advance at work. While some employers gripe that their young workers expect to be promoted quickly, the answer isn’t to simply tell them they’re not ready yet, Pollak says: “You need to say, ‘I understand you want to get promoted. Here is exactly what it will take.’ If you don’t, they will leave and go find another job.”

But what does it take to encourage talented young professionals to consider you an employer of choice? Workplace experts say it’s a matter of knowing what Gen Z most values as employees. For example:

Be flexible.

Abandon the notion that a high salary is enough to lure this generation into working for you. When SHRM asked recent and soon-to-be college graduates to identify what was important to them when evaluating a job opportunity, 69 percent said job security was very important, 66 percent said professional development, and 62 percent said flexible work schedules. Conversely, most employers said competitive wages/salary are very important to new employees, followed by flexible work schedules.

That line of thinking might sound familiar to Gen X. Gerhardt sees an “interesting parallel between Gen X and Gen Z,” noting, “Xers pushed back against the workaholic norms of the Boomers and were called slackers because of it. They pushed for more work/life balance and flexibility. Gen Z is now doing the same.” Organizations would be wise to woo Gen Z workers with flexible hours, solid work, and professional development rather than trying to dazzle them with talk of starting salary or bonus structure.

“This generation has been very exposed to the idea of work/life balance; they set boundaries,” says Pollak. “They come in with expectations that I don’t think my generation [Gen X] had. It’s not good or bad, right or wrong, better or worse. It’s just different.”

Tailor your perks.

That’s not to say that Gen Z employees don’t want financial security.

“They are more cautious and careful with their financial decisions, likely as a result of watching things like the 2008 market crash and the pandemic play out,” Garza says. Consider ways to not only financially reward Gen Z workers, but also to provide them with useful perks and benefits, such as financial literacy courses.

Student loan repayment programs are also popular with Gen Z workers who may be carrying significant amounts of education debt. The creation of such programs was bolstered earlier this year when companies began to be permitted to match the payments individuals make on their student loans thanks to provisions of the SECURE 2.0 Act.

When some companies learned that their younger employees weren’t taking them up on their 401(k) match because they had to pay off student loans, they added an option for a student loan repayment employer match, Pollak says. “The goal is to offer financial support for people who are not just different ages, but at different life stages.”

Encourage mentorship.

Offering mentorship opportunities to Gen Z workers can have the dual effect of providing them with the professional advice they crave while also helping them better familiarize themselves with office culture. Indeed, 83 percent of Gen Z employees feel that mentorship is crucial for their career development, according to a 2023 Adobe Workforce Study.

“A mentor doesn’t have to be 30 years older than you,” Pollak says. “Some companies have implemented a buddy system. They have buddies who are only one year ahead of them. They feel more comfortable asking questions of someone who is closer in age.”

Garza echoes this emphasis on direct guidance and says she can attest to its effectiveness. “Our Gen Z team members are eager to learn and often seek out additional tasks and responsibilities,” she says. “They value mentorships, and we provide that by partnering our new team members with a tenured member who can assist with the transition.”

Professional development opportunities have a big impact on retention with Gen Z employees. While 40 percent of the young professionals SHRM surveyed in its emerging professionals report said they planned to leave their current role within 1-3 years, 65 percent said they would stay if they were given consistent opportunities to build in-demand skills.

Cultivate opportunities to connect IRL.

“When the pandemic hit, there were broad assumptions that Gen Z would fare well, as they are considered the most tech-savvy generation,” Gerhardt explains. “But those assumptions turned out to be flawed.”

Indeed, a 2024 survey by Washington, D.C.-based ­Seramount, a professional services firm that works to support and advance women in the workplace, found that only 11 percent of Gen Z employees prefer to work fully remotely, compared with 34 percent of workers from other generations. Hybrid work plans are the most popular with Gen Z, with 74 percent preferring an at-home/in-office arrangement, versus 52 percent of those in other generations.

Why should face-to-face connection at work matter so much to a generation for whom countless relationships are facilitated by a screen? For many of the same reasons it mattered to previous generations, Gerhardt says. It helps people determine their place within a team, establish themselves among their colleagues, and better learn the ins and outs of their position.

“The things that tend to matter most during one’s early career years, such as establishing your networks, learning the ropes at your job and impressing your boss, are some of the hardest to accomplish remotely,” Gerhardt explains. Little wonder, then, that those in older generations acclimated to remote work more easily, she says, while Gen Z struggled.

As Gen Z continues to fill the ranks of the workforce, it’s incumbent upon today’s leaders to remain cognizant of the unique forces that have shaped this generation. But it’s also crucial to bear in mind that one’s generation is just one piece of their personality’s complex puzzle.

“Any time we try to characterize an entire generation as being just one way, we are already wrong,” Gerhardt says. “Generational identity is just one layer of who we are, and it interacts with our age, race, gender, socioeconomic status and more to form our perspectives on work.”   

Kate Rockwood is a freelance writer based in Chicago.