Every day, I hear people, managers from previous generations, complaining about Gen Z.
That they don’t want to work overtime, that they speak up (meaning they set boundaries), that they don’t accept all kinds of criticism, that they expect too much. They are practically impossible. And, of course, the conclusion inevitably follows: “I don’t know what we’re going to do with this generation. Who’s going to work?” 🙄
In my conversations with clients, I try to offer a different approach, with as much diplomacy as I can, even though I sometimes feel frustrated by their behavior too. But I try to understand the phenomenon.
So I decided to write about it, and I hope it helps both generations get along in the same office 😄
And here is my question: did you like it?
Did you like working late into the night, coming in at weekends without being paid? Not being able to say no? Having your boss shout at you or insult you while you kept quiet because “they’re the boss”?
I don’t think so.
And if you are a parent, you probably raised your child precisely so that they would not accept everything you accepted.
You told them to believe in themselves, to say what they think, not to let anyone humiliate them, to know their worth, and not to stay somewhere they are unhappy.
And now, when they do exactly what you taught them, it annoys you. 😇
Gen Z didn’t appear out of nowhere. Gen Z was raised by us.
By parents who grew up and matured professionally in environments we would call toxic today.
We stayed late, we kept quiet when someone more senior spoke to us rudely, we accepted low salaries so we could “learn”. And for a long time we mistook putting up with all of this for performance. In interviews with people over 50, I have heard stories worthy of horror films about how they were treated by “the boss” in the ’90s.
Of course, Gen Z has its extremes too. Some confuse boundaries with a lack of responsibility, but previous generations had people at the extremes as well.
Gen Z has more pluses than minuses.
They ask “why?”. They don’t automatically respect a job title; they respect the person. They have more courage to say when something is wrong. They want a life outside work, too.
And no, I am not worried that there will be no one to fill corporate positions after we retire. 😆
There will be. Guaranteed.
Maybe they will work differently. Maybe they will lead differently. Maybe they will change some rules we considered normal only because that is how we found them.
And maybe that is a very good thing.
And to those who find Gen Z so hard to understand, I suggest a simple exercise: think of them as your own children.
Would you like to see them exhausted, working late into the night for little money and putting up with a boss who insults them?
Certainly not.
Then perhaps we should look at this generation with a little more openness.
Because, in the end, we are the ones who raised them this way, and that is a very good thing! Once they feel accepted and heard, they will be more engaged too.
After all, the future belongs to them. 😊
In the photo: my Gen Alpha, and I don’t know yet what they will be like at work 😄😄😄
