Are Gen Z workers really the problem in today’s workforce?
It’s a running joke that employees falling into the Gen Z age range (born between 1997 and 2012) are lazy, unmotivated, and entitled.
Endless memes and TikToks uploaded online poke fun at the way young adults function in the office: showing up late, leaving early, and spending hours scrolling on their phones.
And now new data has found that there is truth to these stereotypes, and that Gen Z’s habits are the reason they aren’t getting hired.
A recent study by Becoming You Labs set out to find out where the problem lies between Gen Z and their superiors.
The study asked 2,100 US hiring managers what personal value or quality they look for in a candidate, and asked Gen Z employees what they look for in a workplace.
Options ranged from ‘desire for community’ to ‘priority on personal well-being and fun.’
Gen Z’s top three values are well-being and self-care, authenticity and expression, and helping people. Meanwhile, the people hiring them are looking for achievement, learning, and hard work.
Only two percent of Gen Z ranked all three of the hiring managers’ preferred values in their top five
Gen Z’s top three values are well-being and self-care, authenticity and expression, and helping people
The results weren’t even close. Some 30 percent of employer respondents wanted their employees to prioritize achievement, 22.8 percent learning, and 22.4 percent hard work.
Meanwhile only 2 percent of Gen Z ranked all three of the hiring managers’ preferred values in their top five.
Out of the 2,100 managers asked, only one said they valued ‘interest in being in charge’, and just 15 said they cared about focus on family considerations.
On the flip side, out of the 7,500 Gen Z respondents, 66 percent said they valued self-care, recreation, leisure, and other forms of personal pleasure, but only 5 percent said they cared about fame or recognition – clear signs of the achievement that hiring managers are seeking in new employees.
The disconnect is clear.
Gen Z candidates care about work-life-balance while hiring managers want hard-workers.
In response to the findings, one CEO said: ‘This explains exactly why we can’t hire.’
A hospital executive said: ‘We are now hiring two or three new docs to replace a retiring one. They tell us we should not be expecting them to work hard because life as a cardiologist isn’t what it used to be.’
Gen Z candidates care about work-life-balance while hiring managers want hard-workers
Gen Zers took to TikTok to voice their feelings on the matter.
‘Why would we want to live by Boomer values when their values ruined the world?’ one asked.
‘Old people hate young people because our lives prove theirs were wasted. I’m not going to wish I worked more on my deathbed,’ another said.
‘Gen Z is pushing against abusive workplace practices more and older generations don’t know how to handle it,’ someone wrote in the comment section of a TikTok on the topic.
‘I recently got fired from a workplace and one of their core complaints was how unprofessional I was. turns out their definition was «Checks phone for 5 minutes once an hour» lol,’ someone chimed in.
‘I’ve been saying recently «back in your day? It’s not your day anymore, it’s supposed to be mine,»‘ another wrote.
These most recent findings came shortly after it was revealed that companies are axing Gen Z workers just months after hiring them fresh from college.
Business leaders admitted to already firing Gen Z hires they made earlier in the year
Six in 10 employers had already fired some college graduates they had recruited earlier in the year, a survey conducted by Intelligent.com found.
One in seven of the employers said they also might not hire fresh college grads next year after finding a raft of problems with young workers.
Business leaders listed concerns in areas such as communications skills and professionalism that made them wary of hiring Gen Z.
They also said the workers of that age are often unmotivated and need to be constantly told what to do – rather than using their initiative.
‘Many recent college graduates may struggle with entering the workforce for the first time as it can be a huge contrast from what they are used to throughout their education journey,’ Intelligent’s Huy Nguyen wrote in the report.
‘They are often unprepared for a less structured environment, workplace cultural dynamics, and the expectation of autonomous work,’ he explained.
Three-quarters of companies surveyed said some or all of their recent graduate hires were unsatisfactory in some way.
Half said their Gen Z hires had a lack of motivation, making them difficult to work with.
