Gen Z’s Work Ethic: What Boomers Don’t Get

If you had all the money you ever needed, would you still work? Definitely not. Their loyalty spans are very, very short. I've been laid off multiple times and I'd only been at the position three months. They just think my ideas are so absurd. It comes across to me as, how do we do less work? I think you guys are stubborn. Because we use technology for a lot of things that we're lazy. I'm not sure you value how hard you have to work. What's the worst thing about my generation? Can Gen Z and baby boomers get along in the workplace? To find out, we paired six strangers back to back for an unfiltered conversation about work culture. What misconceptions do you think people have about the way your generation works? Well, I think the easy one is, Gen Zers can be seen as lazy or not willing to work as hard. And that technology is doing all the work for us, which I don't think is the case. Kind of like a get in, get out mentality of like, I'm just here to get money and I don't care about anything else. I think it's just a little bit of a pushback against companies that ask for a lot more work for the same amount of pay. I don't feel like Gen Zers are lazy at all. I think they're full of ambition, but it's just in a different way. It's maybe more myopic. I don't know, like, not what's good for the company, but what works for me. The boomer generation and older people tended to place more emphasis on work and position and promotions and those kinds of things. I think the work-life balance is a little different now. And we were like, growing up, we were able to see that in our parents and grandparents and just how much they worked and how much stress that they were under. And I think a lot of us just don't want the pressure of that. We, as Gen Z, have a fear of being given way too much if we express too much curiosity and intelligence, I guess. And so I understand where our fear is with that. I've seen that just as being female. Women feel like if they say no, that it's going to hurt their career. And so they say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, until they have way too much on their plate. It's very important to learn when to pull back. Probably nothing drives a boomer more crazy than when a younger person grabs the mouse or grabs their phone and says, let me do this for you. Someone said to me, no one would expect you to know Excel as well as you do because of your age and your gender. Really? They said that to your face? Yeah, but it was just in fun. Gen Zers might not see that baby boomers do want to move forward with technology. We should probably be a little more patient and understanding, like you said, like we grew up with this technology and you guys like came in the middle of your lives and you've had to like adapt to it. Do you believe loyalty exists in the corporate world? Maybe less so in this day and age. Nowadays, it very much feels like this corporate greed. I've never felt like I needed to be loyal to a company for any reason. Being loyal to a company can get you to places to an extent like climbing up the corporate ladder or making connections or keeping the connections you've had for a really long time. I wouldn't sacrifice my own morals or my own wants and needs for a company. Maybe employees are now just an expendable resource to some of these bigger corporations. I go back to my earlier careers and you really felt safe all the time. And as time moved forward through the 90s and the dot-com bubble and all the other things that started to happen, it felt more and more like it was the corporations were less loyal, therefore we will be less loyal. I feel like Gen Z feels that so hard. I've been laid off multiple times and I'd only been at the position three months. It's that Gen Z worry of being exploited or cut off with no notice that it's like, I don't wanna put my everything into it. I have felt in the past when I've had to give a name and have someone laid off that I've been disloyal to that person. And it's painful. I think Gen Z looks at layoffs as a lot more of an evil. Why can't that company be loyal to these employees? And I think boomers look at layoffs as we've got a business to run. If we're not solvent, if we don't get our expenses under control, we're not gonna be around to allow anybody to have any jobs. Job security is a hard and scary thing that a lot of people go through. Your job can now be taken over by AI. There is just no guarantee that your position is safe. I don't think people even have the opportunity to be loyal to a company if they even wanted to. Do you think your generation has it easier than mine? No. No, we're the ones that walked uphill 10 miles in the snow to school. I think as far as a career goes, I think that boomers had it a bit harder than Gen Z's. I think there was more demand on them, on their time. It was so much less flexible. I would argue that the job market is a little bit harder now. You know, like going to college and getting a degree, it doesn't pay off as much as it used to. These entry-level jobs they can't get because they don't have the experience. We went through a recession in 1980 and 1981, but then we had the Great Recession in 07 and 08, and we were going, uh-oh, everybody's shutting down, there's no jobs, what are we gonna do? So I think every generation goes through these waves. Right now, I'd agree the job market's a bit rough. I do think people think that this generation has it easier because of all the advancements, but I don't think it's easier. There's like this pressure to make six figures by 22 and graduate in four years, and you have to do all these things while you're young, and I think that we're just always worried about not being good enough or not be on the right track. Do you think companies owe their employees anything beyond a paycheck? Yeah, a paycheck is great, but you're telling me I can't take a day off because I'm tired or I'm sick. I think sometimes employers think that they own you and they forget that you're human. I just wish there was more of a work-life balance, and I think employers could aid to that by being a little bit more understanding and compassionate. I think companies should prioritize and invest in their employees' mental health. I mean, I've heard of studies they've done in Europe where they did a four-day workweek, and even though they had a whole extra day that they weren't working, their productivity statistically increased. Ah, four-day workweek, terrible idea, terrible idea. Working is a good thing, you know, to think that, well, how do we taper it down? How do we do, it comes across to me as how do we do less work? I don't think it's that good for society. If I can work a four-day workweek and get just as much done as I would in a five-day workweek. I would think you're a magician. If you get that done in four days and you tell me that you normally would have been five days, I'd take that fifth day and I'd say, okay, so now what could you get done? Well, you'd get done more. I don't think it's realistic to think I could do as much in four days as I could do in five days. Future employers expect you to get a lot of experience from previous jobs, and if they aren't willing to give you those experiences and throw you in the deep end, or at least teach you, mentor you a little bit, then there's not a lot to gain from that experience or that position. I really agree. A lot of the people I manage are entry-level, and I feel like it's my job to launch them. Whatever their career goals are, even if they're outside of what they're currently doing or outside the scope or whatever, I want to help them get there, and I feel like that's what employers really do owe their employees besides the paycheck. So I'm a hard yes that companies owe a lot more. If you look at what motivates employees, money and the paycheck are really far down on the list. So for somebody to feel valued at work, to feel that they get the recognition that they deserve, not only from their boss, but from their boss's boss and their peers, is huge. Just recognition or just making that known and nothing beyond that almost doesn't really mean much to me. If I'm looking at this company, and let's say that project I did made all this money to them, I would almost want to see a little piece of that. One of the challenges with money is it is so short-term. So if somebody comes and says, hey, here's $100 for that project that you completed, or $1,000, whatever it is, you're pretty happy, but you're happy for about a week, and then you spent the money and you've kind of forgotten about that. I think regular recognition, where inside you know, my boss values what I do. He or she values the contribution that I make. I think that's something that creates a whole lot more loyalty between a company and an employee. Kind of going back to our original question, do we owe those employees something more than a paycheck? I absolutely think we do, and I think they're gonna come to expect it more, and I think companies and people that manage teams need to step up and deliver those things. What motivates you more, money, passion, or stability? The thing that motivates me more than anything else is seeing the people around me thrive. The passion of the people around me is what drives me. At least at this point in my life, super easy I'd jump to passion. I think that's the thing that from day one can be motivating to the day they put you in the ground. I agree to an extent. I think I want passion to be the driver, but the way that the cost of living is just so expensive, it's like I kind of have to put that aside and really just be money driven. If I had more money, I could have a house. I feel like I could provide more for a family. I think that, I guess this is getting into kind of another topic, but I just think my value as a man is somewhat tied to the amount of money I have. It just opens a lot of doors that I may not have access to right now. Oh, I like this one. This is a fun question. You ready to rock? I'm scared. No, no, don't be scared. I got you, I got you, I got you. In the most unfiltered, uncensored way possible, what's the worst thing about my generation? Okay, this is no offense to anyone in specific. It's very hard to get through to some baby boomers. They can be very, very hard headed and they're not willing to acclimate to this new generation. The ones I've interacted with don't see that other people can work differently, live their life differently and thrive. They just think my ideas are so absurd. If I had to answer with a criticism, it's that I'm not a good father. It's just the amount of time in front of a screen, I would say is the worst thing. I'm not sure you value how hard you have to work to get to where you wanna get to. My answer isn't to nitpick an element of something that is done differently than the way I do it. It is in the idea that I'm not convinced that the generation and the people that I'm speaking of, and again, same thing with you, I'm speaking in generality, right? Believes that they can do more, believes it's not about, that if they can find a way to take a bigger risk, that they could just fly and absolutely change everything because of the way they use technology and because of the things that they do. Just the beginning of that pursuit, even when it goes completely awry and completely wrong, is worth it so that you're never second-guessing it and you don't leave this life with any regret. Hey. How's it going? Nice to meet you. You are not what I imagined at all. I assume that you're comfortable and you should focus on these deep value things when at your age, this is kind of Maslow's hierarchy, you're looking at, but wait a second, am I gonna make enough money to have a viable career? Am I gonna be able to buy a house? Can I buy a engagement ring for my girlfriend? And I think that for people that are older, we need to pay attention to that. Cool. Great to meet you. Yeah, you too. That was fun.