by Kate Lewis for fluxo
Ah, what a lovely point of contention. I am Gen Z and, of course, aware of society’s general tirade against my generation’s work habits. They say we have unrealistic expectations and place too much importance on a work/life balance. That we don’t want to work hard but want to have the perfect job.
Look, I understand the grievances. I hear the arguments. I absolutely agree with some of them. But might I appeal to the jury on Gen Z’s behalf?
Actually, perhaps just on my behalf. I don’t know if I can confidently speak for millions of other twentysomethings that work in wildly different fields than me. Maybe I’ll just represent the New York City 22-27 year olds with 9 to 5 jobs.
I do believe we want to work hard. I do believe we care. But our hard work and our care comes at a price. And isn’t that how having a job works?
Perhaps the generations before us were a bit more ~easy breezy~ when it came to taking on jobs they didn’t want or care about early on in their careers in order to move up a certain work ladder. And I admire that greatly.
But does choosiness—decisiveness—mean we’re bad employees? Or does it mean we know what we want and politely refuse to settle?
Do we pledge blind, unyielding loyalty to the first company that gives us a job out of school, or do we continue looking for opportunities until we find exactly what we have our hearts set on, even if we’re under-qualified?
Somewhere in between these two extremes is probably the best place to fall, but it’s a spectrum. Individuals are peppered throughout the thin line of applications, employee reviews, and busy work. Different goals, different jobs, different personalities are going to lead people to act and react to work in a multitude of ways.
I think the fairly drastic change in expectations in the workplace over the last few years has had a huge impact on Gen Z’s attitude and approach to work, especially when it comes to remote positions and companies. Whether older generations like it or not, being remote changes work habits. Sometimes for worse, but not always. I think that, while not totally unwarranted, there’s a bit of lack of faith and trust in my generation and our ability to do our jobs well.
It’s like watching your kids learn math in elementary school. Parents are always outraged and confused by the strange new way of teaching long division or word problems to second graders. But a lot of those second graders grow up and become pretty damn good at algebra, calculus—the higher maths. Those new ways of learning aren’t bad, they’re just unknown to the parents, and as humans, the things we don’t understand make us uncomfortable.
The same line of thinking goes for the new way of working. We Gen Z’ers largely don’t work the way Millennials, Gen X’ers, and Boomers worked, so we’re criticized for it. But it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Might it sometimes be? Sure. But on a larger (and, albeit, simplified) scale, I think we all need to embrace different working styles and habits. Differences in thought and opinion are what moves society forward. Let the cogs turn.
Void, thanks for listening to my shouting.
