Gen Z Works to Live. Companies Should Follow Suit
Gen Z’s attitudes towards work are so different in part because of the hardships they endured during COVID-19 and the economic insecurity that ensued in its aftermath.
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Chicago — As Gen Z continues to proliferate throughout the workplace, the generation's professional characteristics (or lack thereof) have been a hot-button issue. While there are many competing narratives about the skills the generation does and doesn’t have, most can agree: the young people have adopted a “work to live” mantra, rather than the “live to work” philosophy that so many older generations followed.
Ravin Jesuthasan, an expert on the ways the workplace is changing, told Business Insider that Gen Z’s attitudes towards work are so different in part because of the hardships they endured during COVID-19 and the economic insecurity that ensued in its aftermath.
"They have seen the legacy of all these broken promises,” said Jesuthasan. “In the old days … they would promise you if you worked for 30 years, you have this defined benefit pension, you have retiree medical care, etc. None of that exists today."
"There's a sense of, 'I'm only as good as … the value I'm delivering today, and so these are the terms under which I want to work, and you either meet them or not,'" Jesuthasan added.
Some members of older generations have met such sentiment with pushback, perceiving Gen Z’s approach to work as entitled, lazy and arrogant. Others have railed against the generation’s soft skills. But trying to change Gen Z’s approach is a fool's errand, Jesuthasan expressed.
Instead, employers should work to meet them where they are by ridding themselves of one-size-fits-all approaches to management and compensation. They should look to more individualized approaches to allow workers to “pick and choose” from a “portfolio of rewards,” Jesuthasan said.
Noah Johnson (he/him/his) is a Chicago-based journalist. Follow him on X: @noahwritestoo.
Edited by NaTyshca Pickett