Rikki Schlott writes for the New York Post about an interesting assessment of today’s youngest adults.
Despite many of them having only just entered the workforce, Generation Z — those born from 1997 onwards — is already getting a bad rap at the office.
According to a recent survey of 1,300 managers, three out of four agree that Gen Z is harder to work with than other generations — so much so that 65% of employers said they have to fire them more often.
One in eight have let go of a Gen Zer less than one week after their start date, the study found.
The results ring true with managers across the US and in various industries, who report that young hires have been difficult to deal with, particularly when it comes to language.
“I feel kind of hamstrung on what I can and can’t say,” Peter, a New Jersey-based manager in the hospitality industry, told The Post.
“I don’t want to offend anyone or trigger someone. I always have it in the back of my mind that I’m going to get angry one day, and I’m going to get freaking canceled.”
For Alexis McDonnell, a content creator who managed Gen Z employees at a tech company in Dallas, “The biggest difference I noticed was just a difference in professionalism.
“I do think the pandemic had a big role to play in that because for all of them, this was their first job out of college and their last years were spent remote,” McDonnell,28, told The Post.
Starting their careers during a pandemic may have stunted Gen Z’s office etiquette.
In fact, 36% of survey respondents reported poor communication skills among their young hires.
“They all exhibited the same weird office behavior,” said Peter, who asked to withhold his last name for privacy reasons.
