This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Here's an interesting (and thorny?) question: Do you feel like there's a millennial/Gen Z divide at the office? If you have younger coworkers who are “Zoomers” (ugh, that name), do their thoughts about the workplace and the nature of work seem drastically different to you than those of older generations? In last Friday's Weekly News Update, we shared an October 28 New York Times story by reporter Emma Goldberg called “The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them,” and we thought it'd make for an interesting discussion (debate?) today.
We're curious, readers: Does the NYT story ring true for you? What is your age/generation, and what are your thoughts? Have you observed a millennial/Gen Z divide at the office? If you're a millennial or Gen Xer, do you sometimes find yourself thinking, “But it's always been done that way!” about certain office norms?
We're definitely not the only ones who want to talk about this story. As of November 2, the article has gotten 2,879 comments, which is pretty notable when you compare it to the 2,964 comments on the NYT's “Bad Art Friend” story (October 5). (If Bad Art Friend doesn't ring a bell, let's just say it reached the “Cat Person” level of online discourse, or close enough.)
I'm not sure I'd call the “37-Year-Olds Are Afraid” headline “clickbait” exactly, but it's definitely written to grab your attention, as is Goldberg's tweet, in which she noted, “Gen Z is scary! They're coming for your ‘9 to 5.' They hate your emojis. They're laughing at your jeans. And they're making things in the office political.”
Here are a few excerpts from the NYT story, which range from surprising or even shocking (at least, to many of Gen Z's elders) to gusty and/or admirable. (We'd describe the third as admirable!)
[A 30-year-old company founder] interviewed a Gen Z candidate for a full-time position who asked if she could stop working for the day once she’d accomplished the tasks she’d set out to do. He responded that her role was expected to be a nine-to-five.
[A 31-year-old startup CEO] had to laugh when a Gen Z employee sent a Slack message assigning her a task to complete. Ms. Priego interpreted this as a welcome signal that her 15-person staff doesn’t find her intimidating, but another member of upper-level management was horrified.
[A 34-year-old startup cofounder] got a Slack message from one of her youngest workers after the shootings at Atlanta-area spas in March asking what the team could do in solidarity with Asian Americans.
Yes, generalizing and stereotyping the generations can be unproductive and even offensive. Still, it's worth talking about how a lot of Gen Z employees are challenging the status quo at work — including requesting (or demanding) that employers address important social issues — and how those of us who are older react.
As a younger Gen Xer who strongly relates to the Xennial concept and has a younger-Gen-Z kid, I find this really interesting. And I'm sure a lot of you readers had the same reaction I did to a lot of the anecdotes in the NYT story. I instantly felt old — kinda like 1970s Grampa Simpson. If you did, too — or didn't — please comment and share your thoughts!
What are your thoughts about generational divides at work? (Faxing, anyone…?) Do you think there's a millennial/Gen Z/Gen X rift in the workplace? What did you think of the NYT story?
Further Reading
- The new disruptors: Gen Z and the future of work [Fast Company]
- Gen Z and millennial workers are leading the latest quitting spree [CNBC]
- Gen Z to Millennial Bosses: Not You Making Me Work [Gawker] (Yes, it's back.)
- Gen Z: 18 Statistics About Today's Newest Workers [FairyGodBoss]
Stock photo via Stencil.
Anonymous
Definitely seeing a divide. The youngest employees are my workplace are very comfortable crying at work and revealing deeply personal information at work (and also speaking up about “mental health days”). They are also a lot less willing to accept mindless butt-in-seat culture or “that’s the way it’s always been done” excuses. They have very rigid expectations for how other people should speak and write and are quick to call many common words “harmful.” I’m in my early 30s and I see a HUGE gap between the behavior of the 22-year-olds and the 50+ year-olds.
No Face
You know what I find hilarious? The older partners thought the millennials were bad because we didn’t work as much on our vacations and we left around 5pm when we weren’t busy. With Gen Z, they aren’t even getting that!
I’m a millennial in my 30s, and I find that the stereotypical Boomers and Zoomers are both equally rigid in their opinions about how everyone should write or speak, just in opposite directions.
AIMS
Ha. That’s a good observation.
Anonymous
Ditto!
Anon
The “deeply personal info at work” has me shaking my head. It’s very true. Some seem to think that just because they overshare everyone else should too. It’s maddening.
Anon
I definitely would call that article title “click bait” and I was dismayed to see that coming from the NYT, but the topic is interesting.
As a Gen Xer, I am thrilled to see younger folks unwilling to take the abuse that older generations tolerated. While Gen Z is somewhat lacking in “professional social intelligence,” that can be learned over time. These “problem elders” are intentionally lumping that awkwardness in with an unwillingness to tolerate a poor working environment, in order to muddy the issue. They’re mad that Gen Z won’t tolerate being exploited, and are targeting Gen Z’s less-formal interactions as a dog whistle for “they wised up and now I can’t treat them like slave labor”.
Anonymous
High hours and 24/7 availability expectations are how employers afford to pay those six-figure salaries to entry-level employees. I agree that those expectations are unreasonable and should not be tolerated, but until employers stop paying crazy salaries to entry-level employees the system will survive.
Anonnymouse
From my experience these kinds of salaries/jobs are not very common – a lot of young people deficiently are not making that kind of money.
Anon
You’re seeing something I didn’t write. I don’t make six figures, never did, and my comment didn’t refer to any specific industry or salary level.
Anon
Another Gen Xer here, agree totally with all of this.
FYI the comments on the article were hilarious. Big “Kids These Days/Get Off My Lawn” energy, coming from people 60-plus AND people in their 30s. I laughed so much.
Seventh Sister
Having gone through Bad Job Stuff, I sometimes feel like it’s an uphill battle to convince people my age and older that you CAN teach someone to do something *without* being abusive. It’s just unnecessary meanness/hazing.
Anon
You’re seeing something I didn’t write. I don’t make six figures, never did, and my comment didn’t refer to any specific industry or salary level.
Anon
Dang,misplaced.
RR
Another Gen Xer and agree. I think Gen X really appreciates Gen Z because they are our kids–we raised this generation. They are giving voice to the things we felt but felt we couldn’t do anything about.
I love millenials too. All “young people” (I’m 45) give me so much hope and energy about the future. Keep up the good fight.
Anonymous
I am young GenX, and my perception is that GenX is far too deferential to both the younger and older generations. We are the “sandwich generation” simultaneously caring for our aging parents and our own children, while also working demanding full-time jobs. We are desperately socking away all the money we can to pay for our own retirement and long-term care as well as our children’s overpriced educations because we have no social safety net to count on. At work we are senior managers, but the VPs are all either a generation older and approaching retirement or handpicked millennials who have charisma but not experience in the trenches. In politics we are crowded out by the oldsters who refuse to relinquish their grip on power, and when they finally are forced to leave they will be replaced by up-and-coming millennials who haven’t yet faced the challenges of raising kids or dealing with health crises or caring for aging parents. Our generation has the life experience to know what’s needed in both political and business leadership, and we are of the age when a generation ago we would have been unequivocally in charge, yet we are too afraid to step up and claim our authority.
Anon
Also young Gen X; this is painfully accurate.
Anon
Younger X and oh yes, this is true.
Anon
One correction: many millennials are nearing forty. We have kids and aging parents!
Anon
Nah, the “nearing 40” crowd are Xennials. The microgeneration is real.
AnonATL
This is so true. I’m a millennial and my husband is as well despite a 7 year age gap. Our experiences and memories of childhood are very very different.
anon
I’m late 20s, and many of my coworker friends are late 30s. They frequently forget that we’re the same generation.
Though – the difference in 10 years is stark when we discuss 9/11: I was in elementary school and one of these friends was enlisting the next week.
Sloan Sabbith
My first legal supervisor and I are technically the same generation. He was a senior at West Point on 9/11. I was in second grade. Such a huge, huge difference.
anon
This is my life.
Anon
+1 million to all of this, from another young Xer!
Anonymous
Oh boo-hoo. Give me a break. Do you really think you are the first generation to have to take of young children and aging parents at the same time? To pay for over-priced university education? Those oldersters are not vindictively refusing to “relinquish power”. They can’t afford to retire because of paying for those same over-priced educations for their children. Some never fully recovered from the great recession. They aren’t doing it to personally spite you. They are desperate. Get over yourself.
Anonymous
Found the oldster!
Anonymous
Haha you did!
Anon
So would you like this kid to get off your lawn or what?
Seventh Sister
And this kind of response is precisely why GenXers like yours truly will do almost anything not to show emotion in public.
anon
+1 million as a fellow young Gen Xer!
Seventh Sister
I’m a young GenXer, and while I definitely feel the sandwich generation thing / feel like I’m in the Jan Brady of generations, I don’t think of myself and my peers as being scared of the boomers or the youngsters. We try, we do our best, we succeed, we fail, we’re journeymen in a world obsessed with the eternal superstars and the fresh-faced ingenue.
RR
I agree, but I also feel for the millennials who have even less security that we did/do at their age. I owned a house by 30–how many millennials can do that? So, yes, it sucks for us, but my solution is to try to form an alliance with the millennials and Gen Zers. It’s not us vs. them. It’s us vs. the Boomers who screwed us all over. #notallboomers, I know, but as a generation, not great.
Anon
I love Gen Z. I hope they change the world once all the old white guys are dead.
Senior Attorney
Or before!!
Anon
Old white guys never die. They just get replaced by new old white guys.
Baby Boomers became Yuppies who became today’s “old white guys” (replacing the WWII generation that was the “old white guy” of the 1960s who sent the Boomers to war and opposed the civil rights movement).
Now Millennials are finding out what it is like to have the up and coming generation criticizing everything from your hair to your jeans to your language to your politics. And in 20 years you will be old white guys being pushed aside by Gen Z and whatever comes next.
And I am a Gen X’er who spent my life being ignored by the media when they were not calling us slackers and by retailers because there were not enough of us. And I find the whole thing hysterical.
Senior Attorney
Attention all you Station Eleven fans: There’s a mini-series coming to HBO Max next month! Woo hoo!
https://ew.com/tv/station-eleven-first-look-hbo-max-teaser-photos/
No Face
I really liked Station Eleven, and I think it would work really well as mini-series.
Anon
I’m so excited for this!
Anonymous
Not very escapist….
Coach Laura
Yes, I read this book years before covid but wouldn’t like it now. But it does make me wish I had HBO.
Sloan Sabbith
I read this book three weeks before COVID really hit and wow was that a poor decision in retrospect.
Anon
I’m a young genX who hopes the younger folks manage the change that I could only dream of.
Anonymous
I’m a late 20s millennial and I definitely struggle with some of the new hires at my job. They can be out of touch, simple norms don’t seem so normal to them (ie it’s inappropriate to give people nicknames or shorten their name without permission). They do respect personal time though which is great, I never get after hours calls, emails, etc.
Anonymous
The name thing is funny, because they would definitely be offended if someone did the same to them.
Anonymous
I have one of those names which can be shortened to an ‘ie’ or ‘y’ version like Rebecka/Becky, Kathleen/Katie, and without fail they always try to use the ie/y version and THAT IS NOT MY NAME.
Anon
I find it hilarious that in most all of the comments, the poster is clearly “MY gen is the best.” It’s a great illustration of how conflicts get cemented over time.
Anonymous
I am the 1:46 GenX poster. I am not saying that GenX is the best, but rather that different roles are appropriate at different stages of life and that GenX has let the boomers hang on to power longer than it should and is ceding its moment to the millennials. Not that GenX is “better.”
Anonymous
I haven’t seen that at all in these comments, actually.
Anon
Your reading comprehension is not good.
Anon
I do think there are differences in values or ideals that split along generational divides, but I get annoyed at the complaints that basically boil down to “young people aren’t professional/don’t know things.” That has been true since the beginning of time. Literally, Plato complained about it. It might present differently in different generations, but it’s not new.
Anon
Right, and if it is a universal complaint across generations, taking offense seems like an over-reaction.
Anonymous
You might argue that Plato was witnessing the decline of the classical period in Greece. So he might have had a point.
Anon
I didn’t read the article as I’m out of free ones and already subscribe to too many things. But I have Gen Z children and as much as I love them, I think they need to toughen up a little for the workplace. (They’re both in college.) The workplace will gradually change, but it won’t be immediate, and their generation’s emphasis on immediate change, requiring safe spaces/speech, passes for all their perceived issues (hangups etc), and their firm belief that everyone wants to hear their opinions on everything … well, I think it’s going to be a rough start to a career.
AIMS
I think that they will. Inevitably. Everyone goes thru this. Entry level employees didn’t suddenly get all the power. Older people are just complaining about feeling like they have to censor themselves. It’s just a new iteration of the same old story.
More Sleep Would Be Nice
Older Millenial/Xennial here. I am SO here for GenZ and what they are bringing to the table. I’d like to think the progress came in waves with previous generations.
Also, my company is finally offering 1-month of paid leave to the birthing parent. I posted this on the Mums site, but this drop in the bucket is PROGRESS from FMLA/STD/PTO/Unpaid Time Off. Even though I’m done having kids, I’m thrilled to think this can add even a DAY extra, with comfort, to a colleague. I feel like my attitude towards it is Millenial/Gen X. American-born Boomers are the generation of “Well we did it this way/We did without, so you should too.”
Seventh Sister
I admit I was surprised when someone at work took six months’ maternity leave, but I don’t think they deserved less just because I got three months’ maternity leave.
GCA
+1. I’m also a vintage millennial (37), I manage younger millennials and Gen Zs, and:
1. The exact same hand-wringing took place over millennials a decade ago. (See: avocado toast.)
2. I believe it sometimes takes radical action, rinse and repeat over years and sometimes decades, to bring about incremental social change. (See: what does it take to get a single month of paid leave!!!) I don’t see my Gen Z colleagues being afraid of hard work — it just has to be meaningful and decent work, to which I say ‘right on’. And I see them working just as hard unpaid for causes they believe in, while taking the time to preserve their health and wellbeing so they can sustain it longer.
3. Re the belief that ‘everyone wants to hear their opinions on everything’ — this has always been the belief of some people in the workplace, except that a generation or two ago this was mainly the province of old white guys.
Gtpeach
I had the same reaction to the article as you, Kate (i.e., “oompf! I think this makes me old!”). I identify as Xennial, too.
The other thought than ran through my mind was, “Gee, this is great for my employment prospects! These young people sound like such a pain!”
Anon
Squarely a millennial and I’m old enough now that I can definitely see Gen Z as a different generation with different norms- and things that I just don’t think about or wouldn’t do. No judgment, just things that I do not understand. TikTok. Posting everything on the internet. Making everything A Thing…
Anonnymouse
Yup. The thing that definitely makes me feel different generationally is my zero interest in adding TikTok (or any new social media site) to my life. I’ve just left that era of my youth, ha!
Hannah
The NYT article its out of touch clickbait. I am WAY older than 37 and not at all afraid of GenZ. I’m more afraid of the Boomers who refuse to retire and make room for younger generations to advance. The workplace rules are outdated, as we have learned from the pandemic. I can’t wait for the Millenials and Gen Z to improve the landscape!
zillennial blues
i read the article but all it did was give me more anxiety about where i fall on the generational divide – born in 94 and also took time off during college so graduated at 26. i definitely identify with more of the “gen z” stereotypes as far as office culture and not wanting to conform to the typical “stuffy” status quo. luckily my current job is a pretty laid back office and i’m on my own most of the time – so many people wfh that i don’t think a lot of the situations in the article have applied yet. i think that it’s good to examine why certain things are the norm in the corporate world and whether or not they’re really necessary.
C
Gen X here. I do workplace research. Generational boundaries are not actually widely agreed upon and get confused with cohort effects and maturational (life stage/experience) effects. There is no significant difference in things like workplace attitudes across “generations.” It is all click bait, though I find it deeply compelling click bait whenever the point of the article is that Gen X is best. ;-) Wanting to treat others in non-damaging ways and having work life balance are certainly things I appreciate! Employees in the workplace here in the US have really had the short end of the stick for a long time and seem to take it for granted, so more humane treatment seems desirable.