You talkin’ to me?
Young NYC professionals are saying “get outta town!” to new research calling out Gen Z employees for being “lazy.”
The workplace survey, conducted by Intelligent.com, revealed widespread hesitation on the part of managers to bring on recent college graduates, noting concerns about their work ethic, communication skills and job readiness.
Accusations of Gen Z being bad employees are costing them their jobs, as employers noted concerns about their work ethic, communication skills and readiness to do the job, according to a new survey. Stephen Yang
Many Gen Z workers, the findings stated, have been fired just months after starting a job.
The news is just the latest in a long line of work-related complaints about the age group — ranging from their in-office style to “inappropriate” use of slang in professional settings.
Locals were quick to push back on the dispiriting news — saying their generation has a great work ethic — while pointing out that they definitely have different working styles that prioritize work-life balance.
“The argument of us being lazy is extremely misconstrued,” Erica Burkett, 27, told The Post. “We’re just not going to be accustomed to the workforce that’s been around for the last 50 years.”
Instead, Burkett, who works as a freelance graphic designer, said her cohort is “breaking out of that whole system.”
“We’re not tying our whole life down to some corporate job that doesn’t care about whether we live or die, Erica Burkett, 27, said. “We’re breaking out of that mindset.” Stephen Yang
“We’re not tying our whole life down to some corporate job that doesn’t care about whether we live or die,” she said. “We’re breaking out of that mindset.”
Burkett said she and her fellow Gen Zers are “extremely hard workers” who always “get it done.”
“I would argue that we’re way more creative,” she added. “So we’ll find different ways to have the outcome instead of the traditional way.”
“The way that our parents used to work and the way that they would have to put effort into work to achieve the life that they wanted is very different now,” Florencia Comparini, 27, told The Post. Stephen Yang
Indeed, technology and remote work have drastically changed how and what the workplace looks like, which has influenced Gen Z’s work responsibilities and expectations.
“The way that our parents used to work and the way that they would have to put effort into work to achieve the life that they wanted is very different now,” Florencia Comparini, 27, told The Post. “Now you can sit at home and work on a computer and make billions of dollars.”
And sometimes, older generations just don’t get it — especially when they don’t even understand what jobs like social media managers entail.
“There’s so many more opportunities for different jobs. And older generations don’t understand the kind of new developing jobs that are happening,” Comparini, a senior media analyst, said. “There’s a divide.”
Regardless of new job titles and responsibilities, Gen Z thinks it’s unfair to categorize a whole generation — 69.31 million people in the US — as ne’er-do-wells.
“Gen Z gets a bad rep, and I think that you’ll get that with any generation. You’ll have people that work really hard and people that don’t work really hard,” Nicole Hegert, a 26-year-old packaging engineer, told The Post. “It trickles down, like, every generation.”
Ryan Perry, a 23-year-old investment banker, said he believes a person’s work ethic has more to do with how you were raised
“It’s really dependent on the person. I don’t know if it necessarily has to do with what generation you’re in.”
“It’s really dependent on the person. I don’t know if it necessarily has to do with what generation you’re in,” Ryan Perry, 23 (front left), told The Post while sitting across from Khelbert Ehresmann, 22 (front right). Stephen Yang
“You have lazy people from every generation,” Khelbert Ehresmann, 22, a credit risk manager told The Post.
He agrees that some in his generation have deformalized things that may make older folks uncomfortable, including how they dress and speak at work, but he doesn’t believe that to be a reflection of their work ethic.
Ultimately, he noted, doesn’t every generation credit themselves as being better than the youngsters?
“When we become 40 or 50 we’re gonna say the same about our children’s generation,” he said. “It’s just a constant cycle.”
