Hello!
Thank you for joining me, I’m so glad you’re here.
This week I’m getting stuck into a thorny topic - entitlement. I remember when “they” used to say us millennials were entitled, but were we really?
It’s gen z’s turn now, with lots of narrative around them not wanting to work hard, or come in to work on time etc etc… but that’s not really the story I’m seeing.
It all started with Corporate Natalie, who I am a massive fan of - she creates content about being a millennial in the corporate world. She was on a podcast, seemingly answering questions that people had sent to the podcast.
She reads out a problem from someone, explaining that they are new to their job and have been asked to come in at 8am when their work doesn’t start until 9am, and they have a yoga class that morning so won’t be able to come in earlier.
In a now deleted video, Natalie (either playing a role or giving her honest answer, it’s up for debate) replies saying that she doesn’t care about the employee’s yoga, if they’re asked to come in early, they need to be there.
This was then stitched (a TikTok term for when you take someone else’s video and tag your own video response onto the end) with a gen z in a car explaining that their work starts at 9am, they won’t be going in early. The video and the stitch are here (contains swearing) [TikTok].
This kicked off a HUGE debate around whether gen z is entitled, or whether people need to manage their work boundaries better to improve their mental health and quality of life.
While the internet was bashing gen z for having the audacity and being entitled, I spotted this hilarious post about Alan Sugar:
Alan Sugar is well known for his negative feelings around working from home when it comes to his employees, but it seems that he is perfectly OK with working from home himself, as demonstrated when he spoke to the BBC about it…while working from home.
I also saw a Reddit post where someone at VP level was complaining that their company will soon need to be in the office five days a week, and the reasons they state weren’t around consideration for their team but for personal reasons and how inconvenient it would be.
So what I’m seeing is that it seems a lot more acceptable for workers to manage boundaries and state their preferences but only when they’re older/more senior. If we compare the answers the VP got to the woman who complained about her work/life balance [TikTok, contains swearing] with having to commute to her 5-9, then it’s like night and day.
I’ve also not seen a huge amount of flack for the senior employee of the FCA who lost a tribunal recently because they wanted to work from home [People Management Magazine].
I’m not saying that wanting to work flexibly is bad, or that working from an office is better. What I’m saying is that when gen z say it, it’s suddenly that they’re entitled and difficult to work with (74% of managers asked said so, according to ResumeBuilder).
I say this often, but the only difference between gen z and other generations is that gen z can articulate their needs and ideas better, as perfectly demonstrated by this video of a gen z giving some honest feedback to their manager before they leave their company [TikTok].
How did this all come about?
I was watching this video earlier [YouTube] where a millennial parent was responding to gen z criticism of gentle parenting; it seems gen z believe millennial parenting style to be causing gen alpha to grow up as utter monsters. It included clips from teachers of gen alpha explaining how hard they are to teach because the teaching style doesn’t sync well with gentle parenting.
It made me think about how parents out there have “done the work” and been to therapy, healed generational trauma and come out the other side better people who are able to parent in more nurturing styles than the previous generations.
But other places where young people and children need to be have not been through that transformation; in the UK at least, you will have pockets of teachers who really go out of their way to explore new ways to teach and support young people, but there are still many places that teach pretty much the same stuff in the same way as when we were at school.
And for gen z who were raised by gen x who tend to be more enlightened than those who came before them, are entering the workplaces expecting the same level of nurturing and care they’ve come to expect from other adults in their lives.
We have the generations stood facing each other, demanding things should be done in different ways, and it’s not really clear if younger people will win and we get a future of work with flexible working, better work/life balance and empathy-driven bosses… or if we carry on as we have been.
It makes me think of a bonkers Australian advert where the generations are all hating each other until they are brought back together again through the power of bbq lamb.
What will the lamb be in the fight for workplace culture?
Links
I mentioned Resume Builder in the post today, and apparently they have a habit of bashing gen z because they have another post out about how apparently orgs avoid hiring gen z and feel comfortable telling people about ageism in their recruitment processes [Higher Ed Dive]. Thank you to Kyle for passing on the link!
Not a gen z link but great recruitment marketing (because we love to see it) the folk at Hobby Craft have smashed it again [Instagram].
Speaking of great recruitment marketing/employer branding my faves DHL keep coming out with the bangers, and I LOVE this video [LinkedIn]. It’s so simple, but it shows that they are fun and it creates enough curiosity to make someone want to click.
A lot of people have been quoting this study about how gen z are more likely than boomers to think the feminism has done more harm than good - it’s important to note that tit’s 13% of boomers and 16% of gen z, so while the statement is true, they keep hiding it down the middle of the articles as in fact it’s still pretty small [Guardian].
Great news via my buddy Ed over at Multiverse, ahead of National Apprenticeship Week - they’re making a teaching degree apprenticeship at long last! [LinkedIn]
A share from another buddy of mine - Andy from Anglia Ruskin - with a video from the employability team speaking to employers about their careers fair [LinkedIn]. I’ve not seen this done before - my experience is that there are a couple of really friendly and warm unis to work with (with ARU being amongst the good’uns of course) but many are very cold, so this is a great thing to see!
Corporate Natalie at her finest - I’ve had this one saved up since Christmas so apologies for the out-of-season content, but her giving gen z employees feedback is funny all year round [Instagram].
I quite like the “interview around the office” style TikTok content, and especially when they normalise talking about money. Here’s one where colleagues answer how much they spend on a weekly food shop [TikTok].
And I’ll leave you this week with an account of a man who talks to his dog, inviting her out for “wee wees”, encouraging her to make “mouth snappies”. I promise you, it’s delightful [TikTok].
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Until next week,
Charlotte