I came across this story today and thought it was pretty funny. Then I looked around and discovered it was part of a trend. There have been quite a few stories in the last few weeks about Gen-Z office workers and how truly special they are. In San Francisco, some managers have decided to hire equity coaches rather than confront the problems themselves.
They want to be promoted after only a few months, treat the office like their bedroom, show up in sweats or skimpy office-siren fits, FaceTime friends from their desks, and ghost their managers.
This is the gist of employer complaints about Gen Z workers, who seem to be having a uniquely hard time getting along in the office — much worse, managers say, than the generations before them. In a December 2024 survey of 1,000 employers by Intelligent.com, 12.5% said a Gen Z candidate had brought Mom or Dad to a job interview. The bosses are fed up…
Rosalinda Randall, a Marin-based etiquette coach, said inquiries have risen 50% over the last two months…
She tailors her presentations toward clients’ biggest complaints. One Bay Area tech firm asked her to address personal hygiene, because two new hires did not shower or change their shirts for weeks. “They didn’t want to deal with it, so they hired me,” said Randall. She made her presentation to all new hires and added slides to hammer home the hygiene point.
The story included a couple of Instagram posts including this one from a creator who makes clips highlighting how different generations behave at work:
That’s exaggerated obviously but there really is a bumper crop of stories about this. Business Insider has one about Gen-Z and oversharing.
When reporting for this story, I heard from one woman who had to explain to an intern that it wasn’t OK to take her bra off in the office, and another whose manager told her some pretty extensive details about her birth, including her mother’s episiotomy. Another person described their coworker as an “emotional vampire” who often delves into details about her ex’s alcoholism and her sexual relationship with her current partner and overtakes meetings with her personal and professional problems, sucking energy and space from everyone else. A friend of mine — a new manager — has spent the past several months navigating a direct report’s on-again, off-again relationship with their partner.
Almost all of us have had the experience of watching a certain coworker approach our desks or pop up on a video call and thought to ourselves, “Oh, boy, what’s the story going to be today?” Random gossip is fun! Sharing is a way to bond! But also, maybe the guy from IT doesn’t need to know about your grandmother’s illness and your subway run-in with your ex…
Constance Noonan Hadley, an organizational psychologist who founded the Institute for Life at Work, says there’s lots of anecdotal evidence that “people don’t know how to behave in what we consider traditionally professional ways” at work. People scroll on their phones during meetings, or dress in office attire that’s more fitting for a night on the town. Or, they get anxious about small talk and swing too far in the Big Talk direction. “I think perhaps people have misunderstood that whole idea of just full, unfettered self-expression,” Noonan Hadley says.
The oversharing isn’t limited to talking. There was an “office siren” trend on TikTok last year which is exactly what it sounds like, i.e. young women dressing provocatively because…why not? The discussion on TikTok was about what might or might not get them a reprimand from HR and/or sent home.
Even Slate jumped on the trend about Gen-Z in the office. They pulled this long quote from a manager who posted some of their struggles online.
They are chronically disgruntled. I work hard to be fair, compassionate, and supportive while also maintaining the high standard of performance common to our company. But members of this group always seem to be grumbling about how they are treated unfairly. I have been accused of “humiliating” someone by asking a routine follow-up question to a report they gave to a meeting. They have a group chat where they complain about myself and my higher-ups being cruel and inhumane because we ask them to arrive at the office by 8 a.m. (a standard expectation in our field), correct their mistakes, and suggest that they take on new challenges. I’m “mean” because I ask them to redo work that is below par. They talk constantly of quitting.
Sometimes they complain to management, but more often they complain to each other, and the venting turns into an echo chamber of toxicity that drags morale. We are paid very well for our industry, but they frequently complain they aren’t being paid enough. Because I have no power to give them money, I often ask what else I can do to make their jobs more fulfilling and help them to do their jobs well. They don’t know.
Of course every generation that comes along seems to get this treatment. The Millennials certainly did. What’s different about Gen Z is that most of them had their schooling interrupted by the pandemic and they also never knew a world without cell phones and social media. So they are a bit different. Maybe they’ll fall in line as they get older. Probably they will. But for now, a lot of them are struggling with workplace expectations.
