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Is Gen-Z an apathetic generation?

They don't believe in doing grunt work that will result in no rewards

Throughout my columns, I’ve often looked at Gen-Z in the workplace, and how one of the things that we keep dealing with is the ‘that's the way it is’ mentality of many Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials. We’ve got to take the hits, roll with the punches, and wait our turn to be at the top of the heap in a decision-making role.

The result has been a reputation that Gen-Z doesn’t know what they’re doing, that we’re foolish or apathetic and want our participation trophies. It’s true, a lot of confidence comes from being able to see your successes and rewards. These and advancement up the workplace ladder are the few ways success becomes tangible, and after 30 or more years of hard work, it’s no wonder older generations don’t want to have to explain why things work the way they work. It wasn’t explained to them, why should they explain it to us?

I say, fair. But don’t expect us to not do what you didn’t do, which is protect our mental health in the workplace. Why am I going to exhaust myself doing my best and hardest when there is not the money to pay me for my best? When my extra hours of work will go unrecognised and uncelebrated, or I'm not paid fairly for my current wage? Better to just take your foot off the gas and cruise, if I’m not going to be paid what I’m worth. And again, this isn't about being recognised for the bare minimum of showing up and not taking value away — every workplace is about ‘value’ now, be it value-added content or ‘higher quality’ customers and consumers — it's about protecting us. Back in the day, overtime and hard work would be rewarded, when hard work was more briefs filed and meetings arranged.

Quicker, faster

But we’re in an age when grunt work — setting meetings, sending emails, visiting clients or partners — all happens from the desk and webcam. In the last month, I spoke to a tattoo artist in Jerusalem, an epidemiologist in eastern Africa, and a press officer in the US Army in the Texas desert. It took me maybe an hour each to do the research and set up those email exchanges and the appointment that came after.

How long would all that have taken without my computer, let alone the Internet? Thirty years ago, if I’d wanted to know an epidemiologist, I’d have to get out of my sweatpants to visit the Toronto Reference Library downtown, call around to some universities, if I could find the right number listed in a phone book, or try an abandoned .net address that was never updated and that’s if I had a computer and dial up connection.

Sidebar: Was there dial up in 1994? I wasn’t born yet.

So, with the pace of work able to move so much faster, bosses focused on a productivity level they have never fully been victim to as a grunt in the system, like most of Gen-Zers right now, should we be surprised when Gen-Z stop playing the game?

We aren’t fools, we’re apathetic. Quiet quitting, SLOW, slow quitting, and tang ping are simply safeguards for our mental health. That will always be far more important to me than whatever value my boss wants to add so their boss is happy.

Next week, when I break down these phenomena, I'll also take a closer look at the knock-on effects.

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