Employers Aren’t Happy With Gen Z Employees’ Work Ethic, Netizens Join Heated Discussion Over It
You have probably already read more than one of our posts about how parents who live under the same roof with their adult children complain that they do not want to participate in managing the household and don’t even make a financial contribution. Well, it’s time to take the next step – it turns out that young people need the support of the older generation when looking for work too.
And if you thought that we were talking about plain old nepotism, when parental connections help their offspring get a prestigious job, then you are definitely mistaken. What if I told you that many recent college grads bring their own parents to job interviews?
More info: Intelligent
The recent study conducted by a student life and study website found out that the U.S. employers aren’t happy to have Gen Z-ers as their employees
Image credits: Eliott Reyna (not the actual photo)
It turns out that 1 in 5 employers have faced young jobseekers bringing parents to job interviews
Don’t believe me? Too bad. And here’s why – late last year, Intelligent.com, an online magazine specializing in education, student life and work, published the results of its broad survey. As part of the study, 800 U.S. managers, directors, and executives who are somehow involved in hiring were surveyed.
Now prepare to be surprised. First, 39% of respondents claim that in the hiring process, if the question arises of choosing between a recent college graduate and an older candidate, then, all other things being equal, they would prefer someone older. Various options are put forth: offering the candidate a higher salary, allowing them to work remotely or in a hybrid format.
Image credits: Intelligent.com
It has even come to the point that if previously, the issue of overqualified age candidates was, if not a red flag, then a significant problem for jobseekers, then now 46% of surveyed employers and HR workers are ready to hire an overqualified person – just to avoid working with Gen Z.
The question is, why? Well, for example, because, according to the same survey, 1 in 5 employers have recently had the experience of interviewing a young person who brought their parents to the interview. Moreover, typically, the initiator of such a situation is not always the youngster themselves. Often it is the parents who insist on their presence during the interview.
Image credits: Intelligent.com
The issue could be related to the phenomenon of ‘helicopter parenting’, in which parents are overly involved in their adult children’s lives
Most likely, we are dealing with so-called helicopter parenting – a term that refers to overly involved and protective parents who not only actively interfere in all their children’s interactions, but also make decisions for them, try to help them achieve their goals, and remove obstacles in their path.
On the other hand, the very concept of ‘helicopter parenting’ first appeared a couple of decades before the current Gen Z-ers were even born – in 1969, in the bestselling book Between Parent & Teenager by Dr. Haim Ginott. Moreover, society first encountered this phenomenon en masse at the turn of the century, when the first millennials went to college. So why is helicopter parenting so pronounced right now?
Image credits: Christina @ wocintechchat.com (not the actual photo)
One of the reasons for this effect might be also the recent pandemics, with millions of students lacking social interactions
“In many ways, the problem lies in the COVID-19 pandemic, when students almost all over the world found themselves for at least a year, and in fact for several years, deprived of the opportunity to interact with other people in the way familiar to all previous generations,” says Olga Kopylova, Ph.D., associate professor of economics at Odessa National Maritime University, to whom Bored Panda reached out for a comment here.
“Historically, university is not only about acquiring skills and knowledge, but also about socialization. Communication with other students, the experience of independent life on campus, skills to overcome problems and obstacles on their way – students of previous generations invariably faced all this and, with varying degrees of success, learned to overcome everything.”
“No, I don’t want to say that the whole problem is only in the pandemic, but current college graduates are less ready for work. In many ways, by the way, some teachers are also to blame for this, since they were unable to efficiently adapt to online classes. But the general trend is unfortunately, pretty obvious,” Olga summarizes.
Image credits: Intelligent.com
Well, if we remember that the percentage of young people who currently live under one roof with their parents in the U.S. is the highest since the middle of the last century, when applied to the phenomenon of helicopter parenting, much becomes clear. And young people, many of whom, in fact, grew up in greenhouse conditions provided by the older generation, ultimately find themselves unprepared for the workforce. This is evidenced by the results of the study (58% of employers think so), and by recent college graduates themselves too.
Image credits: Intelligent.com
Many employers also opened up that they had fired a recent college grad at least once
And last, but not least, nearly half of the employers who took part in the survey had fired a recent college graduate at least once. According to business representatives, these young employees often can’t manage the workload, are late to meetings and hand assignments in late.
At the same time, new employees are characterized as entitled (63% of respondents), too easily offended (58%), clearly lacking professionalism (57%), not responding well to feedback (55%) and having poor communication skills (52%). No, it’s not worth saying that their businesses were simply unlucky with new employees – we know too well many examples of bosses being entitled, sometimes incompetent and offended easily as well, and any process in society is always a two-way street.
Image credits: Christina @ wocintechchat.com (not the actual photo)
It seems it’s not only an issue in business, but society as a whole
On the other hand, the issue is not only about business. For example, former UK defense secretary Ben Wallace, in a recent interview on LBC, directly stated that Britain’s Armed Forces recruitment effort is in crisis because Generation Z is not signing up to serve. “Generation Z is not joining the Armed Forces in the way my generation did,” said Mr. Wallace. “And, post-Covid, skill shortages in engineering and all sorts of things are a real challenge.”
Who knows, perhaps our society is really entering a difficult stage of its development, when young people are not ready to shoulder the burden that all their predecessors had to bear? Perhaps, because in fact, everything in this life is quite possible. On the other hand, I would like to end with one more quote.
“The more I look at the young, the more convinced I am that they are no good. They don’t know how to do anything, don’t want to learn, and don’t respect their elders. The glory days, when everything was fine, are irrevocably a thing of the past, and I look on with fear into the future…” Do you know who the author of these words is? No? I actually don’t know either – because the author is unknown, and the words themselves were written on a clay tablet found by archaeologists from the time of ancient Babylon, circa the 8th century BC.
Well, some things don’t change over time. And this, you know, is probably the only thing that inspires hope…
Some commenters are strongly convinced this is mostly about parenting as people have raised the whole ‘entitled generation’
Image credits: Clem Onojeghuo (not the actual photo)
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Before we get too "Gen Z wtf"... Google search is so broken it's hard to look for how many times we've heard such stories before, but this is a report from 12 years ago: "8 percent of recent college grads brought their parents along to an interview, according to an Adecco survey cited by the Wall Street Journal. What’s more, a full 3 percent actually had their parents sit in on their job tryout". That's not Gen Z.
I had the same thought. I'm a millennial. They were saying all this same c r a p about us a few years ago, and none of it was true. So I doubt it's true this time around. I would love to see us stop kvetching about young people.
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As a Gen Zer myself, I think this article may be a little on the biased side. Gen Z isn't 'lazy' or 'difficult to work with', we know what a healthy work environment is. We value ourselves more than the company, and employers are furious. They want older people because they're easier to take advantage of. They don't care that you missed your kid's soccer game and will replace you the second you croak.
“Difficult to work with” translates to “difficult to exploit”. I’m a late boomer (1960), and was “difficult to work with”, according to the shittiest ex-bosses (yep, plural) I ever worked with. I’m actually proud and happy the younger generations aren’t putting up with the s**t I fought against—-generally all by myself back in the day because, even though my coworkers bitched and moaned about the job in private, not a damned one of them ever stood up with me to try and change it. When I finally found a company that treated me like a human being should be treated, I was happy and very loyal to them. It just took a while to find them. It sham.es me that my generation failed to change the way employers treat employees—-in fact, it got progressively worse during our working lives—-so I hope the younger workers coming up finally succeed in bringing basic humanity, ethics, equity, reason, and an authoritative, rather than authoritarian, approach to management into the workplace.
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Only anecdotal, but I am 42 and I remember a bunch of my friends' parents going with them to job interviews when we were teenagers. They needed the ride, or they were scared, or the parents were checking the place out. Yes, it was weird, but its not a new thing.
The key there is teenagers, young adults in their 20's should be able to go to an interview solo and they should know better then to bring a parent with them. That being said, I'm an old millennial (born in 1994) and a good portion of my teachers throughout high school told us that our generation was "the worst" and we're all entitled, rude, and not as smart as previous classes. This happens with every passing generation, Gen-Z has their hurdles like every other generation before them.
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This happen every generation, making broad generalizations about a large group of people based on...a few outliers? Stop it. Get some help.
Every (except one awesome 19 yr old man) "younger person" (under the age of about 35) we hired at work called off about 25% of their shifts, showed up late/asked to leave early, had a parent pick up or drop off the application (yes, we still do paper applications, we're a snall privately owned store). Had parents call in sick for them. Struggled with basic math/directions involving math. Eventually stopped showing up after 2 weeks to a month. All except one phenomenon 19 yr old who was the best coworker I had, unfortunately had a very rough home life and had to move abruptly. He was the first employee to ever write us a letter thanking us fir the opportunity to work and regretting that he had to leave so abruptly (he ended up moving across the country, 3 time zones away, with just what he could fit in a backpack. I still keep in touch with him.)
I hope his home life situation has improved, but in any case it sounds like he'll be okay in the long run.
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20% of recent college grad applicants brought a parent to the interview?? Wtf lol.
The article later states that "20% of hiring managers interviewed a candidate recently accompanied by their parents". This can mean anything between 0.001% to 20%.
Load More Replies...
If I haven't problems in my workplace, it's because there's competition to work there and there are standards of behaviour. We had a lovely recent graduate to temp for us and she rightfully was poached by another department for a permanent position. I can't say the same for a past workplace where the boss tended to hire young men with talent, charm, and crappy work ethics. He bragged "I only have one rule: do whatever you want, as long as you meet your deadlines." And so they did whatever they wanted. :P
Fact is the "work world" isn't ready for real people with feelings, ideas and sense. many years of a worker being only a number, made the workplace entitled. I'm, glad things are changing, it should have been years ago. if a workplace can't handle real people, then let's hope the experience of losing money will humble them.
Gen Z seems to be the generation that's the least willing to be exploited, and employers are mad that the status quo isn't being upheld. Millennials, you should remember how long and how relentlessly we were $hit on by media and society writ large (often for things that were out of our control) the way Gen Z is starting to be; stand up for them.
I remember and I make sure to remind those that seem to have forgotten
Load More Replies...
"Historically, university is not only about acquiring skills and knowledge, but also about socialization. Communication with other students, the experience of independent life on campus" What BS. In my parents generation, most people did not go to college at all. In my older sister's generation, more went, but certainly not the vast majority. And in any case, not everybody is rich enough to live on a campus. Many people commute to colleges. Yet, this article is stating that the previous generations didn't have these problems. Lack of life experience and socialization is obviously one culprit, but it's nothing to do with colleges or lack thereof.
Many college grads are interviewing for their first job! I was working at age 14 nights and weekends all through high school.
"Blargh! Kids these days! Back in my day we walked to school in the snow, uphill, both ways!" They said all this about previous generations, too. Also: look at that graph. If the questions were reversed, e.g. "Easy to work with" "Shows up on time" etc, the graph would look very similar. The way a study is phrased makes a big difference.
"perhaps our society is really entering a difficult stage of its development, when young people are not ready to shoulder the burden that all their predecessors had to bear? " No you twat, young people don't want to bear the s****y dystopian reality that you a******s left for them. I'm a gen Xer, and I'm so f****n done with this world that seems to have no future. I'm tired, I don't want to work, not because I'm anti-work, but because I don't see what I'm getting out of it besides being barely able to pay my basic expenses every month to just live. And I don't have avocado toast, still can't buy a house. If anything I'm glad gen z are not taking this c**p anymore.
This article is very biased. Gen Z isn’t unwilling to work, we’re just fed up with the horrible work-life balances, pay, and benefits jobs want us to have. I have a feeling the “entitlement” is really just wanting fare compensation instead of a being paid below a living wage.
My dad drove me to interviews when I was 15. He didn't come in with me, but I couldn't drive yet. That was in the mid-2000s. I don't think these challenges are new to Gen-Z. It's older people complaining about younger people, and younger people complaining about older people. There is nothing new under the sun.
I interview to hire on a regular basis. I will testify to twice having a parent show up to a in person interview with an applicant. I don't mean, they drove them there and waited in the parking lot, the parent came inside with the applicant, and one of them asked to join us in the conference room. Three times, I have done virtual interviews where I could hear someone off camera coaching the applicant.
A lot of college grads are interviewing for their first job! I was working at age 14 at night and weekends all through high school.
My Gen Z coworkers are fun and work their asses off...the only con I've noticed is that they do call in for days at a time for the most petty, minor stuff.
I checked the article to see if there was any context or comparisons with past hiring/firing trends: https://www.intelligent.com/nearly-4-in-10-employers-avoid-hiring-recent-college-grads-in-favor-of-older-workers/ - nope, no info beyond the recent stats. I honestly can't tell if 38% of the managers are hiring older workers because they have work experience and references or if Gen Z was too sheltered for their tastes. Speaking anecdotally: among my and my husband's niblings: they range in achievements from a high school graduate who didn't work until his 20s (and moved out at 30) to a 20-something PhD candidate living with her boyfriend. The difference there is upbringing and the parents' expectations.
I had a mom accompany her deaf son to an interview to help as an interpreter. That seemed reasonable. He turned out to be the biggest spoiled, entitled employee ever, lasted 3 weeks. My team was great helping with written directions and learning some signs. He just never came back, and mom called in for him.
“Entitled generation”? You mean like how Greatest described Silents and Boomers, how Silents describe Boomers, and how Boomers describe Gen X and Millennials? Life is supposed to be easier for descendants than it was for ancestors. Come off it 😩
Most of us do not want our parents there, but helicopter parents *force* their kids to bring them along. I’d appreciate it if people would not get pissed at these kids for what is most likely their parent’s decision. Edit: spelling
“Struggled with eye contact” I’m autistic :/ I promise I can be a productive member of your company despite the fact that I can’t look you in the eye. Geez…
Curling, Helicopter or just bad work environments and you bring witnesses?
I had an interview that my mum was there for but thats mainly because 1 i wasnt 18 and 2 she needed to answer some questions as well and sign papers... why youd need a parent otherwise?? Idk
Load More Replies... No one is happy to have US employers as employers, so hearing that they’re unhappy with my little brothers and sisters warms the cockles of my heart.
How warm will those cockles be when all the work gets outsourced to other countries and the offices lie empty?
Load More Replies...
Have you any idea how old younger gen Xers are? I've got at least another 20 - 25 years ahead of me to work yet. 5 years 🤣
Load More Replies... Before we get too "Gen Z wtf"... Google search is so broken it's hard to look for how many times we've heard such stories before, but this is a report from 12 years ago: "8 percent of recent college grads brought their parents along to an interview, according to an Adecco survey cited by the Wall Street Journal. What’s more, a full 3 percent actually had their parents sit in on their job tryout". That's not Gen Z.
I had the same thought. I'm a millennial. They were saying all this same c r a p about us a few years ago, and none of it was true. So I doubt it's true this time around. I would love to see us stop kvetching about young people.
Load More Replies... As a Gen Zer myself, I think this article may be a little on the biased side. Gen Z isn't 'lazy' or 'difficult to work with', we know what a healthy work environment is. We value ourselves more than the company, and employers are furious. They want older people because they're easier to take advantage of. They don't care that you missed your kid's soccer game and will replace you the second you croak.
“Difficult to work with” translates to “difficult to exploit”. I’m a late boomer (1960), and was “difficult to work with”, according to the shittiest ex-bosses (yep, plural) I ever worked with. I’m actually proud and happy the younger generations aren’t putting up with the s**t I fought against—-generally all by myself back in the day because, even though my coworkers bitched and moaned about the job in private, not a damned one of them ever stood up with me to try and change it. When I finally found a company that treated me like a human being should be treated, I was happy and very loyal to them. It just took a while to find them. It sham.es me that my generation failed to change the way employers treat employees—-in fact, it got progressively worse during our working lives—-so I hope the younger workers coming up finally succeed in bringing basic humanity, ethics, equity, reason, and an authoritative, rather than authoritarian, approach to management into the workplace.
Load More Replies... Only anecdotal, but I am 42 and I remember a bunch of my friends' parents going with them to job interviews when we were teenagers. They needed the ride, or they were scared, or the parents were checking the place out. Yes, it was weird, but its not a new thing.
The key there is teenagers, young adults in their 20's should be able to go to an interview solo and they should know better then to bring a parent with them. That being said, I'm an old millennial (born in 1994) and a good portion of my teachers throughout high school told us that our generation was "the worst" and we're all entitled, rude, and not as smart as previous classes. This happens with every passing generation, Gen-Z has their hurdles like every other generation before them.
Load More Replies... This happen every generation, making broad generalizations about a large group of people based on...a few outliers? Stop it. Get some help.
Every (except one awesome 19 yr old man) "younger person" (under the age of about 35) we hired at work called off about 25% of their shifts, showed up late/asked to leave early, had a parent pick up or drop off the application (yes, we still do paper applications, we're a snall privately owned store). Had parents call in sick for them. Struggled with basic math/directions involving math. Eventually stopped showing up after 2 weeks to a month. All except one phenomenon 19 yr old who was the best coworker I had, unfortunately had a very rough home life and had to move abruptly. He was the first employee to ever write us a letter thanking us fir the opportunity to work and regretting that he had to leave so abruptly (he ended up moving across the country, 3 time zones away, with just what he could fit in a backpack. I still keep in touch with him.)
I hope his home life situation has improved, but in any case it sounds like he'll be okay in the long run.
Load More Replies... 20% of recent college grad applicants brought a parent to the interview?? Wtf lol.
The article later states that "20% of hiring managers interviewed a candidate recently accompanied by their parents". This can mean anything between 0.001% to 20%.
Load More Replies... If I haven't problems in my workplace, it's because there's competition to work there and there are standards of behaviour. We had a lovely recent graduate to temp for us and she rightfully was poached by another department for a permanent position. I can't say the same for a past workplace where the boss tended to hire young men with talent, charm, and crappy work ethics. He bragged "I only have one rule: do whatever you want, as long as you meet your deadlines." And so they did whatever they wanted. :P
Fact is the "work world" isn't ready for real people with feelings, ideas and sense. many years of a worker being only a number, made the workplace entitled. I'm, glad things are changing, it should have been years ago. if a workplace can't handle real people, then let's hope the experience of losing money will humble them.
Gen Z seems to be the generation that's the least willing to be exploited, and employers are mad that the status quo isn't being upheld. Millennials, you should remember how long and how relentlessly we were $hit on by media and society writ large (often for things that were out of our control) the way Gen Z is starting to be; stand up for them.
I remember and I make sure to remind those that seem to have forgotten
Load More Replies... "Historically, university is not only about acquiring skills and knowledge, but also about socialization. Communication with other students, the experience of independent life on campus" What BS. In my parents generation, most people did not go to college at all. In my older sister's generation, more went, but certainly not the vast majority. And in any case, not everybody is rich enough to live on a campus. Many people commute to colleges. Yet, this article is stating that the previous generations didn't have these problems. Lack of life experience and socialization is obviously one culprit, but it's nothing to do with colleges or lack thereof.
Many college grads are interviewing for their first job! I was working at age 14 nights and weekends all through high school.
"Blargh! Kids these days! Back in my day we walked to school in the snow, uphill, both ways!" They said all this about previous generations, too. Also: look at that graph. If the questions were reversed, e.g. "Easy to work with" "Shows up on time" etc, the graph would look very similar. The way a study is phrased makes a big difference.
"perhaps our society is really entering a difficult stage of its development, when young people are not ready to shoulder the burden that all their predecessors had to bear? " No you twat, young people don't want to bear the s****y dystopian reality that you a******s left for them. I'm a gen Xer, and I'm so f****n done with this world that seems to have no future. I'm tired, I don't want to work, not because I'm anti-work, but because I don't see what I'm getting out of it besides being barely able to pay my basic expenses every month to just live. And I don't have avocado toast, still can't buy a house. If anything I'm glad gen z are not taking this c**p anymore.
This article is very biased. Gen Z isn’t unwilling to work, we’re just fed up with the horrible work-life balances, pay, and benefits jobs want us to have. I have a feeling the “entitlement” is really just wanting fare compensation instead of a being paid below a living wage.
My dad drove me to interviews when I was 15. He didn't come in with me, but I couldn't drive yet. That was in the mid-2000s. I don't think these challenges are new to Gen-Z. It's older people complaining about younger people, and younger people complaining about older people. There is nothing new under the sun.
I interview to hire on a regular basis. I will testify to twice having a parent show up to a in person interview with an applicant. I don't mean, they drove them there and waited in the parking lot, the parent came inside with the applicant, and one of them asked to join us in the conference room. Three times, I have done virtual interviews where I could hear someone off camera coaching the applicant.
A lot of college grads are interviewing for their first job! I was working at age 14 at night and weekends all through high school.
My Gen Z coworkers are fun and work their asses off...the only con I've noticed is that they do call in for days at a time for the most petty, minor stuff.
I checked the article to see if there was any context or comparisons with past hiring/firing trends: https://www.intelligent.com/nearly-4-in-10-employers-avoid-hiring-recent-college-grads-in-favor-of-older-workers/ - nope, no info beyond the recent stats. I honestly can't tell if 38% of the managers are hiring older workers because they have work experience and references or if Gen Z was too sheltered for their tastes. Speaking anecdotally: among my and my husband's niblings: they range in achievements from a high school graduate who didn't work until his 20s (and moved out at 30) to a 20-something PhD candidate living with her boyfriend. The difference there is upbringing and the parents' expectations.
I had a mom accompany her deaf son to an interview to help as an interpreter. That seemed reasonable. He turned out to be the biggest spoiled, entitled employee ever, lasted 3 weeks. My team was great helping with written directions and learning some signs. He just never came back, and mom called in for him.
“Entitled generation”? You mean like how Greatest described Silents and Boomers, how Silents describe Boomers, and how Boomers describe Gen X and Millennials? Life is supposed to be easier for descendants than it was for ancestors. Come off it 😩
Most of us do not want our parents there, but helicopter parents *force* their kids to bring them along. I’d appreciate it if people would not get pissed at these kids for what is most likely their parent’s decision. Edit: spelling
“Struggled with eye contact” I’m autistic :/ I promise I can be a productive member of your company despite the fact that I can’t look you in the eye. Geez…
Curling, Helicopter or just bad work environments and you bring witnesses?
I had an interview that my mum was there for but thats mainly because 1 i wasnt 18 and 2 she needed to answer some questions as well and sign papers... why youd need a parent otherwise?? Idk
Load More Replies... No one is happy to have US employers as employers, so hearing that they’re unhappy with my little brothers and sisters warms the cockles of my heart.
How warm will those cockles be when all the work gets outsourced to other countries and the offices lie empty?
Load More Replies... Have you any idea how old younger gen Xers are? I've got at least another 20 - 25 years ahead of me to work yet. 5 years 🤣
Load More Replies...
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