Gen Zers have repeatedly dealt with unprecedented changes—from the pandemic, to the prevalence of social media, to the rise in generative AI technology—and they’re fed up.
Now professors say that the youngest generation of workers doesn’t even want to want to climb the greasy pole. But it’s not out of sheer laziness, as managers of a certain age might assume.
“The biggest change that I’ve seen is they have this fear of failure or making the wrong decision, and I think it’s because they just don’t want to go through more mental anguish,” explains Matt Prince, an adjunct professor at Chapman University.
The generation has a “huge weight on their shoulders”
Indeed, they’ve faced many of the same challenges as millennials before them—like being seen as lazy, as snowflakes, and as being too online—but Prince, who also leads public relations at Taco Bell, says the pandemic has done a number on this cohort.
Gen Z was forced to isolate and confide behind screens during their prime years of cognitive, social development, with the disruptions leaving students less prepared academically and more stressed, anxious, and technologically addicted. The damage was so dramatic that it may have affected teenage brain structures.
The generation has a “huge weight on their shoulders,” Prince says, to overcome the anguish collected as students, but for many, the damage feels insurmountable.
James Moore, a clinical professor of management and entrepreneurship at Arizona State University, echoes even his top students have an apprehension that things “just won’t work out.”
Students have been deterred by the fact that aspirational parts of the American Dream, like buying a house, getting married, and having kids—are harder and less accessible, Moore tells Fortune.
“The biggest challenge I’ve seen with students is a mental burden that’s put on them right now, being one of the more anxious generations,” adds Prince.
Despite having worked for only a few years (the oldest members of the generation are 28 years old), more than half of Gen Zers are unsatisfied with their overall employee experience—with anxiety and burnout already a huge issue among young workers today.
But instead of powering through mental health challenges, some Gen Z have given up on their dream goals and opted for alternate pathways that may avoid the increased anguish of potentially being laid off or fired. For example, instead of applying for tech jobs, college graduates have looked toward more stable positions, like those in the government.
Put-downs to blame for Gen Z giving up
The attention economy is thriving off the heels of Gen Z, and distractions are plaguing over 60% of employees every half hour. Feelings of cognitive overload, mental fatigue, and burnout often sideline young adults’ productivity on tasks that require sustained attention.
But it’s not entirely their fault, professors told Fortune.
“Young people today live in a much more distracting environment than any generation before them has lived in,” Lightning Jay, an assistant professor of teaching, learning, and educational leadership at Binghamton University, says. “There’s an entire economic system built around attention capture.”
Plus, their brains are not “radically different” from previous generations of young people.
“Biologically, kids are kids, and it’s not so hard to go back to Shakespeare and find quotes in Shakespeare talking about how teenagers don’t want to read and they just are chasing after girls and are unreliable,” Jay says.
Both Prince and Moore highlight that in the end, the constant put-downs of an entire generation could be feeding a Catch-22 situation that makes young adults afraid to try. For example, when it comes to speaking up—a key soft skill that employers say they lack—they’re being fired for being too scared to talk to senior peers and pitch ideas, yet when they do vocalize their opinions, they risk being labeled snowflakes. In the end, it’s making them less motivated to give work their all, even if it might cost them the ability to climb the corporate ladder.
“I think there is just an overarching fear of failure or making mistakes or making the wrong turn in their career trajectory that would emotionally or physically set them back years,” Prince says. “And so I think that anguish is just an anchor that’s holding them back, I think, on a lot of pieces.”
