It's easy but dangerous to paint any group of people with a broad brush.
Think to how many headlines you've read about "Baby boomers do this" or "Millennials kill fill-in-the-blank industry" or "Don't forget about Gen X because ...".
Think about which ones apply to your generation and how much those news stories may actually reflect you as a person, as an individual. Maybe some are spot on. Others might be close but there's some nuance or context lacking. Or maybe it's completely wrong.
Sure, every generation has certain behaviors or characteristics that help group them together, shared experiences caused by major events in their lifetimes, particularly in their most formative years.
As a millennial, I don't remember much about my personal experiences with Reaganomics in the '80s. But I do remember Saturday morning cartoons, life as a kid pre-internet and without cellphones of any kind. I remember the Columbine school shooting while I was in middle school, the Sept. 11 attacks and the resulting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq while I was in high school and college, and then the Great Recession just as I was entering the workforce, and this is just a short list. Do all of these things define me? No, but they certainly shaped my childhood, adolescence and early adult years, just as they did with others my age.
Gen Z is the generation I want to focus on today. The generally accepted years range for Gen Z is those born between 1997 and 2012, giving them an age range of 13 to 28. They have little to no memory of the Sept. 11 attacks, were only as old as 10 or 11 when the Great Recession started and have had the internet and smartphones available for most of their lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has played a significant part in their lives, having likely interrupted the social and school lives by a large degree. This alone doesn't fully encapsulate Gen Z, but it's a little bit of context.
What we've been seeing the last few years now that Gen-Zers are in the workforce is all these articles and videos about them. The boundaries Gen Z employees put up regarding work/life balance or how they don't want to go to happy hour with colleagues or all those TikToks about the "Gen Z stare." The latest I've seen is a survey about Gen Z job applicants bringing a parent to a job interview and even having the parent speak to the hiring manager.
I honestly don't know how much trust should be placed in these stories. I will acknowledge that the sample size I'm working with is pretty small, and maybe I'm only seeing the success stories, but every person I know of working age who is Gen Z doesn't really match the descriptions I see in these headlines. They're young, so while they do lack professional experience, they are hard-working and eager to learn. They aren't anti-social.
I don't know, maybe I'm still annoyed about all those stories from 15 years ago that seemed like they were trying to pin the death of any company on millennials' consumer behavior or about how millennials just didn't work as hard as previous generations did or they spent too much on avocado toast. I see the same thing happening again, and it feels like everyone is stuck in a rut rather than trying to make progress.
Yes, there are differences to be found when comparing different generations. We have all lived through different events at different points in our lives, and in turn those have shaped who we are to some degree. It's one thing to notice these differences and point them out, but it's a whole other thing when people do it to make the whole generation seem strange.
So, hiring managers and employers in general, when you're interviewing or supervising Gen-Zers, please keep these things in mind. Not everything you read is fully accurate, and try to note when someone is trying to be insightful with their information versus insulting.
You can reach me at bwroten@hotelnewsnow.com as well as on LinkedIn.
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