Experts and employers are concerned about Generation Z's attitude to work: young professionals are not eager to build a career and often quit without notice. However, Gen Zers themselves say they are ready to work as much as anyone else but demand respect for personal boundaries, reports infohub.kz.
According to KTK TV channel, analysts at the British company Deloitte found that only one in four Gen Zers wants to build a career. At the same time, work-life balance is important to them, which is changing the labor market.
19-year-old Ruslan Yachmenev, a college graduate, has already worked as a barista and an administrator. Now he is looking for a job in his field. Ruslan notes that employers are reluctant to hire Gen Zers, considering them irresponsible, but he disagrees. "We live in a modern society where everyone should respect each other. I think it's right for the current generation, for teenagers, to try to work, to get hired somewhere, to look for any opportunity to defend their personal boundaries, especially in front of management," he shared.
For those who built careers in the 1990s and 2000s, overtime, working on weekends, and years of loyalty to a company were the norm. The new demands of young people seem strange to the older generation. "We are used to working, going further for the sake of a career, working a lot of extra hours. But our Gen Zers are not like that. They change jobs more easily because they don't like the schedule, or for example, the team," said Oksana Trufanova.
Experts note that Gen Zers seek work-life balance, so they quit faster than their predecessors. "The most common thing we hear about today is ghosting. That's the term. When a candidate, not even an employee yet, comes for an interview, or maybe they've already started work, and at lunch they get up and leave without telling anyone. This is really a painful and widespread issue today," said Olga Yakupova, executive director of a recruiting holding.
Remote work, freelancing, own projects, and new professions have given young people a choice. Economists predict global changes in the labor market, but not only employers will have to adapt. Rising prices will force Gen Zers to reconsider their views. "I think employers won't have a big problem hiring promising workers; rather, there will be competition among Gen Zers for a place in the sun. On the other hand, I think the current generation of Gen Zers will produce more small and medium business entrepreneurs, because people are more self-oriented, so they will rely less on employers, stable salaries, and the state," said Doctor of Economics Akimzhan Arupov.
The generational dispute is unlikely to end in the coming years, but employers already have to take into account new employee expectations, because Gen Zers are replacing the older generation.