For too long, workplaces have echoed with anything from muttered asides to loud complaints that Gen Z isn’t quite up to it. The newest kids on the block have been caricatured as the company lightweights: clock-watchers keener on side hustles, who are impossibly demanding of bosses and, most disappointingly, reluctant to take on real career responsibility. Do these Gen Z myths have any substance?
To answer this question, Culture Amp analysed global data from 1.7 million employees across five ‘generations’: Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z. Our insights suggest it’s time for employers to stop playing the generational ‘blame game’ and listen more acutely to employees’ needs across all career stages.
Changing priorities
This data ー gathered over ten years ー shows that so-called generational differences encountered in the workplace are actually more indicative of employees’ different life or career stages, and the changing priorities that come with them.
Myth one: Gen Z are less committed to work than Millennials
Gen Z are regularly stereotyped in workplaces as flighty. Our 2024 benchmark data indicates that this cohort is the least committed to staying in their current job compared to other generations. For example, a healthy 70% of boomers are committed to staying in their role.
But when examining comparative data from 2015, when Millennial workers were in a similar age range as Gen Z is now, we see the same pattern: in their youth, today’s Millennials were even less committed to their jobs than Gen Z today.
Myth two: Gen Z are hyper-critical of their managers and mentors
Often portrayed as socially aware and favouring ethical employers, Gen Z has gained a reputation for being hard to manage. However, our data suggests that this group has the most favourable perceptions of their line managers of all today’s working generations.
Tellingly, our data shows a clear downward trend in sentiment towards line managers as we progress up our workforce’s generational lines. The older the work generation, the less favourable their view of their manager.
Analysing the corresponding 2015 data, we see the same pattern. The Millennial age group had the most favourable view of management in their early working life and these positive perceptions declined across older age groups. Younger cohorts are the most positive about their supervisor.
Myth three: Gen Z are more focused on side hustles than career growth
Further dismantling of Gen Z stereotypes comes by delving into career ambitions. Our 2024 data shows an intriguing paradox between these workers’ career optimism and commitment to stay. Gen Z employees now, as well as the young millennials of a decade ago, exhibit the highest career optimism paired with the lowest commitment to stay.
Broad optimism over future work prospects does not suggest that young employees are fickle or looking for an exit. Instead, Gen Z workers likely view the working world as their oyster – full of opportunities to explore, acquire new skills and switch career paths. Rather than being tied to a single employer, they see value in gaining rich development experiences, making them less discerning about where they grow – as long as they progress.
Employers and managers have likely interpreted Generation Z’s career motivations wrongly, or too narrowly. Their low job commitment isn’t a lack of loyalty, it’s more a case of ambitious young team members seeking genuine and lasting opportunities to learn and grow.
Myth four: Gen Z are disengaged and demotivated at work
Another misinterpreted aspect of Gen Z’s flightiness is their seeming lack of engagement in internal communications and HR plans. In our 2024 data, Gen Zers are the least clued-up age group about People teams’ efforts to improve the employee experience. Asked “I have been provided an opportunity to see and discuss recent survey results” just over half (55%) of Gen Z employees agreed, compared with more than two-thirds (67%) of Gen X employees.
But looking at the 2015 data, we see the same effect: the youngest employees at the time (Millennials) were the least informed about employee surveys’ insights and resulting actions. This lack of knowledge suggests that younger employees have incomplete expectations of what makes an organisation’s culture and what is needed to build momentum for change. This consistent gap in internal communication can leave early-career employees feeling disconnected, while paradoxically the most energised and open to fresh thinking about their career pathway.
Focus on changing life stages, not generational blaming
Our insights expose the myth that Gen Z is the weakest link in today’s five-generation workplace. This age group has many of the same concerns that marked out their Millennial colleagues when they were starting their careers.
While the youngest workplace cohort may appear to be the least committed to work today, they are comparatively more motivated than the Millennials of 2015. And with Generation Z workers rating their supervisors more highly than older cohorts, this bond will be key to developing organisations’ resilience and boosting performance.
Similarly, Gen Zers are full of energy for developing their careers – hardly the flighty employees of caricature. Their lack of insights into company communications and HR plans reflects younger employees’ understandable lack of awareness surrounding the mechanics of People strategies.
Our analysis across five work generations and ten years of working life shows that workplace behaviour, and the sometimes mixed signals that younger employees send, often reflects the stage that employees have reached in their careers, rather than which generation they belong to.
As such, company and HR leaders need tailored engagement and performance strategies for specific employees rather than relying on broad generational categories.
