They’re ready to pick up their bags and work for your competitor
In a time of record high costs of living, increasing nihilist belief systems, and a generation of kids doomed to live in their parent’s basements, it comes as little surprise that Gen Z workers are taking strides to create more dynamic and equal workspaces for the future.
Within various social media platforms exists a discourse between Gen Z-ers who are confronting the reality that has been laid out for them since birth: the world is ending and nothing can be done about it. While some call them nihilists, they prefer the term ‘realists’. What has often defined Gen Z is their sole familiarity with a post-9/11 world, their unfiltered exposure to ghastly world events, and their sense of doom invoked by an ever-declining economy and irreversible climate change. To say they have little tolerance for nonsense and apathy is an immense understatement. So, when it comes to how they are treated in the workplace, they are not afraid to walk across the street and work for your competitor instead.
Born from parents who lived out their early adulthoods during the late twentieth century, Gen Z-ers have heard countless tales about hard work, dedication, and passivity in the workplace in order to provide for themselves. However, with parents who cannot provide a mortgage loan for their children as a result of the ever-increasing costs of living, the idea of financial prosperity or property ownership has become ubiquitously unachievable.
Take, for example, Toronto rent. In 1990, the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment was approximately $559.00 a month, with minimum wage at $5.40. In 2023, the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto was reported at $2,620.00, with minimum wage at $15.50.
While the minimum wage has increased, it has not surged as exponentially as rent. Likewise, there has been an equally drastic increase in costs for food, transportation, electricity, insurance, taxes, internet, and cellphone services.
Often described as soft or difficult to work with, Gen Z-ers encourage discourse and empathy around mental health within the workplace. Often considered replaceable by employers, Gen Z-ers have grown what some might consider to be a sense of entitlement wherein the employers are now too considered just as replaceable: “Fire me and I’ll work for your enemy. I can’t afford anything either way.” Gen Z’s lack of emotional dedication, the lack of brand loyalty, and the mental separation from their places of work has been cultivated by the freedom of the world ending: “If I can’t afford to live, then I can at least afford to speak my mind and deny the dogma of the man.” Many Gen Z-ers ask themselves what the incentive is for hard work and maintaining an apathetic attitude towards disparaging power dynamics. They’re solemnly depressed and they are not afraid to express their dissatisfaction and assert their right to feel that way towards their peers and their employers because it’s not like they’re getting paid liveable wages anyway.
