For one nonprofit executive director, it was a 2022 New York City subway shooting that highlighted the stark differences between how he, a 55-year-old, and his Gen Z staffers show up to work.
“We had an employee who lived a mile from where it happened and was traumatized by it—and further upset about the fact that we didn’t create space in our weekly staff meeting to address that trauma,” the leader, who asked not to be identified because he continues to manage Gen Zers, tells Fortune.
“The staff meeting is not an emotional support group. Go to your therapist for that,” he recalls thinking, but not expressing, because in his experience, “you can’t challenge or criticize” young employees.
That clashing of workplace expectations is just one example of how today’s twentysomething employees—the older end of Gen Z, born between 1996 and 2010—are making a powerful, and oftentimes discordant, impact at work. Other irritating tendencies, according to older managers who spoke to Fortune: questioning how tasks fit into the big picture, never putting work first, expecting immediate raises and promotions, and bristling at honest feedback—prompting labels ranging from “entitled” and “hypersensitive” to “fragile” and “narcissistic.”
Much of the conflict comes down to a very basic difference, according to Mark Beal, Rutgers University public relations professor and author of Decoding Gen Z. “Gen Xers, boomers, even older millennials, they live to work. Work is driving them. It’s energizing them,” he says.
On the other hand, he notes, “Gen Z works to live.”
Deloitte research from 2023 found that while 86% of bosses feel that work is a significant part of their identity, only 61% of Gen Z employees agree.
Generations have always clashed over workplace norms. But Gen Z—dubbed "the anxious generation" by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who points to growing up online—is bringing something new to the conversation: a highly acute awareness of the importance, and the potential fragility, of mental health. Because while younger millennials ushered in the idea of work-life balance, Beal says, “Gen Z has taken the baton, expanding work-life balance to include a greater focus on mental health and mental wellness, and now bringing that into the workplace.”
Some companies are responding, he notes, by providing more employee mental health benefits—even free on-site therapy in some cases.
Often, though, the response is one of misunderstanding and even resentment.
Here’s how to better understand Gen Z’s push for workplace wellness—and work with it, not against it.
Ask how Gen Z's approach could benefit everyone
Something that Gen Z workers realized very quickly, according to Roberta Katz, former research scholar with the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and coauthor of Gen Z, Explained, “is that we don’t have a nine-to-five workday anymore, because the blending of online and offline lives is the norm now. And so if you don’t prioritize well-being you could end up working 24/7, literally.”
Combine that with the fact that these youngsters have grown up at a time when discussion of mental health isn’t stigmatized—and when being open about their own anxiety or other diagnoses has been fostered by adults and amplified on social media—and it’s no wonder workplace wellness is such a priority, Katz says. She notes that this perspective may be worth listening to.
“The fact that there’s a generation that’s creating boundaries and saying, ‘I’m not going to do that,’ is irking older generations, because they’re like, ‘But I had to do that!’” explains Corey Seemiller, generational researcher, leadership educator, and coauthor of Generation Z: A Century in the Making. Still, she adds, “the fact that they’re drawing attention to this is helping everybody, because it’s making work-life balance a priority for older generations like mine.”
Jonah Stillman, the 25-year-old cofounder of consulting firm GenGuru and coauthor of Gen Z @ Work, calls it an “upside” that his generation is comfortable talking about the issue of mental health. And while he’s sensitive to the idea that older managers may feel resentful over young folks seemingly having an “easier” time finding support, the shift around the topic “is benefiting everyone,” he says. “Productivity isn’t necessarily down, and having a workforce with stronger mental health is powerful for all generations.”
"Gen Xers, boomers, even older millennials, they live to work... Gen Z works to live."
Mark Beal, Author of Decoding Gen Z
As the nonprofit executive director admits, the boundaries set by his younger workforce have in turn made him “better at shutting off,” he says. “I don’t feel that pressure to respond to every email on a Saturday.”
Reconsider how you deliver feedback
“We have to be able to give feedback to people so they can do their jobs better,” says Seemiller, calling it “an issue” if young employees are—as many bosses perceive—unable to take it in. But how it’s given matters.
Stillman suggests delivering it honestly, kindly—and with regular frequency, as part of an ongoing relationship.
That's important, he notes, because Gen Z is accustomed to getting feedback quickly in other areas of life.
“Our feedback happens instantaneously,” he says, whether through online tests that are instantly graded or social media posts that immediately receive likes and comments. “And then we show up at the job, and our feedback happens once a year, theoretically, at an annual review,” he says, which feels “foreign.”
That can especially be true if work is being done remotely or in a hybrid model—which could lead to a lack of real, in-person relationships at work.
“If it’s a situation where you’re having ongoing conversations with your manager, feedback likely feels less threatening versus if you’re fully remote and you’re being handed task-based work, and then out of the blue, you join this meeting and get critical feedback,” says Stillman. “I think that would be threatening to a lot of people early in their career.”
Let Gen Z help set the tone
“The best thing is to talk to your Gen Z employees about how they work best,” suggests Seemiller. “They might not even know yet, because they’re so … new to the workforce.” But be open to hearing them out.
“It’s really just saying, ‘How can I do a better job of motivating you? How do you want to be held accountable?’ It might mean that you supervise different people slightly differently based on what they need. I think this is just good advice across all generations.”
Give Gen Zers the big picture
For young people at the start of their careers, there is often a desire to have a full concept of their place in the company.
“You have to remember that Gen Zers grew up being able to get information for themselves very readily,” says Katz.
That might mean “overexplaining,” as one longtime CFO calls it, when asked by a young employee why they’ve been given a certain task. But understand that a little explanation can go a long way, says Seemiller.
“They don’t want to be just an indiscriminate cog in the wheel. They want to have an idea of how they fit,” she says. “That sometimes takes time—but it also creates a lot more buy-in than you would ever imagine.”
This article appears in the October/November 2024 issue of Fortune with the headline "For Gen Z at work, the generation gap is a wellness gap. Here's how to bridge it."
