{"id":281253,"date":"2026-05-13T08:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/?p=281253"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:18:18","slug":"employers-think-gen-z-has-forgotten-how-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/employers-think-gen-z-has-forgotten-how-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Employers think Gen Z has forgotten how to work"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nWednesday 13 May 2026 5:34 am<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Over half of UK employers are worried about Gen Z behaviour and professionalism. Here\u2019s three things they can do, according to Eliza Filby<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Why won\u2019t our graduates just pick up the phone?\u2019 is the most frequent complaint I hear from leaders. It may be the point of most frustration but it\u2019s far from the most outrageous. I\u2019ve been told of new recruits prioritising Pilates over deadlines, meeting a major client in a hoodie and crocs, bringing their parents to their annual review \u2013 and this is before we get on to AI generated slop masquerading as work.<\/p>\n

So, I wasn\u2019t surprised to hear last week that over half of UK employers are worried about graduate behaviour and professionalism. Employers cited concerns about their communication skills, motivation, resilience and workplace etiquette \u2013 with AI applications (surprise, surprise<\/a>) not helpful in deciphering talent at the application stage. In fact, it\u2019s creating a glaring discrepancy between the application and the applicant.<\/p>\n

Given the woeful state of the current graduate employment market, why aren\u2019t these youngsters more grateful, deferential and fastidious? I hear you cry! But brush aside any generational prejudice for a moment, because in all these complaints, employers are missing the deeper story. This lack of traditional professionalism isn\u2019t an indictment of a generation, but an indication of how the workplace has changed. It also helpfully hints at a way forward.<\/p>\n

Parental dependency<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s look at a generation who are coming through your doors. Thanks to modern parenting, tech and education culture, your new professional recruits are a product of time-short, working parents who were prone to over-parent and under develop resilience and independence in their offspring. Parents who were less likely to enforce chores in the home, and more focused on homework and extra-curricular activities than part-time paid work or unsupervised play. Your new recruits were recipients of an exam-focused and individualised education system where everything seemed high stakes, failure wasn\u2019t an option and anxiety was the by-product. They experienced a digital youth with no landline, a lockdown and a tertiary education system dominated by a customer ethos, some buyer\u2019s remorse, and definitely ChatGPT. They\u2019ve come of age in an algorithm-centric world where everything is bespoke, feedback is constant, anything can be delivered to your door, and you can get through most days without friction or speaking face to face to anyone. Finally, they\u2019ve entered adulthood in an economy where parental dependency is a lifeline and a leg up, they have \u00a350k student debt and rising, and even as employees on a relatively (sometimes very) good wage, they will still be more reliant on their parents than their company when it comes to buying a home. And yet leaders still expect these young workers to arrive fully formed, professionally fluent and full of hunger and deference.<\/p>\n

I exaggerate here, of course, but some if not most of this is true for the majority of professional class in the UK and frankly, most of the western world. You may disregard generational labels, but as an employer, I would entreat you to understand how the world has changed. Many know this situation intimately of course; they tolerate some of this with their kids at home even if they are unwilling to understand it at work.<\/p>\n

So, what is to be done? Aside from a revolution in the economy, education and parenting, I would suggest there are three things that employers can do. Because in running a business, we need to deal with how the world is, not how it was or how we would like it to be.<\/p>\n