GenZ Will Decide the Future of Work
65% of Gen Zers plan to join the Great Resignation this year, survey finds
GenZ are joining the Great Resignation movement to better align their their professional lives with their values and prefered lifestyle at work. While the Covid-19 recover will mean many employers try to “force” their employees to come back to the office.
That won’t likely work with GenZ talent. While Millennials had a reputation for job-hopping, GenZ is a major mover in the Great Resignation leading to working on their own terms. What does this mean?
65% of Gen Zers plan to leave their job this year, according to a new report.
The Great Resignation isn’t just for workers tired of their dead-end careers. A new study reveals that younger workers are actually more likely to quit and look for greener pastures than their older co-workers.
This suggests just as younger consumers are transforming retail and convenience apps, so are they transforming the future of work.
This survey among others has found that those graduating now and entering the workforce are more likely to try to bring their ideals to the workplace. Gen Z wants to work on their own terms; they'll keep job hunting until they find a place that lets them.
GenZ at least for now prioritize purpose and work-life balance over money. Some academics say that the higher number of Great Resignation support among young professionals might be because Gen Z prioritizes different values at work. The survey also found that 42% of Gen Zers would rather be at a company that gives them a sense of purpose than one that pays more, while more millennials (49%) and Gen X (56%) would rather work for a company that pays more.
Sense of purple > Pay & financial compensation
Many Won’t Want to go back to the Office
From China to the U.S. it would appear that with regard to the future of work the survey and others suggests that it’s evidence of how Gen Z is entering the workforce on their own terms, demanding change with a new sense of boldness not seen in previous generations. As some employers force employees back to the office and out of remote work of the WFM movement, their could be a serious talent churn.
This WFM counter-culture will be primarily GenZ and professionals already accustomed to remote work realities. GenZ are high on self-employment, freelancing and consulting.
GenZ are driving a new work-culture impact also defined as the Slowness revolution. Some of it is part of a "slow-up," a purposeful shift in slowing down productivity with the aim of a better work-life balance.
GenZ are also less interested in working overtime (after their daily tasks are completed) and delegate to their bosses more than previous generations.
GenZ aren’t just WFM natives, they are more prone to finding companies than align with their personal values.
The era of remote work gave Gen Z the upper hand in amplifying demands for workplace autonomy and even 2022 or 2023 this Great Reshuffle at work isn’t over yet. So long as labor demand vs. supply is high, GenZ will flex their future of work muscles in creating a better life-work environment. Some in the gaming industry are even going for 4-day work weeks.
Gen Z is leading the way in what LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky called a "Great Reshuffle" back in October. His team found that job transitions on LinkedIn have increased by 54% year-over-year, with Gen Z's job transitions increasing by 80%. I can see why LinkedIn wouldn’t like the term the Great Resignation, but GenZ are resigned to not work from the Office all the time. GenZ is also more reliably idealistic in their pursuit of companies and work-cultures where leadership is congruent with their own values and where quality of life is not disrupted by poor or bad working conditions. Clearly this is not just a Great Reshuffle, it’s something bigger for the future of work aligned with GenZ that is a large and growing cohort in the labor participation.
In late July, 2021 a Bankrate survey found that nearly twice as many Gen Z and millennial workers than boomers planned to look for a new job in the coming year. This means that 2022 will be a year of further flux in the labor market and in the negotiation between WFM, remote work, distributed teams vs. older companies and older leaders that insist on a return to the office at the risk of offending talent and GenZ churning in greater numbers.
GenZ is clearlying pushing the future of work in ways Boomers and GenX perhaps would not have anticipated at scale. When you are a larger segment of the labor force you also have more power to negotiate your own terms including more pay equity, wage growth to match inflation and better life-work balance.
After discovering that nearly half of America’s workforce is job searching or keeping an eye out for new opportunities, researchers from Gallup concluded that “the great resignation is really the great discontent.” Great Resignation as a term highlights the discontent GenZ have with older leaders who don’t get it. Great Reshuffle just implies they are like job-hopping Millennials were when they were younger. That simplifies and demeans the actual concerns of the youth workforce.
In August, a study by Personal Capital and The Harris Poll found that two-thirds of Americans surveyed were keen to switch jobs. The majority of Gen Zers felt that way (91%), as did more than a quarter of millennials. Whether it’s changing careers, geographical regions or aligning more with values for the rest of their careers, GenZ seem more experiential in their approach to finding employment that truly fulfills them.