What a New Poll Says About Gen-Z’s Workplace Issues. There Are Many.

According to a recent survey of 2,000 U.S. respondents aged 18 to 34, fully 95 percent of Gen-Zers said they considered “workplace cheating acceptable.” That rule-bending included clocking out early, napping, using corporate software for personal reasons, and other behaviors employers would likely object to if aware of it. Nearly all those respondents said they violate at least one of the 15 office no-nos pollsters cited. The study was published this month by PapersOwl, which links students facing homework deadlines with professional writers—a service that itself might raise eyebrows among educators and prospective bosses.

Much has been written about the difficulties the generation born between about 1998 and 2012 has often had settling into traditional work environments. The youthful cohort experienced the upheavals of the 2008 financial sector meltdown, widespread parental unemployment during the ensuing recession, and pandemic disruptions—just as it entered the labor market. As a result, more than a few Gen-Z employees come into office settings with particularly strong individualistic objectives of self-discovery and fulfillment that contrast traditional, productivist team spirit. 

Given that dynamic, employment experts have frequently urged bosses to meet those workers halfway, and find ways to allow their diverging attitudes to blossom into mutually beneficial contributions.  

According to the PapersOwl survey, however, that effort may be underperforming—with employers on the short end of the stick. 

For example, despite protests by countless employees over increasingly tighter or full return to office mandates, many Gen-Zers appear unimpressed by those rules. The poll found 40 percent of respondents resort to coffee badging— checking in briefly to signal their presence at work before leaving to work elsewhere for the rest of the day. Around 63 percent have repeated “Great Resignation” dodges of “quiet vacationing” in the last year, and at least a quarter said they call in sick when they’re not ill to get a paid day off.

It doesn’t end there. The poll found 34 percent of participants saying they leave work earlier than bosses expect, and nearly 20 percent come in later than required. Another 14 percent use company assets “for personal hobbies or freelance work.” When none of that assuages the crushing boredom or apparent futility of the job that many Gen Z-ers feel, 16 percent said they engage in the other “Great Resignation” silent ruse of “quiet quitting.” 

In some cases, the attitudes that apparently underlie behaviors many bosses may consider vexing—and even disrespectful—starts before many Gen-Zers and even Millennials begin working. 

Indeed, perhaps the most remarkable finding in the PapersOwl survey was that nearly 30 percent of those younger respondents said they’d recently engaged in “career catfishing.” That involves job seekers advancing deep into the hiring process, only to abruptly stop taking calls from their prospective employer. Others go so far as to accept job offers, then refuse to show up for positions they soured on, or never intended to take in the first place. 

A fifth of participants said they’d catfished businesses on a dare, while 18 percent said they knew people who’d intentionally wasted a company’s time that way. Another 21 percent reported having acquaintances who’d showed up for the first day of a new job, and immediately quit. Consider it the younger crowd’s occupational version of Doorbell Ditching. 

How might employers crack the whip to get their free-thinking Gen Z employees in line? That may prove tricky, with PapersOwl saying the clashing workplace expectations and behavior may reflect what’s increasingly looking like stark cultural differences between generations. 

“What we observe is the decline of workplace loyalty… (while) technological advancements like remote work, freelancing platforms, and AI have made alternative career paths more accessible, reducing reliance on traditional employment,” the study said of the findings unlikely to thrill most business owners who need younger employees all the same. 

“What employers can do is understand these behaviors by fostering open communication, prioritizing mental health, and offering flexibility to reduce workplace cheating,” it added. 

“Encouraging a positive culture that recognizes employees’ contributions and allows for growth and balance will always win under strict time-logging, daily reports, or screen-sharing.” 

But there is an opposing alternative many exasperated companies prefer: firing they what consider willfully intransigent younger employees. According to a survey taken last August by education and career advisory site Intelligent.com, 60 percent of companies said they’d terminated a Gen Z worker they’d only hired during the previous 12 months. Another 75 percent considered all or some of those recruits “unsatisfactory.” As a result, nearly 20 percent of participating businesses said they hesitated to hire new Gen Z employees that many described as “unprepared for the workforce, can’t handle the workload, and (who) are unprofessional."

That’s bad news for businesses needing younger employees to replace the huge numbers of Baby Boomers now retiring from the workforce. It’s also not fantastic feedback for millions of Gen Zers who need jobs. On the upside, however, it would lower recruiters’ risks of being catfished. 

Read the original article here.