“How was your weekend?”, “Too short, as usual!”. Hearing two real-life tax payers recite this during a Monday morning elevator reunion forever affected my stance on the workplace. Call me a lazy “doomer” all you want, a sisyphean office nightmare where each Monday begins with the same refrain as the last is quite the scary prospect. I don’t mean this in a “young men used to go to war” kind of way; I’m actually quite pleased that I haven’t died in a minor baronial skirmish, thank you very much. However, it’s increasingly clear that Gen Z is exiting college into a deeply unappealing workplace, one that deflects its own flaws by impugning the willingness of its newly apathetic members. Before I leave the infantilising ease of college to the Big Bad World™, I thought it necessary to chart some of my thoughts on the new and thoroughly understandable wave of apathy permeating the Gen Z workforce.
One substantial qualm with modern corporate life is the complete lack of tangible impact felt by employees. Unless your definition of self-actualisation includes pragmatic business insights and rationalising unrefined consumer observations, the modern corporate world is showing few signs of improvement to satiate the inherent desire for meaning it so comprehensively crushes. This would be of less consequence in a world where workers leave the office and return home to vibrant community hubs and social togetherness, however the death of the third-space has placed a heavy emphasis on work as a source for personal meaning. Working to live is fine, but when actually living becomes too expensive or too difficult to be attainable, a workplace that doesn’t feel like Insuricare from The Incredibles is a good start. Corporations have tried to solve this problem with bespoke social programs and outreach designed to embed some kind of moral benefit within an otherwise mechanistic, profit-making entity. My own experiences in the matter led me to a wide network of pro-bono committees within Irish law firms, undoubtedly amazing initiatives spearheaded by employees seeking to do good beyond their usual workload. However, these schemes are often comparatively small in scale to the business’ usual work – they have to be to ensure money still gets made after all – so there is a limit to the socially-beneficial fun.
Another cause of apathy I’ve identified is the perception among Gen Z that workplaces and the system that upholds them is at a point of stagnation or even decline. Gone are the days of “just shake the manager’s hand and see if they’re hiring” – if that time ever truly existed at all. Corporate consolidation has created a vicious rat-race for the most entry level of roles, all in hope of climbing the greasy pole once finally in the door. It seems bizarre that students with first-class honours degrees, some even Scholars, have immense difficulty gaining employment in their subject area. I understand that AI has apparently eradicated the need for junior employees and the menial tasks they are often assigned, but it’s alarming to see opportunities for young people being stamped out in favour of Microsoft Copilot of all things. Even for those in the door, a distaste for office politics or “playing the game” can prevent upward mobility. The office as it has been defined for decades is an ageing concept largely unfit for purpose in the modern context.
A final consideration is the overt media smearing of young people wanting a better workplace as “laziness” or “lack of hard graft”. There is a prevailing trend in media reports of highlighting Gen Z’s apathy towards corporate life; for the suffering of past employees to be validated, others must suffer the same fate. It isn’t enough for older workers to succeed; others must endure the same setbacks, institutional barriers, and flawed practices to somehow earn that success. This idea that comparison is the thief of joy, or source in this case, is best exemplified by John Ruskin. His definition of wealth was not the accumulation of wealth but the “art of establishing the maximum inequality in our own favour”. The stance proliferated by the media that you may only take gratification from your victory in the knowledge that others struggle is actively harmful to a cooperative workplace and further entrenches the apathy young professionals rightly feel. Others having the chance to improve working conditions, only to decline doing so in the interest of preserving their own personal sense of a career “crucible”, is a recipe for Gen Z resignation.
I don’t think these plaintive cries for better are going to topple the current status quo, and I fear we can never be fully remote or hands-off lest “Big Desk and Office Supplies” strike us down. However, if these calls for substantive positive change to how we approach our careers – something that will consume more than 40 years of our lives – leads to any kind of improvement, then we should consider it a hearty step forward. Gen Z aren’t disillusioned with work generally; merely the form it currently takes. Adapt the form and buy-in will follow in earnest.
