When the pandemic hit, Gen Z-ers – born between 1997 and 2012 – were just entering adulthood. Having endured a particularly difficult time during lockdown, they are now facing an acute mental health crisis. As a result, in 2024 many will want more from their professional life.
When my research team at Harvard University interviewed 80 Gen Z students, we noticed an overwhelming desire to redouble our efforts to live authentically. This means doing work they are passionate about, building meaningful connections with their peers, making their personal selves known – whether that means their tastes and preferences, their sexual identity, their past traumas – to those around them, as and when they are so touched.
In general, Gen Z is also much more skeptical of the pursuit of the American Dream than their elders. For example, many view home ownership not only as unaffordable, but as yet another consumer trap—part of the addictive “hedonistic treadmill” to be avoided. They do not want to subordinate their personal priorities to profit, nor to hide important aspects of their identity in order to present the “ideal self” traditionally expected by employers. In the past, this often required full dedication (over 40 hours per week) to externally dictated goals. This is no longer the case.
The Gen Z students we interviewed have specific requests for their employers. They strive to combine their passion for hard work and entrepreneurship with self-fulfillment, work-life balance, social inclusion and political engagement. The usual incentives for employees will not do.
To continue to attract these young, reluctant workers as the boomers retire, employers will need to foster organizational cultures that facilitate what I call recognition—making others visible and valued. As such, “seeing others” will have to become the new management mantra. In this context, formal ‘affinity groups’ of workers who share similar interests or identities will become particularly important. This will enable people in increasingly different workplaces to talk about how they experience work and life together, what they are striving for and how things can be improved.
In 2024 this drive for self-creation and actualization will mean that therapeutic culture will play an even more central role than in the past. Both workers and managers will focus less on “working more” than “working better” and think more about what motivates employees beyond economic imperatives.
The gig economy, as well as self-employment opportunities that can be used as an entrepreneurial tool, also give Generation Z-ers a way out of the drudgery of the workday.
Yet there are important differences between social classes. In a study of how middle- and working-class students responded to Covid-19, the former group was more likely to see themselves as leaders of social change, while the latter saw their aspirations limited by the reality of having to support their families. They also operated with a much shorter time horizon and perceived the challenges of the pandemic in the context of a long history of dealing with crises. Against this background in 2024 the pursuit of passion will continue to be seen as a luxury by many with fewer resources, while the divide between the highly educated and the rest of the population will continue to widen, including their search for dignity through work. If we want to live in healthy societies, we need to expand the recognition of those without college degrees—and learn how to truly see others properly.
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