Gen Z, it’s not good to have your boss hate you

For any young worker who needs to hear this, your power in the labour market will not last and quietly quitting could be setting you up to get loudly fired.

Young people are changing workplace norms amid a tight labour market, but the good times may not last. PHOTO: ST FILE
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Every generation faces a sceptical reception in the labour force. Baby boomers were called self-centred, Gen X was lazy and millennials were considered entitled. For Gen Z, it is the same – but different. When I was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, there was the normal buzz about economic conditions and climate change. But everyone I spoke with wanted to talk about something else: How the pandemic has changed the labour market, and especially how it has affected Gen Z.

Young people have never entered the labour force with more power – unemployment is low and the demand for labour is high – and they are exercising that power by changing workplace norms. The good times may not last, though, and Gen Z could wind up being the ones who pay the bigger price.

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