Criticize the youngestopen space, it sometimes means taking the risk of being seen as the boomer on duty. Ask Jodie Foster. In a recent interview with Guardian, the American actress and director judged the new generation “really annoying, especially in the workplace”, triggering an outcry on social networks. The episode reflects this gap which seems to be widening at work between the famous “generation Z”, born after 1997, and managers. At least in speeches. “Compared to my time, there is a total porosity between professional life and private life. They do not hesitate to tell us about their family obligations, particularly religious ones, which is very new,” says Charlotte, 44, lawyer in a large Parisian firm, which has no shortage of examples. As for teleworking: “They consider it a right. Without imagining for a single moment that we could refuse.”
Have we gone from a disenchanted generation to an uninhibited generation? Like Charlotte, “93% of managers (of all ages) believe that young people have a different relationship to work than their elders”, indicates a survey by the Association for the Employment of Executives (Apec) and the think tank Terra Nova of 2024. The same study, however, brushes aside certain preconceived ideas. Thus, those under 30 “give as much importance to work as their elders (47% consider it more or as important as other areas of life, vs. 47% of those aged 30 to 44 and 36% of those aged 45 and over). more)”.
How can we explain what seems like a big misunderstanding? Adrien Ledoux, CEO of the recruitment platform JobTeaser, puts forward a first hypothesis: “If GenZ is very attached to work, they are much less attached to the company.” A youth who, fed up with social networks, would be accustomed to very rapid communication, with this need to have information very quickly. “Whether with Google, Siri or Alexa, they have always gotten answers to even the slightest question. Whereas at work they navigate situations where information on the rationale for certain decisions lacks transparency” , analysis in the Washington Post Megan Gerhardt, professor of management at the University of Miami.
Najwa El Marbouh, FSI audit and assurance director at Deloitte, notes this in the field: “The youngest people question a lot the interest of what we do, the usefulness and the degree of urgency.” Not without difficulties. “It requires a lot of energy, and, as for deadlines with clients, that can be a problem, because they don’t have the big picture. We sometimes want to answer them: ‘Don’t worry so much questions!'”, she says with a burst of laughter. A requirement for fulfillment which, according to her, is verified during recruitment interviews: “Generally, their first question concerns working hours, then they move on to whether they will be able to change mission within six months in the event that they are unhappy in their position.”
“There are very few differences between generations”
Reading the Apec and Terra Nova report, however, invites us to take with great caution the very concept of generations as an explanation of these professional tensions. “Their ‘requirements’ on the job market are therefore not always the result of their youth or supposed moral, cultural or generational particularities […] but also, more simply, the result of a more favorable economic situation”, cite the document recalling that in ten years the unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds has fallen from 29% to 16% for men and from 24% to 18% for women.
Researcher Jean Pralong also strongly tempers these generational discourses. “Very often, personal conflicts are status conflicts,” explains this professor of human resources management at EM Normandie, who emphasizes one point: “A generation is people who only have age in common.” Emeric Kubiak, scientific director at AssessFirst, goes in the same direction: “Research shows that there are very few differences between generations. Whether in professional attitudes, personalities, mobility, etc., all studies indicate that it is more of a myth than a reality.” Thus the Apec and Terra Nova survey points to this “recurring limitation of surveys on young people and work” which consists of “proposing a homogeneous image of youth while it is itself heterogeneous […]. Inequalities linked to socio-professional category or level of qualifications between young workers are often greater than the gaps observed between age groups.
If he does not deny the reality of the situations described by the managers, Emeric Kubiak sees another reason: they are simply having difficulty managing. “Isn’t the complaint of managers basically that of executives who today find themselves having to enforce instructions whose meaning is complicated to explain?” asks Jean Pralong. Emeric Kubiak believes for his part that the need “is not to manage generations, but to manage perceptions around these generations”, by refocusing on the individual and seeking to understand their main motivations. A more personalized management, in short. Be careful, he warns, however, that the responsibility should not be placed on the backs of managers, but rather on the entire ecosystem that brings them there. “Instead of offering two or three-day management training courses, companies would do better to consistently equip managers. This also involves better identifying them and better recruiting them. But the problem today is that management is no longer just a kind of promotion,” he concludes.
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