Ever get the impression that Gen-Z is lazy and shiftless? According to a slew of recent studies, you’re not alone. Sites from Fortune to Resume Builder have run stories on how disappointing recent college graduates have been in the workforce, and how their managers are so fed up that they actively avoid hiring them.
Companies and hiring managers agree that Gen-Z — which makes up folks born between 1995 and 2012 — is unmotivated, unprepared and unprofessional. They don’t have the stamina or the desire to do the work, and worst of all, they don’t feel like they should have to. Of course, this disproportionately impacts potential Black hires, according to a study from Oxford Economic Journal that confirms Black folks are scrutinized more in the workplace — as we always have been.
Of course, I didn’t need any studies to tell me how bad things are with Gen-Z: As a Black, tenured professor at a private university in New York and a hardworking, independent member of Gen-X, I’ve seen firsthand how so many of my students don’t have what it takes even to do an unpaid internship well, much less a job.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many classes were held via Zoom, one young man showed up on camera shirtless and reclining in his bed. I had to send him a private message to put a shirt on. Others address me casually in emails by my first name, even though I’m a tenured professor with a Ph.D. I’ve had students argue with me about assignments and skills needed even though I have more than 30 years of experience in my field.
Once, I assigned an important film to a class...an Oscar-winning classic that made its mark on American culture 50 years ago. A student who’d been argumentative all semester — and whose essay response was written with the grammar skills of a small child — complained in response to her low grade that she just didn’t like to watch movies. She just couldn’t focus her attention on something that long and boring, she said.
But none of this compares to an off-campus incident I happened to witness recently. This one took the cake as a mix of Gen-Z entitlement and white male superiority. I was at Burlington’s where about two dozen people waited in line. All of them were Black or Latino, several with grandparents and baby strollers. Only three cashiers were working, all of them young, Black women.
That’s when two tall white male jocks strolled past the line of people and presented themselves to checkout like it was nothing. They waved something at the cashier, maybe a phone charger, and said they “just had one thing.” They expected to be checked out, right then and there, ahead of everyone else. What was even more shocking was that the cashier didn’t register a thing as she lackadaisically started to ring them up.
“Oh, heeeeeell no!” I called out from my place in line. “Who do you think you are, jumping ahead of all these people?” Jock boys flashed me a couple of dirty looks, turned on their jock heels, and left. If anybody is crazy enough to hire one of these arrogant kids, just know that they’re never going to do any kind of real work. Because they just don’t want to. And they don’t see why they should.
There are exceptions, of course. Every semester I have at least one student that blows me away with their kindness and passion for knowledge. I know they have what it takes because they answer emails right away, never have any kind of attitude, and jump right on anything needs to be done.
These are students who understand that they’re living in a harsh, unpredictable world. They know they need to give 1,000 percent if they’re going to survive. For them, I’ll do anything I can to make sure they make it.