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The generational work divide strikes again
After Jodie Foster sparked controversy by calling out Gen Z’s workplace attitudes, one writer hits back
IN THE EARLY 2010s, I worked at a McDonald’s in Birmingham. For £3.76 an hour I’d scrub the toilets, throw endless amounts of rubbish in the bin and stand at the drive-thru window handing out orders in all weathers. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t the most rewarding job. But with the ink barely dry on my GCSE results, it taught me patience, humility and that, sometimes, even if the ice cream machine is working, I won’t serve you ice cream.
Since then, I’ve never stopped earning. But what has changed is the intensity of the jobs. Swapping sweating over a hot grill for mid-morning walks and early finishes, long gone are the days of me bending over backwards for a job.
So you can imagine my reaction when Jodie Foster recently called Gen Z ‘really annoying, especially in the workplace’, claiming they will, for example, come in late if they’re ‘not feeling it’. Foster’s attitude is everything that’s wrong with how Boomers, Gen X and Millennials characterise Gen Zers. We’re not lazy or demanding, we just work smarter.
The #Girlboss era that Millennials and the likes of Emily Weiss and Sophia Amoruso championed in the mid 2010s is history: we’re not breaking our backs any more just to achieve the bare minimum or a bit of recognition. The culture previous generations built, whereby we must hustle through life, struggling and eventually getting burnt out, doesn’t work for us. Why? Because we’ve seen the results firsthand from our parents and co-workers who’ve become disillusioned with work culture.
You can see how it’s happened. Millennials grew up on the likes of Sex And The City, Ugly Betty and Legally Blonde – all stories that champion high-flying females. Overworked-but-sexy was the running theme. Two decades on, Gen Z is engrossed by shows such as Euphoria, Baddies and Sex Education, which prioritise real-life drama and societal issues. Our lives don’t revolve around gagging
