On Gen Z and the Workplace as Social Construct

By Sonali Kohli

Director of Recruitment and Workforce Development at URL Media

Today I’m sharing an excerpt from our new URHired video series, where Chief of Recruitment and Workforce Development Leonor Ayala Polley and I, share insights on the workplace and hiring. This week’s topic: is Gen Z ready for the workplace?

Here are our thoughts, condensed for length and clarity:

Leonor Ayala Polley: I have heard from many a manager that Gen Z is just not ready for the workplace.

Sonali: Listen, Gen Z is like any other generation, right? When millennials were coming up, Gen X and Boomers said, “They’re not ready, they’re not professional.”

The reality is that nobody is ready for the workplace because it’s a made-up social construct. All corporate America[n] workplaces are, are made-up social contracts with made-up social rules that we pass down to each other.

Leonor: A lot of hiring managers and CEOs would balk at that statement. What do you mean by that?

Sonali: It is, though! It’s also so much a part of the work we do. We focus on candidates who may not have the  “cheat codes.” They might not know what business casual means, they might not know that having a full-time job means 9-6 and you have an hour-long lunch.

Because, why would you? You are told something, you get a contract, you do what’s in the contract. And especially during COVID a lot of stuff changed because people weren’t going into the office — and Gen Z came up during COVID, so this is sometimes their first time in an office.

There’s a lot that we have to teach each other and give grace to each other for.

Leonor: There is a miscommunication between expectations that Gen Z has coming into the workforce and their managers — what their expectations are in terms of where [Gen Z] should be in terms of skill level, etiquette. Sometimes, the big mistake we make as manager is that we’re not explicitly stating what we need from folks.

Sonali: We also have to realize, Gen Z is halfway into adulthood, they’re pushing 30. The youngest ones are not, but the oldest Gen Z are pushing 30. They’re in our workplaces, they are contributing to our workforce, they are managers, they are leaders.

So if we want to keep up and if we want to move forward together, then all the conversations have to be talking to each other

URL Goes to Portland

Advice for Graduates Entering Your First Job

Pinching pennies doesn’t mean squeezing Black women out of our budgets