Every generation differs from the one before, especially in the workplace — as media reports never stop telling us. Millennials were famously “lazy,” Boomers are (according to younger workers) pretty much stick-in-the-muds, and Gen-Z? Well, they’re a completely different kettle of fish, even at work. They’re reportedly quick to quit, sensitive to mental health matters and keen to shun boring office traditions.
A new report highlights a subtly different aspect of working with Gen-Z staff, which may help you understand some of the difficulties managers report when wrangling Gen-Z workers through the day. Gen-Z won’t just hop to it when you “order” them to work. It may not be so much a case of generational entitlement, nor disrespect for their elders. Gen-Z may just need to be told why a task is important before they agree to tackle it.
Writing for Psychology Today, Georgia-based executive coaching expert Tim Elmore points out that sports brand Nike has tried a new campaign to appeal to younger customers: the new “Why Do It?” push, a play on the famous “Just Do It” motto, is all about “igniting that spark for a new generation, daring them to step forward” according to Nike’s chief marketing officer Nicole Graham.
He says the trick to motivating and training Gen-Z workers rests on presenting the “why” reasons behind tasks right from the beginning. It helps younger workers “see the big picture,” which motivates them “to invest more time and energy,” Elmore explains. Allowing workers to peep behind the curtain is also a powerful motivational maneuver, he notes, since it can foster better decision-making, creativity and problem-soling, because people may make “wiser choices” if they know a project’s overall context. It can even increase employee ownership. This could be the most important aspect of telling workers why, he says, since once they “buy into both ‘what” and “why,’ they ‘own’ their job instead of ‘renting’ it.”
As to why Gen-Z needs this kind of support, which older managers may easily dismiss as young, inexperienced workers making demands above their station, Elmore suggests it’s partly due to the way Gen-Z voraciously consumes social media—a system that sometimes allows them to “see everything” about parts of the world in ways that just weren’t possible before. This may be driving the high anxiety Gen-Z suffers, as well as their frustration with what they may perceive to be a lack of transparency from management or company cultures that simply encourage a “do it because I said so” mentality. Gen-Z may need more “whys” than older workers because some “know too much and need to be convinced it’s worth it to step into action and become involved,” he writes, while others need an explanation “because they know too little,” since they’ve never had a full-time job before and need a leadership figure to walk them through the process.
In a Reddit discussion on the way Gen-Z behaves at work, some commenters wrote opinions that showed conflict with the way Gen-Z workers behave. “I won’t go as far as labeling Gen Z as lazy, but the entitlement is real,” one person wrote, arguing that “they would rather quit rather than work through challenges because they think they work isn’t supposed to be hard or stressful.”
But another Reddit user explained things in a way that chimes with Elmore’s thinking. Gen-Z workers are “largely immature in my experience,” they said, adding “but they’ll grow out of it.” The reasons may be because “they missed out on a lot of the social aspects of college,” the user wrote, noting that they think “they just need the number of years they spent in online college to get to the maturity level that previous generations had when they finished regular college. Not their fault, of course.” The user also added they’ve had to do a “lot more coaching for Gen Z people than others seem to have needed,” which chimes with explaining more “whys,” as Elmore suggests. But they concluded with a sentiment that may appeal to savvy business leaders: “I just like to help them learn.”
This aligns with other reports that say Gen-Z really wants more on-the job training than their older colleagues.
All of this may play into they way you manage your youngest workers. If they seem slow to get going on freshly set tasks, it might not be because they’re lazy: it’s just that they need to see the reasoning behind the tasks before they commit to them.
The early-rate deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, November 14, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.
Kit Eaton
Source link