Despite some stereotypes, when it comes to their careers, they want similar things to their older peers at work, like being paid fairly and having flexibility.
Seramount, a professional-services and research firm, conducted interviews with Gen Zers and older workers and found that — contrary to some depictions — young workers weren't just focused on logging on from home, scooping up a paycheck, and doing as little as possible to get by.
The study defined Gen Z as those born between 1997 and 2012, but the research involved only Gen Zers already in the workforce, not those still in school.
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Jon Veasey-Deters, a senior research analyst at Seramount who, at 27, is a Gen Zer himself, told Business Insider that despite some differences, the study found that younger workers often had many of the same goals as their older counterparts.
"We're all kind of looking for the same things: to have a decent salary, to make a decent impact on the world, and to value the work that we do," he said.
Young people's expectations matter because in 2024, some research suggests Gen Zers are on track to outnumber baby boomers for the first time among full-time US workers.
Ready to commute
Veasey-Deters said one of the things older employees and working Gen Zers differ on is that many young people early in their careers want to work from an office —at least some of the time.
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In interviews with nearly 400 workers of various ages in the US from late 2023, Seramount found that nearly three-quarters of the Gen Zers it spoke with liked a hybrid setup, while only about half the workers in older generations did. Only 11% of Gen Zers said they wanted to work remotely full time, compared to 34% of workers from other generations.
Veasey-Deters said many younger workers who graduated into the pandemic didn't expect to open their laptops from their kitchen tables, so they want to be around others.
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"We're desiring that specific social element to our work and to better understand the colleagues that we're working withand the organizations that we're a part of," he said.
Veasey-Deters said that while the intangible benefits of working with colleagues IRL are important for many young people, Gen Zers don't need to be with their coworkers every day.
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"The biggest thing that we found with Gen Z is they're valuing work-life balance and flexibility first and foremost," he said, adding that a hybrid schedule is the best way to address that.
Though bosses might not always like it, more appear to be assenting to workers' demands and letting their employees shelve their commutes some days. In a recent survey of big-company CEOs, KPMG found that one-third expected workers back in the office five days a week, which is down from about two-thirds a year earlier.
Veasey-Deters said he enjoys going to the office. "I voluntarily come in once a week and make the 25-minute commute for those social intangibles," he said.
Beyond the hard-to-pin-down benefits of being in one place, Veasey-Deters said many companies finding success with their return-to-office policies often have workers gather "with a sense of purpose" for special events instead of decreeing that they have to be in the office certain days.
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We all want the money
Seramount's research also suggested that younger workers aren't much more money-hungry than others. In its interviews, 51% of Gen Zers said their salary was the most important part of a job, whereas 47% of older workers said the same.
For some younger workers, dealing with the high cost of college is a major obstacle. Recent studies have found that more than half of Gen Z and millennial workers are living paycheck to paycheck.
The newest tranche of the workforce is also motivated by carving out robust relationships with their bosses. Seramount found that wanting to "perform well" for a supervisor was a major motivating factor. Only getting a raise or a bonus came ahead of a desire to please the boss.
Gen Zers are also motivated by a desire to get ahead. In the survey, 33% of Gen Z workers told researchers they expected to be promoted to leadership roles at their company, while only 19% of older workers said the same. And 44% of Gen Z workers said they wanted to be in charge of others compared with only 27% of those from older generations.
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Veasey-Deters said that when companies do the right things to retain Gen Z talent, young workers appear can be eager to stay for a long time and build careers with their employers. But for many young workers, he said, that means having bosses who honor principles like work-life balance.
"Those are not novel things. Those are not unique to just this generation," Veasey-Deters said. "Gen Z is not that different from other generations. We're just the newest one."
