We hear “Gen Z is lazy” a lot. I was born in 1995. Some count me as the start of Gen Z, others as the end of the Millennials. So I hear it as if it’s said to me too.
\nIn the 80s, the only communication tool was television. Life was predictable. Do this job and you’ll get there.
\nFor Gen Z, nothing is predictable. Nobody today gives a guarantee that “if you live this life, you’ll end up here.” Praising the work ethic of the 80s and 90s under today’s conditions seems absurd to me.
\nIt’s even on Sumerian tablets. In the text known as “The Father and His Misbehaving Son,” a father scolds his son for not going to school. The text is about 3,700 years old. Humanity has always told the next generation “you’re doing it wrong.”
\nGen Z is more inclined to stand out. But being different on its own means nothing. At some point, trying to be different puts you in a mold too.
\nHard work used to mean filling out dozens of forms. Today that work is being automated, but people are still made to do it. When Gen Z finds it boring and pointless, people say “they’re too picky, they’re lazy.”
\nI don’t think Gen Z is the problem. The problem is that work is still done with a 90s mindset.
\nIf we measure laziness by classic standards, yes, Gen Z is lazy. Or unfocused. We’re an incredibly distracted generation, because everything changes so fast.
\nIn the last 5-6 years we had the pandemic. Then blockchain, NFTs, SaaS, AI. Then waves of layoffs: 20 thousand, 30 thousand, 40 thousand people. According to Layoffs.fyi, tech companies laid off more than 260 thousand people in 2023 alone. Keeping up with this pace takes new ways of thinking.
\nFor someone entering software engineering in the 90s, 80% of their life was mapped out. Today it never is.
\nFrom the outside, this uncertainty looks like indifference. I think it’s actually a way of coping with uncertainty.
\nEducation is still delivered with a Cold War mindset. We raise students as if we’re training factory workers. We should be learning new skills, yet we still make people memorize information and test them on it.
\nI don’t think we should be asking “Is Gen Z lazy?” The real question is this: does this system, this education, this business world run on today’s terms, or still on the 90s?
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