The ‘bedroom generation’: is Gen Z being pushed out of work?
we might have taken the bed rotting too far
Having entered work during a pandemic, locked at home, Gen Z’s perception of office culture is entirely different from that of their older colleagues. With greater mental health needs and shifting personal priorities, bosses are reluctant to hire young people. What needs to change?
Is Gen Z spending too much time at home?
A new report into youth employment by Alan Milburn, a former Labour health secretary, has warned that businesses are not doing enough to adapt to the unique needs of Gen Z workers, with a demand for immediate, urgent action in the UK. This could include greater mental health support, increased flexibility of weekly schedules, and more focus on health and welfare.
According to the new review, one in six young people won’t be in education, employment, or training within the next five years if current systems stay the same. Given the rising costs of living, the emergence of AI, the subsequent diminishing of entry-level jobs, and the spiralling levels of both anxiety and depression, it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn that Gen Z are in the metaphorical trenches, so to speak.
Young people are in a unique position compared to their millennial peers. Most began to enter the work force either during or just after the pandemic, having studied in their bedrooms for several years. They became digitally native and able to use a wide range of platforms to best optimise productivity, a skill that has only magnified as ChatGPT and AI tools reshape our workflows and corporate budgets.
“We are currently living through a ‘perfect storm’ of economic caution, and many firms are hesitant to stretch their budgets and bring in new team members.”
Finding remote work and multiple income streams through online opportunities, many Gen Zers are freelancing or are self-employed, without the need for a typical corporate office. Graduates are spending most of their time at home endlessly applying for jobs, and a significant majority don’t have the personal funds to move out, date, travel, or really begin their independent lives. As a result, a large chunk of young people are living through an extended period of adolescence, unable to build the social skills required to be successful in traditional businesses.
All these factors are contributing to press outlets and Milburn himself dubbing Gen Z the ‘bedroom generation,’ where bosses are reluctant to hire them for a lack of people skills, resulting in further isolation and stalled careers.
What’s causing young people to stay inside? For one, graduate vacancies are on the decline. We are currently living through a ‘perfect storm’ of economic caution, and many firms are hesitant to stretch their budgets and bring in new team members. A record number of graduates are leaving university and seeking immediate employment, making any new roles extremely competitive. AI tools are also eating away at junior positions such as copywriting, administration, coding, and research, among others, resulting in fewer vacancies for more applicants.
Beyond employment woes, we’ve also seen bedrooms become their own, reinvented version of the ‘office,’ where Gen Zers can do nearly everything without the need for city commuting. Thanks to the pandemic, working from home has become a normal part of hybrid roles, and most younger employees have a system in place to be just as productive sitting by their beds as they would be by the water cooler. Gen Z work, date, watch films, work out, and socialise all from inside the home, making it cheaper and more accessible than paying for a ton of different services across a city or town.
By that same token, though, the overreliance on technology is causing a dependency that might be eroding our critical thinking and disciplinary skills, at least according to the experts. We’ve written before about Gen Z’s feelings towards AI and its widespread takeover of junior jobs. Despite all the unease, young people are continuing to adopt and rely on systems that are replacing traditional careers, networking opportunities, and courses that have historically provided room for personal growth. Why go to all that effort when ChatGPT can give you results in mere seconds, after all?
“We’ve also seen bedrooms become their own, reinvented version of the ‘office,’ where Gen Zers can do nearly everything without the need for city commuting.”
This saturation of skills that used to take entire teams of people - such as editing, writing captions and press releases, translating legal jargon, etc. - is causing more Gen Zers to become burnt out, approaching work with unprecedented levels of anxiety. They’re feeling increasingly irrelevant before they’ve even gotten started professionally, reporting that they regard their recent degrees as ‘useless’ in a changing landscape, further compounding a pessimistic hopelessness that is uniquely Gen Z.
It’ll be interesting to see how the UK responds to these latest findings and whether it will be able to successfully accommodate the needs of younger workers. Bedrooms have continued to evolve beyond spaces exclusively for relaxation and can now be moulded uniquely to fit the needs of each individual. They’re also a reflection of Gen Z’s struggles and work anxieties, serving as accessible havens that, at the very least, provide a space to try and navigate the relentlessly difficult job market of today.
See also:
🌍 Gen Z around the Web
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Please stop talking about Gen Z in the office (financial review)
Generational labels have become a standard for marketing insights, serving as a useful tool to differentiate between different age ranges and their collective perspectives. However, could sweeping such complex groups of people into boxes be unnecessarily divisive and reductive? Might we also be overlooking issues that span both young and old, such as mental health and unemployment? This piece argues the case that we should stop chucking everything into generational boxes. Read more
Gen Z does not need more patronising from politicians (spiked)
This article examines Labour MP Angela Rayner’s appearance on The Gen Z Story, a podcast that attempts to connect with younger listeners in a way that isn’t cliche. Yet, despite these noble intentions, Spiked argues that Gen Z are still being patronised despite their unprecedented social situation and pessimism. Blame is continually projected onto younger people for being ‘impatient’ or ‘irresponsible’ despite their dwindling prospects compared to older generations. Read more
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