A new study reveals that nearly 75 percent of managers of business leaders say that Gen Z — anyone born from 1997 onward — are "more difficult to work with than other generations."
Even more concerning, a whopping 49 percent of business leaders and managers surveyed said that it was difficult to work with Gen Z all or most of the time, according to a survey from ResumeBuilder.
A number of managers also agreed that Gen Z workers lack communication skills, effort, motivation and even technological skills.
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The problem is serious enough that 20 percent of managers and business leaders included in the survey said that they had to "fire a Gen Z employee within a week of the employee’s start date." After just a month, that number rose to 27 percent.
And one of the top reasons that GenZers are being canned from their jobs, according to the April survey, is that they are "too easily offended."
Akpan Ukeme, the head of HR at SGK Global Shipping Services, said that working alongside GenZers can be "exhausting."
"In our organization, the Gen Zs I have interacted with can be exhausting because they lack discipline, and they like to challenge you," Ukeme told ResumeBuilder.
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"I’ve butted heads more than once with a Gen Z employee, because since our company is online-based, they think they know everything about the digital world and that they can teach me. They think they’re better than you, smarter than you, more capable than you, and they will tell you to your face," he added.
The only other generation that came close to Gen Z's unpopularity was Baby Boomers.
"Of respondents who say Gen Z is the most difficult generation to work with, 34% say they prefer to work with Millennials, 30% with Gen X, and 4% with Baby Boomers," the survey concluded.
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Another business expert, chief career advisor Stacie Haller, pointed to COVID-19 and remote work as a possible cause of Gen Z's trouble adjusting to the workplace.
"As a result of COVID-19 and remote education, it’s possible that GenZers lack the foundation to be more successful than older generations in entry-level positions," Haller said.
She continued: "We know that with remote work and education, communication skills do not develop as well and people tend to work more independently. Hiring managers need to be cognizant of this when interviewing GenZers for positions. This generation may need more training when it comes to professional skills."
