A fiery debate took place on Good Morning Britain over whether Gen Z workers are “lazy.”
Last week, actor Jodie Foster said that Gen Z, the generation born in the late 90s, are “really annoying” to work with.
And when GMB ran a poll for its viewers asking if they though the younger generation were lazy workers, almost two thirds (64.8 per cent) voted yes.
Journalist Nina Myskow and entrepreneur Adwoa Owusu-Darko then appeared on the show to debate the issue.
“Writing off” an entire generation
Whilst Myskow, who has written for the News of the World and the Sun, said she was not “writing off the entire generation”, she did agree that Foster had a point.
She argued that it wasn’t necessarily Gen Z’s fault, and was instead more a result of being “mollycoddled” during their lives.
“It’s only through adversity that you get some kind of backbone, resilience and work ethic. It’s not that generation’s fault, they have been brought up to feel entitled,” she said.
When Myskow claimed that businesses were “struggling to find staff” because of Gen Z’s supposed laziness, Owusu-Darko asked her to name these businesses.
Myskow replied: “I can’t name them, but there are many of them.”
The entrepreneur defended her generation, claiming that Gen Z workers have a “sense of innovation and efficiency”, pointing out that half of people in her generation combine full-time jobs with a side hustle.
Owusu-Darko said: “To be able to hold a part-time job and pursue an entrepreneurial endeavour, which is what I did, all the way through university, then start a business, now have five streams of income – that shows Gen Z have a huge capacity to see beyond the constraints of their life.”
On social media, many were quick to give their opinions on the matter.
Less tolerant
One person argued that Gen Z aren’t lazy but are simply less willing to tolerate being treated poorly, writing: “Employers want staff to work whatever hours suits the employer, often as unpaid overtime (for those in salaried jobs). We tolerated that type of exploitation, but Gen Z won’t. They’re also quicker to change job if the current one isn’t working for them. Good for them!”
Someone else said: “I feel that Gen Z is doing their best. It’s ironic because millennials were called lazy before. What needs to happen is to listen and each generation so we can coexist and work together not against each other. Calling them lazy isn’t helpful at all.”
But another person commented that “many, many members of Gen Z are entitled and have little to no work ethic.”
They added: “They think the world owes them a living, and feel like branded items are more important than sometimes cheaper necessities.”
Meanwhile, others pointed out that the older generation thinking the young are lazy is nothing new, writing that people “used to say the same thing about millenials.”