Career longevity for Gen Z employees. Is stability possible in unstable markets?

I recently came across a report from the World Economic Forum called Thriving Workplaces: How Employers Can Improve Productivity and Change Lives. The document looks at the specifics of what greater investment by organisations into their employees’ physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being could mean in terms of higher productivity, active engagement, lower absenteeism, greater values alignment, improved work-life balance and more. Reviewing the text, I began to think about the specific challenges that Gen Z candidates and workers face in their efforts to launch careers and also plan sensible trajectories forward for professional advancement. Our world of work today,characterised by constant change, does not make this an easy task. So I wanted to touch upon a few factors that employers, HR departments and also recruiters should be mindful of when working with Gen Z employees or future ?hire prospects.

1. Burnout and Mental Health: One key issue for Gen Z workers is mental resilience. This issue has been emphasised in a lot of expert analyses whenhighlighting the disruptive economic environment that welcomed this age cohort as they sought (seek) to join the world of work. Many Gen?Z employees report high stress and burnout—driven by relentless work demands, a pervasive "hustle culture," and a desire for constant productivity. Interestingly, this group of workers is pushing back against embracing the "always on" work culture (what was once called the rat race) and is looking for greater stability. Per reports in The Guardian, Gen Z candidates increasingly favour long-term work contracts and put greater emphasis on protecting their mental health. Some even take extended “micro‐retirements” to recharge, although experts warn that these breaks, if not managed well, can disrupt career momentum and long‐term skills development.

2. Financial Pressures: Considerations about earnings are a growing concern for Gen Z employees and job seekers. Rising costs of living around the globe and a shrinking middle class in many countrieshave left many Gen?Zers feeling that only extraordinarily high incomes (often cited around 500,000 USD annually per MarketWatch.com) will secure financial success. This perception can also create unrealistic expectations of what employment and a future career path should offer. It not only adds pressure (i.e., contributing to the mental health and burnout concerns mentioned above), but it can also lead to chronic dissatisfaction—even when Gen Z employees earn relatively high salaries. For this age cohort that is often highly perplexed and frustrated by the systems of employment they have graduated into, there is a growing movement to not play the game without proper compensation and fair investment into their continued skills development asvalued contributors in the workplace.

3. Unstable Work Environments: A flipside to what Gen Z candidates and employees expect of, or need from, employers and career opportunities involveshow they approach engaging with the job market and working with recruitment (HR) teams as they seek first jobs or opportunities for career advancement. Over the past decades, practices like career catfishing, where young employees accept job offers only to ghost their employers, have become more prevalent and slightly destabilising for candidates’ future career paths. Such behaviour, built around a sense that any job is easily replaceable, can stall career growth. Lack of communication on whether or not a role is a proper fit and if the candidate will indeed take it up contributes to mistrust between employers and employees and leaves Gen Z candidates, who might otherwise have solidpotential for career growth and advancement, flagged as unreliable. Meanwhile, the job ghosting or silent quitting that occurs is often not related to skills or aptitude but rather poor communications on what both sides expect of a specific role and sometimes candidate/new hire insecurities.

All of this is a lot to process, but the points mentioned above (in some cases highlighted in the WEF report) do show that more time and effort needs to be invested in making younger age cohorts like Gen Z feel valued and wanted in work environments. The Gen Z worker is one who puts a high premium on meaningful, purpose-driven employment and healthy work-life balance. If employers cannot meet workers in this age group half-way, it is likely that Gen Z employees will vote with their feet and move on when work roles fail to meet expectations.

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How businesses Gen Z talent can collaborate to build create sustainable careers

Overall, supporting the career success of talented Gen Z candidates requires contributions from both sides of the employer-employee equation. Gen Z workers put a lot of pressure on themselves to master tasks with a high degree of precision and success and if results are not immediate, they can choose to leavetheir work roles. This is primarily due to unrealistic expectations they set for themselves and also sometimes lack of investment into this age cohort’s integration into work teams and organisational cultures. Demand is growing for better dialogue on how employers expect their Gen Z employees to fit into team structures and to deliver expected outputs. At the same time, employers will need to communicate more frequently and accurately about how their Gen Z employees’ contributions make of part of a broader strategy and deliver meaning in terms of product or service quality, community contributions, and broader societal impact. It will take a fair amount of work to overcome the nervousness and worry that today’s disruptive world of work has created among Gen Z talent. But if open communications prevail, talent from this young age cohort can grow into their roles and succeed in their career advancement.