What I have learnt from Gen Z?

For the last past 10 months, I have asked my digital marketing students to write blog posts to explain to future recruiters, their opinions about their own generation. I have enjoined them to read studies about Gen Z and to say if they agree or disagree with what is said about them. The best blog posts have been published and we have today more than 50 blog posts written by Bachelor and Master students, coming from 27 different countries. Are you curious about what they have to say?

I have tried to summarise below the main topics.

1. The world does not like them

First, they have discovered that all these studies are mostly negative about Gen Z. They are considered asocial, addicted to technology and lazy. It seems that they are only defined by their mobile phones. Teachers claim they are unable to take notes; recruiters criticize their lack of professionalism and supervisors think that they are not hard worker. It’s quite common for older generations to criticize new comers but it has never been done so obviously. When I saw their reactions in class, I felt annoyed: is it the right way to welcome a new generation that will have to solve dramatic issues like climate change?

Even if they admit that they rely a lot on technologies and that one of their biggest fear is losing WIFI access, they also explain that they hate emails and they prefer from far face-to-face communication. I very much like Christine’s comment about teachers who try to engage students with YouTube videos. She wrote:

“In today’s world lecturers think that when the class is boring, displaying a video on a screen will catch our attention. However, the truth is that if we were not engaged since the beginning there is no video on the internet that will make our brains process or even retain the information they want to transmit.”

In most of their blog posts, it appears clearly that finding a suitable job for them is one the biggest priority as they are extremely aware of the competition. When they read that they lack professionalism, they asked me if it’s very professional from companies not to send them any answer to a job candidature or any feedback after a failed job interview. How can we ask them to apply rules, when companies don’t? Lynn was quite upset on her blog post and she explained:

“We don’t understand how some companies grade people based on a piece of paper! For me, it’s like judging its book by its cover and we all know we shouldn’t.”

At Hotel Institute Montreux, there are some student entrepreneurs who started their businesses in high school. All our students mentioned friends who have launched businesses and being an entrepreneur is clearly on their bucket list. They are maybe sometimes unrealistic about the workplace but they are more afraid of deprivation of liberty and lack of creativity than working long hours. Olivier noted:

“I am absolutely terrified by the fact that I could one day work in a cubic space. This world doesn’t allow creativity. In my opinion, a good workplace should be flexible on how each individual is the most productive and creative.”

2. They are looking for meaning everywhere

Bombarded with information, it has been shown that Gen Z’s attention span is less than 10 seconds. Does this mean that they are not interested in anything or that, on the contrary, they filter everything with a common goal: to make sense!

Carolina called herself and her peers the “Dory generation” in reference to the Disney movie Finding Nemo, in which a blue fish called Dory has short term memory loss problem. She described how Gen Z likes to communicate differently:

“Just because we prefer to hear the news from a quick video rather than a newspaper doesn’t mean we have no attention span, just like wearing jeans to the office rather than a suit doesn’t make Millennials lazy.”

Indeed, access to new modes of communication has structurally changed the way the new generation communicates. They must sort through all those data, make choices, understand what is important and what is less important. In this regard, Josefin considers that we have the responsibility to guide this generation that ultimately consumes the technology we have created. She claimed:

“It is said that depression and low self-esteem is increasing in our society, and who is responsible for this? Generation Z needs guidance to help them find their own values and not to get lost on the way. They need role models. Older generations are responsible of helping them on their way to success.”

Expectations of the workplace have changed too. Even if most of them appreciated their internship experiences within worldwide hotels chains like Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons, what they value the most is to be known, “to be recognized and to be appreciated” explained Joao. He continues:

“We don’t want to work for big corporations, we don’t want to be a number. We value small environments where everyone knows each other and where everyone’s voice impacts general decision-making.”

Far more than tittles and money, this generation is in constant search for self-actualization. They clearly don’t like to be told what to do. They want to try and sometimes to fail by themselves.

“Gen Z wants to do what they feel is right. It does not mean that we are not willing to change according to the feedback we receive. At the contrary, we want to be able to fail and see our mistakes in order to really understand why we are doing things in a certain way. When we learn something and it is recognized, we have a feeling of accomplishment that leads to higher personal productivity.” wrote Francesco.

Generation Z want leaders and not bosses, they look for role models and they value teachers’ commitment. What they value the most is hands-on experience. Linda explain:

“Just imagine a doctor: would you say he / she know how to perform a surgery if he / she has only read about it in books? Probably not. That’s why I wanted to gain hands-on experience throughout my studies.”

3. They are ambivalent

Blog post after blog post, one thing that surprised me the most is their ambivalence. Gen Z seems over-confident, believing that tomorrow world is going to be very different and they will be the only ones able to navigate in this new environment. I stop counting their catchy headings:

“Gen Z in the workplace: We can change the rules of the game!” by Daniela

“Stop being Pessimistic! “WE” will be more successful than “THEM” by Callisa

“Adapt to invest - Why Gen Z is the future” by Adrian

“The Future Belongs to Gen Z” by Xin

At the same time, they express their fears regretting the carelessness of a world without terrorism, without climate change and without economic instability. The attack of September 11 has profoundly marked them, whatever their nationalities but their anxiety is mainly based on the subprime crisis. Ankita explained:

“My generation is up to date about with every news around the world; we have seen and heard about economic crisis and animals getting endangered. We are a generation that actually cares about sustainability as there might not be much left when we have children or grandchildren”

They often draw the conclusion that certainty no longer exists, that both global companies and countries can be destabilized very quickly and collapse. An wrote:

“I am looking for a work environment where I can thrive and where I am able to be in psychologically safe teams.”

Being safe is a common denominator among students. An listed the new sources of stress for Gen Z such as digital contact, pressure to achieve quickly success and strong competition between coworkers. She has happily discovered mindfulness in the workplace during her internship.

4. Technology is a mean, not an end.

“I am a Jordanian student studying in Switzerland, that is looking for internship opportunities in North America. 20 years ago, this would have been impossible.” wrote Tawfiq.

?Tawfiq sees more opportunities in technology than barriers. He rejects the fact that Gen Z can be distracted by screens and unable to focus at work. Not only him, but all the students who wrote these blog posts, refused to be defined only because of their access, knowledge or addiction to technologies. They consider technology as a mean to go further, faster and better! Jervis detailed his viewpoint:

“Our generation is hungry for improvement and driven by curiosity. What has happened in the past generations will be completely altered by the Generation Z as we will make huge world improvements, choose clean food over fast food, emphasize on diversity, and create things that may be currently unimaginable for you.”

Older generations consider Gen Z like impatient who like to zap from one new trend to another one. Mitsue drove my attention to the fact that she was born in a world that is constantly moving and changing. Parents, older siblings and even grand-parents, we are consumers of fast-fashion. We love to change clothes often; because it’s not expensive. To illustrate it, I encourage you to see this short video from BBC One about the one-pound T-Shirt. Mitsue added:

“I know that we want everything RIGHT NOW, but this is how we are used to. With all the advances in technology we don’t even need to wait to download any type of files, like it happened with past generations. For us everything happens fast, and everything is on our hands.”

To conclude their blog posts, I have asked my students to write a CALL TO ACTION in order to engage with the readers in a more meaningful relationships than just giving likes. It’s now my turn to do the same and I confess that it’s always easier to say than to do. However, if you have spent so much time reading this long article until the end, I think you deserve some kind of exposure too. If you are interested to read the opinions of Gen Z students at Hotel Institute Montreux, on a specific topic that request your attention and their ideas, please write it in the comments. I will be more than happy to ask my students to investigate your topic and to make them think, react and write about it.

A special thanks to all Hotel Institute Montreux students that contributed to this article, thanks to their blog posts: Ms. Christine Murillo (Panama), Ms. Lynn Wyngaard (Netherlands), Mr. Oliver Aubry de Maraumont (Denmark), Ms. Carolina Pow-Sang (Peru and USA), Ms. Josefin Lundqvist (Sweden), Mr. Jo?o Francês (Portugal), Mr. Francesco Liam Gullo (Italy), Ms. Linda Baggio (Italy), Ms. Daniela Callo (Peru), Ms. Callisa Indrawati (Indonesia), Mr. Adrian Johansson (Norway), Mr. Xin Luo (China), Ms. Ankita Talapatra (India), Ms. An Nguyen (Romania and Vietnam), Mr. Tawfiq Irshaidat (Jordan), Mr. Jervis Wei (Hong Kong), Ms. Mitsue Gomez (Panama).