The Otherness of Generation Z in the Workplace: Behavioral and Value Traits Through the Eyes of Employers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2026.2.3064Keywords:
generation Z, youth, labor market, working modes, generation behavior, generation values, intergenerational interactionAbstract
This article examines employers’ perceptions of the behavioral and value-based characteristics of Generation Z employees. The authors focus on interpretations of youth “otherness” articulated by managers across various employment sectors. The study is grounded in a qualitative methodological framework and draws on empirical data from 20 in-depth interviews with employers from the manufacturing, socio-cultural, service, and high-tech sectors of Saint Petersburg’s economy. The analysis was conducted using thematic coding. Findings show that employers most frequently express Gen Z’s otherness through accounts of workplace challenges: emotional sensitivity, weak professional socialization, disruption of workplace hierarchies, and insufficient responsibility in task execution. However, employers also exhibit a willingness to interpret these traits as markers of new emotional regimes in the labor market, with Generation Z as their primary carriers. The narratives emphasize Gen Z’s idealistic expectations, especially their demands for work-life balance and rapid self-fulfillment, which often clash with employers’ institutional capacities. According to respondents, this strong idealism may contribute to labor market shortages, as Gen Z tends to reject available positions in pursuit of imagined, ideal opportunities. The study highlights the importance of considering institutional context and age-related factors when interpreting generational differences and questions the validity of universal models used to describe youth labor. Moreover, the authors demonstrate how the articulation of generational “otherness” fits within the conceptual framework of moral panics and serves as a means for Millennials, those closest to Gen Z, to reaffirm generational boundaries.
Acknowledgments. The materials used in this publication were collected by the Centre for Youth Studies as part of a project carried out within the framework of the Fundamental Research Program at HSE University in 2024 (HSE-BR-2025-070). We thank the team for their professional methodological, field, and editorial work, without which this article would not have been possible.
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