Generation Z: Millennials 2.0?

Believe it or not, the average Millennial is closing in on becoming 40-years-old. Once the generation in the wings waiting to change the world, they are now finding themselves in the driver’s seat, with an upcoming younger generation eagerly arriving in the workforce. They are Generation Z.
Designated as anyone born after 1995, Generation Z, is now graduating college and will be entering the already largest workforce the United States has ever seen, with five different generations working at the same time.
While the Millennials laid the groundwork for the many changes business has seen in the past 10 to 15 years, Generation Z is primed to take many of those new ways of working to their next logical evolutionary step. According to research by Patel, Colvin and Kasasa, below are a few things you might expect from Generation Z.

They Are the True Natives of the Digital Age.
Generation Z truly are the digital natives. Smart phones have been around for their entire adolescence. Access to the world’s information is something they’ve always had. They are masters of their mediums, even beating out their much talked about predecessors, the millennials, in using many of the common place digital mediums such as Instagram.
Less Idealism, More Realism.
Generation Z lived through the last great recession as children. They saw the struggles their parents and their country went through and will lean towards being more financially secure. While, Millennials started this trend, with the rise of prices in both the home market as well as education, Generation Z will be more inclined to follow the path to fiscal responsibility. This generation has an idea of what the world should be like, but a firmer grasp on what it actually is.
As Competitive as Ever
This group will want to be judged on how they as an individual impacted the outcome of a scenario and expect to be rewarded for their troubles as well. It is not as much a classic sense of entitlement that has been a label for their predecessors, it is more of an assertion that they as a collective will not be taken advantage of because of their age. This also isn’t to say that they can not play well in groups, but going down with the ship won’t be their first option if things go awry.

Some might say, the millennial generation was a potential hurricane several years ago. At the time, it was the largest workforce in American history, with ideals and passion that had yet to be seen. The game was going to be changed, and these young men and women were going to be the ones writing the rules. Well if the millennials were a hurricane, then Gen Z is a full-blown monsoon. Gen Z will be some of the hardest workers we’ve seen, as well as the least likely to be pushed over

 

 

Patel, Deep. “8 Ways Generation Z Will Differ From Millennials In The Workplace.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 22 Sept. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/deeppatel/2017/09/21/8-ways-generation-z-will-differ-from-millennials-in-the-workplace/#3ece00d576e5.
Colvin, Rhonda. “Millennials Disrupted the System. Gen Z Is Here to Fix the Mess.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 24 Feb. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/02/24/millennials-disrupted-the-system-gen-z-is-here-to-fix-the-mess/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5493cb3e8e9d.
“Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z Explained.” Community Rising, 20 May 2019, communityrising.kasasa.com/gen-x-gen-y-gen-z/.

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