Since entering the workforce,Generation Z (born after 1996) have been,needing,somehow most egregiously,leaving at 5pm without a second thought. That is,.
As Australia follows France,Ireland and Belgium in,will the drawing of boundaries and muting of notifications be Generation Z’s workplace legacy?
Modern technology means employees can no longer leave the office behind when they finish work for the day.Stephen Kiprillis
Perhaps. However,workplace culture experts warn against seeing the post-pandemic,remote-working,under-staffed forest only for its most recently planted trees.
Chris Wright,an associate professor of work and organisational studies at the University of Sydney,believes the right to disconnect has not been driven by Generation Z but by the circumstances in which they entered the workforce.
“COVID really brought this existing conversation about work/life balance to a head;the pandemic blurred boundaries between work life and personal life,” he said.
“The smartphone had the massive advantage of allowing us to work through COVID,but at the same time those boundaries between work and personal life blurred significantly,and they were never really restored.”
A 2022 report by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work found 44 per cent of Australians regularly worked outside their scheduled hours to meet the expectations of their employer,concluding lockdowns had “accelerated patterns of overtime through the blurring of lines between work and home life”.
The survey found employees in managerial roles were more likely to feel overtime was part of their job. Wright said senior employees would also have more power to ignore an unreasonable request after hours.
“Those of a certain age see working from home as a privilege because they grew up into a workforce environment where it just wasn’t a norm,and they see any attempt to create a boundary around that as an entitled reaction,” he said.
“Whereas those who are younger will say:of course remote working has benefits,but also there are downsides to it and so we need to erect boundaries.”
The ways in which younger employees spend their time outside of work might go some way to explaining why they have a particular enthusiasm for wanting to be able to disconnect from it,said social researcher Claire Madden,author ofHello Gen Z:Engaging the Generation of Post-Millennials.
“Every generation is using technology and social media,but the sense to which these are integrated into their sense of self as a[member of] Gen Z is on another level,” she said.
While previous generations would leave their workplace,office workers now carry a huge part of it – the smartphone – after hours,whether they are working from home or not.
But,as is less the case for older generations,the smartphone is also a younger person’s primary way to unwind after work,Madden said. Recreation time,spent scrolling social media or streaming a series,is brought to an instant halt by a notification from work on the screen.
“You might be on your device for one purpose,but you can be so easily interrupted. It’s emotionally taxing,” Madden said.
“I think Gen Z are probably the ones realising they need those boundaries to be put in.”
Madden said Generation Z’s approach to work – a lack of willingness to perform the dance of “presenteeism” and confidence to speak up despite their junior status – reflected the social environment in which they came of age,entering the workforce in the disruption and confusion of a global pandemic.
“They don’t place as much value on having an employer for life …[and] the things that motivate them to stay in a job are different:they want to feel like they are relationally engaged and like they are making a contribution early on in their careers,” she said.
While these traits might rub senior colleagues the wrong way,Madden said workplaces should be open to structuring operations to make the most of their younger employees:“Isn’t it a good thing that they have this willingness? They don’t want to wait to make a difference.”
Demographer and social analyst Mark McCrindle said every new generation brings a level of disruption to the workplace:practices we now consider part of the office furniture,such as mentoring and town hall meetings,were disruptive to the extremely hierarchical workplaces Baby Boomers faced at the starts of their careers,he said.
UNSW Business School senior deputy dean Frederik Anseel agreed the arguments being levelled against Generation Z by older colleagues were not new.
“Every new generation over the past 100 years has been called lazy or not willing to work,” he said.
The Belgian native strongly disagrees the right to disconnect is a Generation Z impost,noting it had been a feature of western European workplaces since the 2010s,when employees realised that just because they could work 24/7 doesn’t mean they should.
In that time,attitudes have shifted from companies literally turning off their servers at the end of the workday to more of a “personal work hygiene”,he said,characterised by steps such as including a disclaimer in one’s email signature (to the tune of:“just because I keep these hours doesn’t mean you have to”).
“The problem with the ‘right’ to disconnect is it became an obligation,” he said. “In Europe we started with a radical right to disconnect,but what we realised is we actually just needed to learn what flexibility is.”
McCrindle questioned whether the right was “a solution in want of a problem”,arguing younger employees were confident asking for workplace flexibility and setting boundaries.
“They don’t really need something mandated because they’ve already arranged it and are pretty empowered in the workplace,” he said.
In her experience,Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said the push for right to disconnect protections in enterprise agreements,such as,was not just coming from younger workers.
“When workers are not being paid and[are] spending time with family,playing sport and relaxing,these new laws will mean they can’t be contacted unreasonably,” she said.
“Many union agreements,such as those in higher education and some banks,already have the right to disconnect as part of their agreements … it’s seen as a basic right that you should be paid for the work you do and have quality time off.”
Generational divide:what each gen brought to the office
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