'Their egos are different:' Gen Z already quitting their 1st jobs

**Christy Strawser** (0:00)
The day's biggest stories, the people behind the headlines, the conversations you won't hear anywhere else. I'm Christy Strawser, you're listening to Audacy's On Deadline.
There are so many divides in American life today, the political divide, the wealth gap, healthcare, housing, etc. But it turns out there's also a divide in this. Whether you're old enough to trust your boss. Here's Tommy Tucker on WWL in New Orleans.

**Michelle** (0:29)
71% of baby boomers completely trusted their employer. 65% of millennials trusted, but only 41% of Gen Z. We have a real generational shift right here in lack of trust.

**Tommy Tucker** (0:43)
Where does that mistrust come from?

**Michelle** (0:45)
So this is interesting. I've done a lot of research on this. I'm Gen Z, right?
I have a 22-year-old daughter.
Guess what? They don't want to be like us. And then we reacted to the baby boomers. So what happened was we got to see somebody like my dad, who's 81 years old, and he devoted his entire career and life to General Motors. And we moved around every two years going after the Carrot and the bigger title, right? And I saw that, and that absolutely affected me. And I worked like a dog, right? And went after the same things. And it's this generation that said, we don't want that. We want meaningful work. We want purpose. We don't want jerk bosses. We want actually compassionate human beings who believe in us, who want to give us growth and experiences. So we're dealing with a whole different type of worker. And also there's a nuance here that is really important, Tommy. It's not what they want. It's actually what they expect. And that's where the mismatch is coming. Leaders haven't evolved to deliver the type of leadership that is going to attract and retain this newer generation.

**Tommy Tucker** (1:56)
You know, years ago, Michelle, I said that, you know, it struck me that if you go somewhere to have a good time, you pay them.
If you have a job to do, then they pay you to be there. And when you talk about growth and experiences, if you want growth and experiences, go to a retreat or go to a theme park, but you're going to have to pay to do that. When you go to work, they pay you, so it's not so much about the growth and experiences, or am I just old school?

**Michelle** (2:29)
Yeah. So what we're finding is that tends to be an old school mindset, and that work is work, play is play. There's a professional you, and then there's a personal you. There's a work calendar, and there's a home calendar. What I'm finding in all of my research is right now, that's why I write about these seismic shifts, but thank you for having me on your show, is the seismic shift is that there is one you, and we want you to be genuine and real, right? There's one day at a time, one calendar, and you've got to figure out that balance and incorporate the most important relationships in your life and your big purpose. This all correlates with Dr. Robert Waldinger's longest study at Harvard that looked at life fulfillment at the end of your life, and those who only went after, those who had that mindset that work, work, work, work, work, more, more, more, more, bigger title, bigger car, bigger house, got to the end of their life, and they were empty. And they said, what have I done this for? This was not pleasant, I'm not fulfilled, I feel empty compared to those who said, you know what? I surrounded myself with beautiful relationships.
I actually intentionally made time for those relationships, and I had purpose, I had meaning.
And so, that's what we're talking about right now. This particular generation wants that. They want an organization that they believe in, they want a leader who believes in them, they want team collaboration, and again, the nuance here is they don't just want it, they expect it. So leaders are going to have to make a shift.

**Tommy Tucker** (4:03)
But are the goals of the organization congruent with the goals of the workers?

**Michelle** (4:08)
That is exactly the misalignment right here. So if you still have an organization that has a military drill sergeant mindset, just show up and do your job.
That's not going to work. You're not going to attract. So we talked about that opening statistic that only 40% of Gen Zs trust their employer. 50% of them, and these are young kids, really, 50% of them have already quit a job because they don't trust their employers, because they're like, what is this? You don't even seem to want to develop me. You don't seem to want to mentor me and give me opportunities. And they're not even, get this, Tommy, they're not even interested in leadership necessarily, in getting that title, because again, they've watched us. They've watched us and they're like, oh no, I don't want that. So they want something that is bigger, more meaningful. They want a more balanced life because they've seen people like us, their parents and our generation go after all of these goals and then feel empty at the end of the day. They want more.