Gen Z as potential mariners

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From Fox Business:

Is Gen Z unprepared for the workforce? Experts weigh in
‘Gen Z is not a lazy generation, but it is an entitled generation,’ one labor expert explained

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By Kristine Parks FOXBusiness
video
Gen Z workers boast of ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘bare minimum Mondays’
Ramsey Solutions host Ken Coleman says employers will need to coach young workers more than in previous years.
Videos of Gen Zers and millennials complaining about the traditional 9-5 job have spread across social media platforms like wildfire and sparked debates about the younger generations’ work ethic, or lack thereof. Some employers are even avoiding hiring from Gen Z, according to one recent survey, with 58% believing these workers are unprepared for the workforce.

Some experts argue Gen Zers aren’t lazy for griping about the corporate job structure, it just means they have radically different priorities than the generations before them.

“Gen Z is not a lazy generation, but it is an entitled generation because they have the freedom to make a more broad set of decisions than older generations that have financial obligations. They’re different,” labor force expert John Frehse told Fox News Digital.

Frehse, the senior managing director and head of global labor strategy for the consulting firm Ankura, explained how data shows younger adults aren’t getting married and having kids at the rates previous generations did. Over half of younger adults are living at home with their parents while less than half say they’re a member of an organized religion, he said.

GEN Z ATTITUDE TOWARD 9-TO-5 JOB SPARKING DEBATE ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE IN GENERATIONAL WORK ETHICS

gen z interview for a job
Recent college grads are reportedly failing job interviews, according to a new study. (iStock / iStock)
Because many Gen Zers don’t have a mortgage or family to support, they have more financial freedom to make different life choices, he argued.

Gen Z also wants their job to accommodate their lifestyle, rather than the other way around. This leads to the younger generation being more likely to work in the gig economy or change jobs frequently, rather than stay in a work environment that they don’t like.

“This is very troubling to employers,” Frehse remarked.

His research shows Gen Zers are less likely to seek promotions because they don’t want to work overtime and have extra responsibilities that could impinge on their lifestyle. These different motivations are fundamentally misunderstood by some older employers, he said.

GEN Z GETS WAKE-UP CALL ON HOW THE ‘REAL WORLD’ WORKS: ‘SUCCESS ISN’T HANDED TO YOU,’ SAYS YOUNG PROFESSIONAL

man in job interview
Stereotypes of Gen Z workers have created misconceptions about their work ethic, some workforce experts told Fox News Digital. (iStock / iStock)
Author and culture expert Jessica Kriegel believes the older and younger generations are more alike than they think. But she says social media has added to misconceptions and generational conflict.

“I believe that we’re a lot more similar than we are different. However, what you are seeing, for example, is more activity on social media from young people, which then leads to more perceptions that baby boomers have, that Gen Z are a certain way because of what they’re seeing on social media, that they’re not seeing from baby boomers. And so, then that leads to conflicts between generations. And it’s sort of an ‘us versus them’ mentality that people dig in to. And that becomes a source of a lot of these misconceptions,” she explained to Fox News Digital.

The job-hopping trend isn’t a new phenomenon with Gen Z, she argued. While data shows that workers in their 20s and 30s on average stay at a company for just three years, versus 10 years for those in their 50s to 60s, there was this same loyalty gap between the two generations, 60 years ago, she said, citing numbers from the Employee Benefits Research Institute.

“So, it’s really more of a life stage issue than a generational issue,” she remarked.

“I think what’s really going on is young people try out a career, don’t really love it, try a different career. Whereas older people have gone through that journey, and they’ve figured out where they want to be and stay, and they’re also closer to retirement, so they have more financial incentive to stay put,” Kriegel said.

MILLENNIALS LESS LIKELY THAN BOOMERS TO OWN A HOME, GET MARRIED EARLY: STUDY

young person at work
Younger generations are more likely to job hop because of their stage in life, author Jessica Kriegel argued. (iStock / iStock)
The author also said that “new norms of behavior and social interaction” have made things “uncomfortable” for older employers dealing with Gen Z workers.

“There’s this bias that those people are bad. Therefore, we don’t want to work with those people, which I think is a shame,” Kriegel said.

If employers go into interviews with these biases, they are bound to find something “unprofessional” to fixate on with the younger generation, she argued.

A December 2023 survey of 800 employers and hiring managers in the U.S. from Intelligent.com found over half of employers thought Gen Zers were unprepared for the workforce and displayed unprofessional behavior during job interviews.

The top criticism from employers about Gen Z behavior during interviews was that they failed to maintain eye contact. Half of those polled also said they asked for unreasonable compensation, while 47% said they dressed inappropriately. One in five employers even said they had candidates show up with a parent during a job interview.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Kriegel believes workplaces can benefit from abandoning generational stereotypes, a topic she discusses in her book “Unfairly Labeled.”

The author urges employers to work on overcoming any biases they have towards Gen Z, to overcome the “us versus them mentality.”

Younger millennials and Gen Zers can help themselves by “showing up the way that corporate America wants you to show up,” if they want to succeed in a traditional job, she suggested.

“Now, does that mean you get to be your truest and authentic self? No, it doesn’t. Which can be challenging in and of itself. A lot of people are so frustrated with that they’re opting out, and they’re working in the gig economy as an alternative to having a 9 to 5 job. But if you want to play the game in corporate America, in a 9 to 5 job, you have to play that game. And so, it does require adjusting how you show up in order to make the best impression,” she advised.

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bengreen
2d ago

Personal anecdote: My wife and I owned a small retail/service business, and had 5 other employees. One day I received a phone call from a kid graduating from college in our field. He wanted a job, and I briefly told him what the job duties…
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smb123
2d ago

Same experience at the fortune 500 company I’ve worked at for 35 years. The young people we’ve hired recently work one project and before they’ve even completed it they’re complaining that they haven’t been given a managerial position yet…
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6 replies

countryoverpartypolitics
2d ago

Gen Z
The generation that when you have to manage them:
You have to watch out for saying “hi guys” when you see them in a group or they will report you to HR
They will consistently show up late for work.
They will not dress appropriately.
They …
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Hiker72
2d ago

Why hire someone who wants to immediately take a vacation, expect a raise for doing their job, work from home or leave if they feel upset or bored? Somehow parents failed to instill a work ethic in this generation and we’re all paying the…
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FJBupthewazoo
2d ago

The death spiral of Mom & Pop (family) businesses is a large part of the problem.

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5 replies

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Tony9080
2d ago

They are spoiled and feel entitled.

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Wokeislame487
2d ago

My granddaughter is a GenZ. She went to work at 16 even though she was not expected to. She got married at 19 and works full time and goes to college full time. But she was raised by her boomer grandparents and not her millennial parent…
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pathenryi
2d ago

My daughter is a vet. Started working in barns and stables at 13. I am a boomer and mom is GenX, but her dad was born in 1917.
Older parents raise more mature children. Fact.

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6 replies

ro56
2d ago

She is the exception, not the rule. Great job, Grandma! :slight_smile:

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MDC69
2d ago

They will eventually vote enough of themselves into power to then vote themselves access to everyone else’s hard-earned wealth. AOC is an early example.

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16 replies

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dmillrose
2d ago

Interviewed 3 college graduates for a position in my company. The interview was bizarre when they all asked questions regarding diversification in the workforce. Nothing about merit… needless to say, we picked a non-college educated indi…
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jayafink
2d ago

There was a new attorney in her 20’s hired at my law firm last spring. She was there a couple weeks and said “Just so you know, I’m taking off the entire month of July. My friends and I are going to rent a car and travel across the count…
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ilikecottagecheese
2d ago

We had one interview where he said he could start immediately, which was great as we needed to fill the position. Towards the end of the interview as we are about to present an offer, he drops that after his first two weeks, he would need…
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WidthofaCircle
2d ago

Where do they get the money to fund these activities if their not working?
I could never just take a month off in my 20’s.
Rent and bills were due… every month.

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rhut_rho511
2d ago

i never thought it necessary to bring my mother to a job interview . i was informed in 2 days of their acceptance and agreed with my expected salary range.

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alextoo
2d ago

Kriegel implies that over half of US employers are just biased. I think she is mistaken.
Gen Z’s just do not have motivation to work as their legacy and integral part of their life, see it as just means to survive, annoying interruption to…
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6 replies

slb_thegrey
2d ago

I’ve been interviewing for quite a while (since the 80s), and neither I, nor anyone I know, has a problem with any age group. The “red flags” for any candidate are actually pretty simple, and start with the resume: bad spelling/grammar, i…
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krazyuncle
4h ago

Regardless of age, there are many people that think businesses are there so people can have a job… too bad they miss the point that businesses are started to make money for the proprietors…

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sinkjoy
5h ago

There is almost no incentive in my field to stay with a company for more than 5 years. In fact, it can be detrimental.

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billybob160
2d ago

They aren’t reliable. I manage 27 of them and they have a real problem showing up on time if they come in at all. The other thing about this group is they can’t handle constructive criticism, at all! They will literally lose it and melt do…
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dblovefox
2d ago

All the more reason to hire seniors. We want to work, we show up (on time), we have work ethic and perfectly capable of learning and sharing experience . Give more seniors willing to work a chance. you won’t be disappointed.

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jdoe7324-b
2d ago

“…in a 9 to 5 job, you have to play that game…” I still remember those words coming out of my dads mouth when I was barely 20. I hated hearing it – and even when I said “game should change” he responded … "you have to be IN the ga…
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Could you edit this next time without all the weird spacing and links?

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

― Socrates

This complaint is as old as history. I am sure Zog and Zag sat around the cave remembering when they had to beat a woolly mammoth to death with a big rock, the kids today have these newfangled spears and hardly break a sweat killing one and then draw graffiti on cave walls the rest of the day :roll_eyes:

What you WILL find is the idea of loyalty has finally been beaten out of them, they have seen enough to know that no company will be loyal to THEM, it is a one-way street.

9 Likes
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It’s been awhile since I’ve cut and pasted an article. I guess I need refresher.

5

Try like so - just chop off all the bs at the end :wink:
Is Gen Z unprepared for the workforce? Experts weigh in
‘Gen Z is not a lazy generation, but it is an entitled generation,’ one labor expert explained

Facebook
Twitter
Comments
Print
Email
By Kristine Parks FOXBusiness
video
Gen Z workers boast of ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘bare minimum Mondays’
Ramsey Solutions host Ken Coleman says employers will need to coach young workers more than in previous years.
Videos of Gen Zers and millennials complaining about the traditional 9-5 job have spread across social media platforms like wildfire and sparked debates about the younger generations’ work ethic, or lack thereof. Some employers are even avoiding hiring from Gen Z, according to one recent survey, with 58% believing these workers are unprepared for the workforce.

Some experts argue Gen Zers aren’t lazy for griping about the corporate job structure, it just means they have radically different priorities than the generations before them.

“Gen Z is not a lazy generation, but it is an entitled generation because they have the freedom to make a more broad set of decisions than older generations that have financial obligations. They’re different,” labor force expert John Frehse told Fox News Digital.

Frehse, the senior managing director and head of global labor strategy for the consulting firm Ankura, explained how data shows younger adults aren’t getting married and having kids at the rates previous generations did. Over half of younger adults are living at home with their parents while less than half say they’re a member of an organized religion, he said.

GEN Z ATTITUDE TOWARD 9-TO-5 JOB SPARKING DEBATE ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE IN GENERATIONAL WORK ETHICS

gen z interview for a job
Recent college grads are reportedly failing job interviews, according to a new study. (iStock / iStock)
Because many Gen Zers don’t have a mortgage or family to support, they have more financial freedom to make different life choices, he argued.

Gen Z also wants their job to accommodate their lifestyle, rather than the other way around. This leads to the younger generation being more likely to work in the gig economy or change jobs frequently, rather than stay in a work environment that they don’t like.

“This is very troubling to employers,” Frehse remarked.

His research shows Gen Zers are less likely to seek promotions because they don’t want to work overtime and have extra responsibilities that could impinge on their lifestyle. These different motivations are fundamentally misunderstood by some older employers, he said.

GEN Z GETS WAKE-UP CALL ON HOW THE ‘REAL WORLD’ WORKS: ‘SUCCESS ISN’T HANDED TO YOU,’ SAYS YOUNG PROFESSIONAL

man in job interview
Stereotypes of Gen Z workers have created misconceptions about their work ethic, some workforce experts told Fox News Digital. (iStock / iStock)
Author and culture expert Jessica Kriegel believes the older and younger generations are more alike than they think. But she says social media has added to misconceptions and generational conflict.

“I believe that we’re a lot more similar than we are different. However, what you are seeing, for example, is more activity on social media from young people, which then leads to more perceptions that baby boomers have, that Gen Z are a certain way because of what they’re seeing on social media, that they’re not seeing from baby boomers. And so, then that leads to conflicts between generations. And it’s sort of an ‘us versus them’ mentality that people dig in to. And that becomes a source of a lot of these misconceptions,” she explained to Fox News Digital.

The job-hopping trend isn’t a new phenomenon with Gen Z, she argued. While data shows that workers in their 20s and 30s on average stay at a company for just three years, versus 10 years for those in their 50s to 60s, there was this same loyalty gap between the two generations, 60 years ago, she said, citing numbers from the Employee Benefits Research Institute.

“So, it’s really more of a life stage issue than a generational issue,” she remarked.

“I think what’s really going on is young people try out a career, don’t really love it, try a different career. Whereas older people have gone through that journey, and they’ve figured out where they want to be and stay, and they’re also closer to retirement, so they have more financial incentive to stay put,” Kriegel said.

MILLENNIALS LESS LIKELY THAN BOOMERS TO OWN A HOME, GET MARRIED EARLY: STUDY

young person at work
Younger generations are more likely to job hop because of their stage in life, author Jessica Kriegel argued. (iStock / iStock)
The author also said that “new norms of behavior and social interaction” have made things “uncomfortable” for older employers dealing with Gen Z workers.

“There’s this bias that those people are bad. Therefore, we don’t want to work with those people, which I think is a shame,” Kriegel said.

If employers go into interviews with these biases, they are bound to find something “unprofessional” to fixate on with the younger generation, she argued.

A December 2023 survey of 800 employers and hiring managers in the U.S. from Intelligent.com found over half of employers thought Gen Zers were unprepared for the workforce and displayed unprofessional behavior during job interviews.

The top criticism from employers about Gen Z behavior during interviews was that they failed to maintain eye contact. Half of those polled also said they asked for unreasonable compensation, while 47% said they dressed inappropriately. One in five employers even said they had candidates show up with a parent during a job interview.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Kriegel believes workplaces can benefit from abandoning generational stereotypes, a topic she discusses in her book “Unfairly Labeled.”
The author urges employers to work on overcoming any biases they have towards Gen Z, to overcome the “us versus them mentality.”
Younger millennials and Gen Zers can help themselves by “showing up the way that corporate America wants you to show up,” if they want to succeed in a traditional job, she suggested.
“Now, does that mean you get to be your truest and authentic self? No, it doesn’t. Which can be challenging in and of itself. A lot of people are so frustrated with that they’re opting out, and they’re working in the gig economy as an alternative to having a 9 to 5 job. But if you want to play the game in corporate America, in a 9 to 5 job, you have to play that game. And so, it does require adjusting how you show up in order to make the best impression,” she advised.

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Or just maybe post the link… not sure what the point of doing a copy/paste was.

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Good article once all the formatting is fixed. The kids will be just fine. As the generations go by people have more options, work life balance gets better, and all the goods still move across the oceans. Deep breaths, everything is going to be fine.

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On a recent trip to a foreign country a local pointed out hiring practices at local chain restaurants. At one chain all the wait staff and kitchen staff must be over 40. Another chain only hires mothers. Wages are low, but there is no shortage of workers and unemployment is relatively high in that country.

I did not ask if these sort of practices extended to large industrial companies, or highly skilled labor.

The Gen Z phenomenon may not be exclusive to the US.

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Okay, but every time I ask a mariner their opinion on going shore side, regardless of age, they also talk about how terrible a 9-5 would be, and how they would never be able to do it, commute, sit in an office, ect. Sounds like mariners from every generation have that in common with Gen Z.

We literally have boards full jobs that people hop around rather than go back to the same ship if they don’t like it. Shoot, this is what folks tell kids when they are trying to recruit them to the industry. In fact, in normal people jobs, Job hopping has been proven to be the best way to give yourself a raise. Unfortunately, the double edged sword of unions is we have pretty much standardized wages +/- 10 dollars a day. I would much rather go back to the board over working on a ship that sucks. SIU is one step above gig work, change my mind.

I’m not even Gen Z and I don’t want to work over! How many different spreadsheets are made onboard ensuring everyone gets exactly 180 days a year.

Folks love to shit on the kids, but to their credit, they have potential to be much better at understanding of technology, and understanding use cases compared to a lot of old folks, and “This is the way we have always done it” is the best answer a lot of people can come up with, especially when the person with a new idea is 24. And that’s why we do Buoy to Buoy voyage plans, and not Berth to berth voyage plans, even though literally every system is built for berth to berth, except for that one spreadsheet from the aughts that is inexplicably on every American ship I’ve ever been on. I can write better near miss reports, incident reports, and safety meeting agendas so much quicker than the average Mariner with the help of Chat GPT, but no, that’s scary, just write “ab had phone on deck, told ab to put phone away” as your near miss. But in relation to what this article is talking about, I think in the wake of the pandemic we have seen increased productivity in remote work and not sitting in an office wasting time 40 hours a week. Gen Z has seen concrete evidence that this works, works better, and the technology exists for this to work, the difference is this period is roughly 50% of their career, compared to 5% of a boomer manager who is much more comfortable feeling important in an office full of people that he can walk around and look at, compared to trying to set up zoom. “It’s just a fad” - 50 year old managers discussing the internet in the 1990s, probabbly.

I can write an entire essay on why boomer and Gen X mariners suck too, but yall probably get your feelings hurt and somehow still call me the snowflake because I don’t want to make voyage plans for charts that don’t exist anymore.

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Xennial here and I make my voyage plans from berth to berth. The charts required usually fall into place quite naturally.:wink:

Turn to and go to work. That is basically all that has been asked of seafarers since it all began. Same can be said for many rudimentary jobs in this world like farming. It is not a generational thing in my estimation to find the people who willingly accept this reality of this profession. Wake up when you’re called, don’t get inebriated, do the tasks assigned and then go back to sleep. Oh and don’t go home for months at a time.

Why wouldn’t that be appealing to anyone? :roll_eyes:

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“The young generation are lazy, useless and have no manners”. Nothing new there:

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Agreed, same with working in the woods, more mechanized now but the crews today are still working hard to maintain production and keeping the equipment up and running. Often under trying conditions. Same as “back in the day”.

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Gen X here with two words for you: “your mama.” :rofl:

Seriously though, you have good points, and I agree wholeheartedly on most of it. I do have a lot of concern about using ChatGPT and AI for writing reports though. I’ve seen a couple my relief has done (he’s on here too so let me just say to him… Yeah bud, I can tell) and they fluff things up WAY past what is actually needed. That and what they’re able to pull up for procedures may be from some tiny company running under a Brunei registry or something that is so far off from reality that it’s laughable. If I were a manager in the office, I’d rather deal with the typos and grammatical errors than sort out whether the report is factual to my vessel and the situation or not. …but that’s just me.

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Lazy, no good SOB’s is NOT age dependent…

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I’m not a die hard fan, but I occasionally stumble upon Mike Rowe on TV. He has common sense and extols the virtues of learning a skilled trade and having a good work ethic. I understand work hard and party afterwards. It makes sense to me.

I don’t understand party hard and work as little as possible. I don’t see that as a path to anything like success.

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It’s a tool that folks need to be used properly. The same wire wheel that feathers the pain job, removes all the words off the nameplate. I’ve seen it spit out some overzealous reports, but as long as you say, “hey, don’t do that” it’s pretty good at sounding like a smart mariner.

I think the best use cases are replacing the near miss reports that are borderline useless like ones I’ve seen that just say “Tools left on stairs” with 0 context. You can make this in less than 5 minutes.. It’s also useful when you’re trying to make a JSA and you just have 6 tired ABs that want to go hide in the paint locker not saying anything.

What’s an interesting thing to explore would be platforms like Google’s LM notes, where you can upload 20 PDFs to be used as source material for the bot. It was terrible when I gave it COLREGS and asked COLREGS questions, but one day Maybe. I don’t have any SMS procedures on hand to see what it’d do for vessel specific stuff. It’s only a matter of time before we see some sort of GPT/AI integration into someone’s version of NS5.

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I’m not sure that’s all that goes into it. Granted I’m not a farmer, just a big fan of RFDTV, and farming simulator, But I from what I’ve seen is Technology has and will continue to revolutionized the ag industry. Sure, wake go to work, do your job, but being an early adopter on an innovator can prove to put you ahead in life. It’s not just dig a hole, put a seed in it, burry the seed and add water.

Sure, Point the ship that way, don’t hit anything, and don’t stop till you see the Golden Gate Bridge, but there’s a lot to be said for improving quality of life along the way, and more effectively maintaining your equipment.

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Ag is one of things that has a good amount of tech in it, more than many think, but there’s still just a lot of hard work, more so on smaller operations. Sometimes the most cost effective way to move :poop: (literally) is with a shovel. Every farmer type I know has a tractor &/ skid steer, but some (many) times the bucket has to be filled with a fork or shovel.

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People either have a good work ethic or they don’t.

Gen Z has been spoiled by the internet and their parents.

I’m a Xennial too and I have been spoiled by the internet, but I still get my work done.

I rage more about the taxes stolen from me by a govt that hates me than I do by a kid that doesn’t want to work. That kid will shape up or quit soon enough.

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As a Chief on many types of vessels, but lately OSV’s, one of the handicaps of today with the whole spectrum of the crew, regardless of age or position, is the dang phones, and to a lesser extent, laptops. This epidemic reaches every person with the younger ones, where with the older fellas, they might not be so immersed in the daily stoop over their device, which more often than not, includes jarring exposure to the sound of video clips on their poison of choice, because they can’t be bothered to put the dang thing down (even on watch), and mostly there is pleading on my part just to get them off enough to work. There are even those with the gall to wear Bluetooth earbuds under some kind of obscuring clothing, and play dumb when I tell them in no uncertain terms, that I can’t have them one leg in. It’s so often with this crowd that they will see what they can get away with u t chastised, and half of those only briefly and symbolically abide by my cuss filled rant. What do I think? I think we had our vices through the years, but when it was time to work, most did (irrespective of the quality). Now it seems that the devices are their best friend, as a result of the absenteeism of their parental figures, and they try valiantly to have it, even during work hours, because this is the only friend they’ve had, so separating them from it can be difficult. I get fewer volunteers for engine room help because I won’t tolerate it. Company policy is against it, but widely not enforced.

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