Nearly half of Gen Z office workers reduced to tears by workplace stress
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/nearly-half-of-gen-z-office-workers-reduced-to-tears-by-workplace-stress-b1261432.html
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
Nearly half of Gen Z office workers reduced to tears by workplace stress
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/nearly-half-of-gen-z-office-workers-reduced-to-tears-by-workplace-stress-b1261432.html
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
22 Comments
Crying about work is not what’s wrong here. Thinking it’s unusual or somehow generationally novel is what’s wrong.
Yes, something you’re paid to do is occasionally stressful and gets on top of you. That’s why you’re paid to do it. Otherwise people would be queueing up to do it for fun.
I’m the first male in nearly 200 years in my family not to work in a mine or complete wartime military service. I’m ok with the stress my desk job brings.
How are they even tracking all working age gen Zs with jobs that they have admitted to crying about? Another boomer interest piece.
Yer demands are high and wages hardly go anywhere many folk have cried reguarly at work and maybe it being more open isnt a bad thing but sadly we are all a number and it doent matter to the higher ups they squeeze as much as they can
The few times I’ve worked in an office (a call centre), its done the same to me.
I’m disapointed they didn’t include the percentage that were “LiteraLly ShAkIng”
Alternate title- “nearly half of gen z have healthier way of dealing with work stress than becoming functional achoholics, the weirdos”
I do wonder if there’s legitimate reasons for work to be more stressful – the rise of middle management, the prevailance of slack leading to managers sending slack messages at all hours, the general breakdown of the workplace social contract where someone might stay for a company for decades to everyone moving on quickly and managers feeling they have to extract every ounce of value from employees before they move on.
eg, my particularly asshole boss was sending angry slack messages all weekend berating the team and calling us all lazy for not responding instantaneously. While there have always been asshole managers, it does feel like it’s on a different level, although I’m not sure if there’s any data to prove or disprove it.
edit: I’ve been working in professional environments for over 20 years. While I do think I was much more sensitive earlier on in my career than I am now, and while things like sexual harassment were far more prevalient, I also can’t imagine managers I had back in the day behaving as managers I have now do.
Sorry Gen Z, but the papers used to write same the same crap about us millennials. Calling us work shy and claiming we are a generation created by a failed experiment to not smack children. “Participation medals” was a favourite line.
Millennial is still used as a byword for young, lazy and entitled.
So we’ve got two options: Break the cycle or write the same crap about you. Guess which has been chosen…
I’m 40 so no idea what “generation” I am, and I haven’t cried about it to the point of literal tears, but I have often came back from work – where I am a literal one person admin “department” having to sort things for about 5 or 6 people all on my own, with no actual structure to the company – and sat and just stared at a wall and lost a good half hour before snapping out of it, or just falling asleep at like 7pm and then waking up just in time for work the next day, so I only really feel like I’ve been away from it for about an hour. All for barely above minimum wage.
It’s soul destroying.
I’m a bit confused, is the implication here that people shouldn’t cry or is the implication that Gen Z aren’t working because they’re crying too much?
The way I interpreted it is that Gen Z cry but still get on with the job, isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?
Nearly half i.e the female population. Never seen a man cry at the office.
We need new workers rights this is not sustainable
I wonder what impact Covid lockdowns have had on this, it must be really strange for those who had no experience of work culture prior to that to transition from remote learning/working to being in an office 5 days a week.
Crying at the office is a much healthier response than returning to the office with a weapon like I’ve witnessed in US workplace…
Me too, young ones, me too.
We’re all just human, emotions are natural. We didn’t evolve for any of this shit anyway.
You’re sold that office job is good pay to buy a house and retire on but most office workers living in flat shares and eating student food appears to be the norm. Not forgetting the bullying in office jobs is bad still
Current generations also drink less. I think most past generations worked drunk to cover over the stress
In uk offices ladt decade ive seen crying from bullying. Mental breakdown where we had to evacuate thr office over safety. People collapsing from stress and becoming incapable of leaving their own house without having a panic attack. Ive had jobs more stressful than these ones and worked retail but many places its not just the work but what culture is like and fear of losing a paycheque harming rent/food
I think every generation has felt like this. It’s just that older generations were told to suck it up and to ignore mental health issues.
Working in coal mine, abattoir, Amazon warehouse… those are tough stressful jobs that should reduce people to tears.
Sorry but Gen-Z just seems to lack resilience and in part I blame their parents (my generation) and how they raised them including how they interact with teachers. Another portion of blame is probably due to social media creating main character syndrome where the world revolves around you and your life always being the perfect insta moment. So everyday things like being facing criticism, conflict in relationships or workplace, or even managing to deal with difficult emotions become a struggle.
“Many young workers also reported feelings of being overwhelmed, with 68 per cent saying they had felt out of their depth at work. Nearly one in ten (9 per cent) said they always felt that way.”
To be fair, that’s how you learn prioritisation, and where mentoring would help. With experience you can spot a mile off what is never actually going to get done and not worth bothering with.
It’s called being young and inexperienced, perhaps a little naive and entitled. It’s nothing new.
It’s always “look how weak & lazy these workers are” never “why are workplaces so shit and how do we fix it?”