There’s a conversation happening in hiring right now that I find equal parts amusing and uncomfortable.
Millennials – yes, us – sitting in interviews, reading CVs, making hiring decisions… and quietly judging Gen Z for being entitled, hard to manage, too focused on work-life balance, and not willing to “pay their dues.”
I need us to stop for a second.
Because I have a very clear memory of what was being said about us.
We were lazy. We were narcissistic. We got participation trophies and thought that meant we deserved everything. We job-hopped. We couldn’t handle feedback. We wanted flexibility before flexibility was even a real conversation. We were glued to our phones. We expected too much, too soon.
Sound familiar?
The headlines were endless. Think pieces, HR conferences, management books – all dedicated to figuring out what was wrong with millennials and how to handle us.
And now? We’re writing the think pieces.
Forget the stereotypes for a second.
Gen Z candidates who are sharp, values-driven, and have thought more carefully about what they want from work than most of us did at their age.
Yes, some will ask about flexibility in the first five minutes. Yes, some will want to know about career progression before they’ve started. Yes, some will walk away from roles that don’t align with their values.
But honestly? Good. We should have been doing more of that.
The difference is they’re just less willing to pretend otherwise.
The thing about generational criticism is that it always comes from the group that just made it through the hard part. We endured the hustle culture, the “earn your stripes” mentality, the open-plan offices and the Friday drinks that were quietly mandatory. And because we survived it, there’s a temptation to see it as a rite of passage rather than just… a not-great system.
Some of what Gen Z is pushing back on isn’t entitlement.
It’s clarity.
They watched millennials burn out chasing careers that didn’t deliver what was promised. They graduated into a world shaped by a pandemic, a housing crisis, and an economy that doesn’t work the same way it did for previous generations.
They’ve just done the maths earlier.
None of this means every Gen Z hire is going to be a dream. Just like not every millennial was.
Because – and this is the bit we keep forgetting – generational labels are shorthand, not reality. Every cohort has people who are switched on, hungry, and incredible to work with. And every cohort has people who aren’t.
The job of a good hiring process is to find the former. Not to filter out an entire generation based on vibes and op-eds.
We were given a chance by people willing to look past the stereotype.
The least we can do is return the favour.
Because in ten years, Gen Z will be in the hiring seat.
And I’d hate to think what they’ll say about us.
Keen to hear this one – are you seeing the generational bias play out in hiring conversations around you? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
First published in Sarah’s LinkedIn newsletter, Recruitment Rambles. Read the original edition on LinkedIn.
