Have we misunderstood Gen Z?
“I think generation gaps are a law of nature,” says researcher Camilla Martha Ihlebæk. She is optimistic and has great faith in Gen Z.
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If we are to believe media reports in recent years, Generation Z is struggling. And they are difficult.
About 70 per cent of business leaders in Norway believe that Gen Z is more demanding to lead than others age groups, according to a survey from the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) (link in Norwegian).
More than half of those surveyed also believe that this generation has higher expectations of their employer, and many think they have a lower work ethic.
So who needs to get it together, an entire generation or today's employers?
That was the question posed at a debate meeting about the so-called snowflake generation at the Deichman Library in Oslo on April 3.
Young people are doing well
“We tend to focus on problems, and that’s what we like to read about,” says Camilla Martha Ihlebæk, a professor of public health science at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
But if we look at the statistics, Gen Z is actually doing pretty well, she says.
- About 90 per cent believe they have a good life, according to the Ungdata survey from OsloMet.
- 68 per cent believe they will have a good and happy life. Only 3 per cent think they won’t.
- When it comes to work, 68 per cent of those in their early 20s are employed. By comparison, 69 per cent of those between 55 and 66 year olds are employed, according to Statistics Norway.
Generation gaps are a law of nature
“I believe generation gaps are a law of nature and will always exist,” says Ihlebæk.
She says that that the older generation has the privilege to criticise the generations that come after them. And youth have the privilege to claim that no one has every had it as bad as they do.
“The vast majority grow up to become contributing members of society. I'm optimistic and have great faith in Gen Z,” she says.
An uncertain world
Oda Oline Omdal is part of Gen Z.
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She is also a county council representative for the Conservative Party in Agder, a student, and part-time employee at Civita, a Norwegian liberal think tank.
Omdal believes the pandemic might be partly to blame for why workers from her generation are more difficult to manage.
Many Gen Zers had to complete upper secondary school from their homes or became university students during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Very few demands were made of us during that time,” Omdal said at the debate.
But when society reopened, the demands suddenly reappeared. Expectations were exactly the same as if the pandemic had never happened.
“We’re a generation that wants to contribute and work, but we lost several years of upper secondary school along the way,” she says.
Used to feeling the gravity of situations
“When our parents' generation grew up, the world was on its way up. But we’ve grown up in a time when many of the same indicators have been going downhill,” said Kaja Hovdenak, leader of the Norwegian Student Organisation.
She is also from Generation Z.
“Many in our generation are used to feeling the gravity of situations. We grew up during 9/11, the 2011 Norway terrorist attack, and the pandemic,” she said.
She believes that her generation lives with a fear of the future.
Setting boundaries is one thing Hovdenak believes Gen Z is better at than other generations.
“While other generations joked about everything, we speak up when we think something isn’t right,” she said.
She refers to how Gen Z is often described as the ‘woke’ generation.
“Our parents' generation has to learn to tolerate us setting boundaries,” she said.
Parents didn’t cheer us on either
“Our parents’ generation didn’t stand there cheering us on either,” said Gunnar Jakobsen, a teacher and lecturer.
He is from Generation X, meaning he was born between 1965 and 1980.
“My generation took ecstasy and burned down churches. We were seen as both lazy and irresponsible,” he said.
He has taught Gen Z and believes we need to be able to bridge the generation gap.
“The gap isn’t as wide as the media makes it out to be. We need to talk to each other instead of talking about each other,” he said.
Have raised youth who make demands
Gen Z is often referred to as the snowflake generation. A question that came up at the debate was whether the parents are to blame.
Did they fail to set clear enough boundaries?
“We’ve raised a generation that makes demands. It's hard for us to understand that the kids are now making demands in return,” Ihlebæk said.
She points out that in the past, children were told to be quiet when adults were talking. Today, it's the adults who must be quiet when the kids are talking.
“Is that really a bad thing?" she asked.
“It means that Gen Z is a generation that has actually had the space to make demands in return. That's a good thing. Now we just have to deal with the fact that they're doing it,” she said.
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Translated by Ingrid P. Nuse
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
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