Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are we a bit harsh on Gen Z?

0.031 - 13.81 Mike Hosking

Now, unusually for me, I feel like I should come to the defense of Gen Zers. These are the kids who are aged 14 to 29, so some of them in the workforce already, right? We complain about Gen Z a lot. We complain about how soft they are. We complain about how they lack resilience, what a bunch of complainers they are.

13.89 - 29.651 Mike Hosking

And the latest to join in this week was Michelle Obama, who said that the Gen Zers aren't developing the resilience they need because of a culture of instant gratification, and then told them they're going to need to have some bad bosses and they're going to need to have some boring jobs if they want to be successful. Now, Michelle Obama is obviously right.

29.711 - 48.631 Mike Hosking

We all had to pass through the boring jobs. I had to do the drive-through at McDonald's in Bombay for what felt like a very long time. And we've all had to be paid poorly, started in journalism myself, $32,000 a year. We've all had to have awful bosses or multiple awful bosses, maybe just one. Gen Z is only experiencing what we all did.

54.858 - 71.625 Mike Hosking

as soon as they get their first paycheck. And sure, some of them do have a lack of resilience. That is what happens when your parents are Gen Xs and Millennials who helicopter parented you and gentle parented you and you never learned how to feel properly sad or uncomfortable for yourselves. But... This is where I come in to defend them.

72.146 - 88.328 Mike Hosking

I think that some of them are actually a lot better at setting boundaries than any of us were before. And that is what some of what we're seeing and calling complaining and a lack of resilience. We put up with demands to do extra work unpaid. They won't. They know it's a rort from their bosses. We went to parties. We went to get togethers.

88.368 - 102.6 Mike Hosking

We did stuff we didn't want to just because we thought we had to say yes. They just say no. They put themselves first. We allowed our bosses to give us zero pay rises while inflation shot up. They know that's basically a pay cut. They won't accept it. I think it's two sides of the same coin.