I was at a social event with a few dozen executive types not long ago, and, as it so often happens these days, the topic turned to the impossibility of managing Generation Z. And not just managing them—surviving their insufferable ways. Stories abounded: the banking intern who informed her boss she couldn’t “get out of bed” for an 8 a.m. meeting. (Murmurs: “Lazy!” “Spoiled!”) The new MBA making six figures at a consulting firm playing a video game on his phone during a client meeting. (“Entitled!” “Rude!”)
Basically, the narrative in the room went, Gen Z is dead to us.
It appears, however, that Gen Z feels more alive than ever. According to the results of a recently released Gallup and Walton Family Foundation poll, the first survey of its kind to involve so many respondents between the ages of 12 and 26, Gen Z believes in its own future with hopeful fervor. The majority even believe they will achieve happy, successful lives. And, shock of shocks, they appear to want to.
By the numbers, the contrast between how other generations view Gen Z and how they see themselves couldn’t be starker. Only 42% of the adult population believes Gen Z will have a better life than their parents. That verdict on the outlook for “today’s youth,” by the way, is the lowest since Gallup started asking such a question nearly 30 years ago.
Meanwhile, 76% of the 3,100 nationally representative Gen Z respondents in the poll reported that they felt they had a “great future ahead of them.” Some 82% agreed with the statement, “I will achieve the goals I set for myself.”
If reports of Gen Z’s death are, as the research suggests, greatly exaggerated, what’s the disconnect? The research, combined with my experience teaching and working with Gen Z, prompts me to suggest some answers.
While the general population often experiences Gen Z as whining, moaning complainers who expect the world to be handed to them on a platter, the data shows that Gen Z see themselves as trying to navigate the world without a road map. Only 51%, for instance, say they have opportunities in high school to learn skills relevant to a job they want. Slightly more (56%) said they “do not feel prepared for the future” in general terms.
Without a doubt, preparedness can come from many sources. But it’s fair to extrapolate that education is what Gen Z is likely referring to when they say they wish they had gotten the training to achieve their dreams.
And what is that dream? Nearly 70% said it’s to “make enough money to live comfortably.”
Is this really so horrible? When I hear my Gen Z students and employees express such muted dreams, my response isn’t disdain as much as empathy. Gen Z doesn’t want what we did because, they are telling us, they cannot begin to expect it.
If the line “excuses, excuses” is crossing your mind right about now, I’m not surprised. I recently suggested that the “lazy girl jobs” trend might be linked to overprotective boomer parents who didn’t teach their children how to handle anxiety, and let’s just say not everyone agreed. Adults, I’ve found, will generally agree that Gen Z is awful, but it seems no one wants to own even a small piece of the blame.
Perhaps, however, there might be more of an openness to the possibility that Gen Z’s dissatisfaction is yet another bit of evidence that the American education system falls short. That it’s “a system” (not us!) that’s producing kids who are not clueless and carefree, but clueless and flailing. Who do dumb things not because it’s their new world order, but because they are inventing their adult, professional personas out of thin air.
But if the system is broken, it needs to be fixed. For Gen Z, and all of us. And that fix requires bringing all of us to the table. Because if the data is right, Gen Z isn’t asking for handouts. They’re asking for help.
Look, I know how annoying Gen Z can be. I recently connected with a 22-year-old on LinkedIn, simply to tell her I thought her podcast was interesting. I was just being nice! She quickly sent me back a message telling me to contact her chief of staff. I groaned “puh-leez!” so loudly that one of my dogs started barking.
Today, with the results of the new Gallup and Walton Family Foundation poll before me, I am wondering if this young podcaster was just thinking that such an answer was the right thing to do when a “serious” person contacts you. You should try to appear serious back—right?
After all, how would she know? She wants, it seems, to be just like us. She just doesn’t know how.
Suzy Welch is a professor of management practice at NYU Stern School of Business and a senior advisor at the Brunswick Group.Walton Family Foundation is a partner of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit.
