Mark Zuckerberg’s remark about 2023 being a “year of efficiency” looks like it’s turning into a decade of something else. The trend toward eliminating middle management has only accelerated (potentially because of AI’s disruptive effect on the labor market, but potentially cost cutting by another name), culminating in a brutal 2025 for middle managers so far. By one count, 80,000 jobs have been cut in the tech space, with Microsoft alone responsible for 15,000 and counting. Some had dubbed this the “great flattening,” and it’s certainly a bruising welcome to millennials, who make up the majority of managers for the first time ever.
Gen Z has reportedly looked at this situation and responded in a manner befitting the viral corporate scandal of the summer, surrounding Coldplay, an obscure IT firm called Astronomer, and a canny bit of public relations firefighting involving Gwyneth Paltrow. Of course, Paltrow and Coldplay singer Chris Martin introduced the world to their type of “conscious uncoupling,” and Gen Z’s response to management has been “conscious unbossing.”
There’s just one problem with this narrative. Gen Z is just entering the age—late twenties for the oldest of the cohort—when they could become managers themselves, and the paper trail is slim. Daniel Zhao, lead economist for Glassdoor, told Fortune Intelligence that “you don’t really see any evidence” of conscious unbossing in his firm’s semiannual Worklife Trends report.
Gen Z will actually account for one in 10 managers in 2025, which Zhao notes is a similar trajectory to past generations. “Gen Z is entering management at the same rates that millennials and other generations did” in recent decades, he said. In other words, Gen Zers may say they’re consciously unbossing, but they seem just as into managerial monogamy, so to speak, as any other generation that came before them.
The Gen Z perspective
Born between 1997 and 2012, Gen Z entered the workforce during unprecedented times—marked by economic uncertainty, global pandemics, social upheaval, and a rapidly digitalizing world. These challenges shaped Gen Z’s attitudes toward work in profound ways that researchers are still coming to understand. For instance, EY’s Generational Dynamics team commissioned a massive global survey to understand Gen Z, and they found the “pragmatic generation” approaches most situations, especially traditional life milestones like career and salary, with a sort of “reasoned skepticism.”
In survey data, Gen Z indicates it prioritizes purpose over promotion, freedom and flexibility, and personal well-being. Over half of Gen Z workers—52% in one study—say they don’t want to pursue middle management roles at all, with 16% refusing any role that puts them in charge of others.
The economy has evolved in a way to shove Gen Z—and all workers—into different ways of working. The rise of the gig economy, side hustles, and project-based work means there are many ways to achieve career satisfaction and financial stability without ever becoming a “boss” in the traditional sense. Other leadership writers theorize Gen Z craves authentic, transparent workplaces where leadership roles are earned through proven influence, not simply tenure or politics. They prefer mentors and facilitators over authoritarian managers.
More okay with authority than you might think
Despite the “unbossing” rhetoric, Glassdoor’s Zhao finds Gen Z is achieving managerial status right on schedule. In fact, he added Gen Z is likely to surpass baby boomers in management ranks by late 2025 or 2026 if current trends continue.
Zhao notes climbing into management remains one of the most effective shortcuts to boosting pay and accelerating career growth. In 2025, workers transitioning from individual contributor roles to management positions saw an average salary increase of 11%—significantly higher than the 7% raise secured by peers who remained individual contributors. For all the talk about dismantling hierarchies, Gen Z seems to be voting with their feet, understanding that material benefits are associated with management.
The reality on the ground
So what happens when the “conscious unbossing” generation becomes the boss? That’s where the narrative runs into headwinds. While employees overwhelmingly say “emotional intelligence” is a requirement from their managers, Zhao’s data—and collection of anecdotal evidence—shows that employees’ lived experiences are less transformational.
Simply put, burnout is surging: Mentions of burnout in workplace reviews spiked 73% year over year as of May 2025. And access to benefits that could reduce burnout, such as flexible scheduling or mental health care, has stagnated or even declined this year; for example, access to reduced or flexible hours fell 2.2% year over year, and work from home by 1.7%. Still, since 2019, the work-from-home benefits are up a whopping 20.4% and mental health by 17.9%.
Zhao notes these support systems aren’t expanding at the rate workers might hope, even as the overall focus on holistic well-being supposedly increases. Instead, companies are more likely to be investing in benefits like health savings accounts or fertility assistance—positive, but perhaps less directly tied to the emotional facets of work that Gen Z managers are assumed to advocate for. Zhao told Fortune Intelligence in an interview that he’s surprised in some sense that “things haven’t necessarily deteriorated” for workers since January, but they “still don’t feel like they’re in a great situation.” At least things don’t seem to have gotten worse, he added.
‘Unbossing,’ or adapting?
The data paints a complex picture. Gen Z is making undeniable inroads into management and is perceived as being poised to prioritize well-being and flexibility. However, the pace of real change on issues like workplace flexibility and burnout remains slow. In practice, rising managers of all generations—including Gen Z—face inherited constraints: economic uncertainty, budget pressures, and the inertia of long-standing workplace norms.
The upshot? Gen Z may want to “unboss” the workplace, but the traditional levers of career advancement remain intact. “Management is not for everybody, and that’s okay,” Zhao said about what his data shows, “but it is still seen as the best path for climbing the career ladder.” For better or worse.
Are you a Gen Zer who has chosen “conscious unbossing,” or have you become a manager yourself? Fortune would love to hear from you: Get in touch at nick.lichtenberg@consultant.fortune.com.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
