- Get to Know: Gen Z
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- TNM - Get to Know: Gen Z
Hello everyone and welcome to our newsletter on all things Gen Z.
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Happy Saturday to you all. It’s just me today, that’s Holly, as Kamal leans into the “life” section of work/life balance this week.
Today’s newsletter has some great Gen Z insights, from the timely Valentine’s debate around who should pay for dates, to why promotions aren’t as appealing as bosses might think. As ever, this space is all about taking new insights and mapping them onto broader trends we follow over time. Nothing is as scandalous as the headlines would lead you to believe!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend,
Running things
We talk a lot about career mobility for Gen Z, but it’s always nice to be reminded that many young people are already running businesses. In fact, 171,000 Gen Zers are already directors of businesses in the UK, across industries like online retail and recruitment agencies. Lockdown side hustles and passion projects have grown into fully-fledged businesses, like workplace community building app Happl (formerly Tahora), founded by 23-year-old Ben Towers, and we only expect this trend to grow.
Money talks
New research has found that Gen Z care more about a better paycheck than they do a promotion, valuing financial security over climbing the corporate ladder. This isn’t surprising when less than one-third of Gen Zers say they are in a good financial position, and means that companies that offer stable benefits are more likely to attract and retain Gen Z talent.
Split the bill
We assume that youth = progressive, but does this rationale apply to finances around dating? The New York Times reporter Santul Nerkar went on 11 dates to find out what Gen Z thinks about splitting the bill. You can find out the outcomes of the dates here, but let us just say old traditions haven’t died in this area just yet!
And some final Valentine’s fun…
Another roundup of some of the lingo used by young people to talk about love and relationships. If you’re unsure what we mean by “babygirl” men, “beige flags”, or who “pookie” is, this article is for you.
Talking Point
Gen Z gets an unfair press for being ‘lazy’. You’ve heard it before, that tiring spiel of us having a poor work ethic, wanting to scroll our feeds all day…
But Gen Z has also been dubbed ‘Generation Active’.
I recently came across a report by global fitness company Les Mills, the largest ever study of Gen Z fitness habits. And turns out, we’re one of the most active generations there’s been.
Almost a third of us are regularly working out in fitness facilities, like gyms. This is much higher than the roughly 20% of the adult population who do the same. On top of that, half of Gen Z are looking to start exercising.
Four of Gen Z’s top five reasons to exercise are for health and happiness, with 44% exercising to reduce stress. As Becky Hill says, “life’s been really life-ing”, and exercise is one way we’re unwinding.
This kind of research challenges the perceptions of Gen Z, as an often misunderstood homogenous group. We’re not always scrolling the latest celeb gossip, or watching TV… we’re in the gym, or with our friends, working out for our physical and mental wellbeing.
- Emma Middleton, TNM journalist, London
And finally…
47%
…of Gen Z say they get better career advice from ChatGPT than their manager. And that’s not for lack of trying - 62% of Gen Z said they would like to talk about their career more with their managers, but their manager is always too busy.
Enjoy your weekends all! See you next week.
How can we help?
In my many travels and conversations, I’m increasingly talking to CEOs, executives and civil society leaders wanting to better understand the next generation of consumers and the next generation of employees. Gen Z is putting pressure on us all to transform in fascinating ways, and many of us are asking questions about how to cater for younger workers and future proof our organisations.
If this sounds like you, we’d be keen to have a chat and see if TNM can help. From our own content production to work we have done, for example, with The Oliver Wyman Forum, we have a raft of insights and data which can support you. We work closely with a number of global organisations – helping with high-impact story-telling, digital media, internal communications, through to employee benefits, HR and working structures.
Email me direct and all of us at TNM look forward to speaking further.
Kamal Ahmed
Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder
The News Movement
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