Hello everyone and welcome to our newsletter on all things Gen Z.

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As we all prep for the Super Bowl 🍿- we are particularly looking forward to David and Victoria Beckham appearing in the ad break for Uber Eats - spare a thought for Taylor Swift whose beau, Travis Kelce, is playing tight-end for the Kansas City Chiefs. A number of Republican supporters, and particularly those at Fox News, are convinced she’s a Democrat plant and up to no good.

But before running down that particular rabbit whole - it’s Get to Know time.

We are all grappling with how to create workplaces that are fit for the 21st century. Discussions over flexibility, working from home, mental wellness and opportunities for professional development are top of the list of demands from the next generation of employees.

We were lucky enough to be asked to speak at the WorkL launch of their Global Workforce 2024 report last week, a significant deep dive into building engaging workplaces. And essential reading.

WorkL was launched by Lord Price, the former Managing Director of Waitrose, who was one of the first business leaders to talk about “happiness” and “engagement” being essential to a good workplace environment.

That is even more true for Gen Z, the covid generation whose education, relationships, work life and mental health were upended by the pandemic.

This is the generation:

• That, in the UK, is likely to be worse off than their parents over their lifetime - a historic anomaly

• has less than one month’s income in savings

• experienced the largest falls in real wages during the inflation spike

• has made the fewest “passive gains” from home ownership

• is seeing the dream of that home ownership drifting ever further away as house price increases outstrip growth in real incomes.

Young people are still “net optimistic” about the world around them but, as the WorkL research shows, more needs to be done to ensure the workplace is not dampening their enthusiasm.

Shhhhh . . . 

A new survey has found that 44% of Gen Z workers have taken a “hush trip”, which means secretly travelling without telling their employer. One-third of the workers surveyed worked two hours or less per day, and 65% used a virtual background to hide their location. A majority weren’t discovered and didn’t suffer any consequences.

Fringe friends

Insider has published an article explaining that the loss of “fringe friends” (casual acquaintances who provide diverse perspectives and introduce new experiences) is contributing to shrinking social circles. Less than one third of Americans under 30 report having five or more close friends. In 2003, 18-29-year-olds reported having an average of 8.9 friends, which was higher than other age groups. No, we don’t know what a 0.9 friend looks like either.

Viral redundancies

Companies are facing a new anxiety when it comes to layoffs: going viral on social media. In the wake of losing their jobs, some young people are sharing their experiences in short form videos (the format is “get fired with me” or “pov: you’re about to get fired”). Once people know they are about to lose their job, they feel like they have nothing to lose so might as well create content out of the moment. But is this type of oversharing worth the long-term repercussions?

Boysober

Another new Gen Z bit of terminology for you this week is “boysober”, which refers to voluntarily having a period off from sex and dating. The term was coined by comedian Hope Woodward, who is committed to a year of being boysober, and spreading the word through her comedy shows. But it’s more than a joke: one fan says it’s this year’s hottest mental health trend, and Hope herself says it’s all about learning to say no, after being raised to please everybody.

And finally…

63%

…of young adults believe the stock market is a great place to build wealth and invest, but many are not participating, according to the latest Youth & Money in the USA poll by CNBC and Generation Lab. This is in part due to affordability: 48% of young people don’t have enough savings to cover more than two months’ worth of living expenses, let alone invest.

Have a good weekend everyone, off to the couch to watch 24 hours of American football . . . 

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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