What to Know
Boomers might be known for saying that the younger generations just don’t want to work, but one user on TikTok, Grace, who appears to be a millennial or even a Gen Z-er herself, posted a video where she explains why Gen Z kids don’t know how to work. According to Grace, the youngest generation of people entering the workforce right now are incapable or properly addressing others, primarily customers.
Sure, there are Gen Z folks who have found their calling with content creation or even tech in some way, and that’s all well and good. Grace is talking about the average everyday Gen Z kids who are starting jobs where they have to interact with people on a daily basis. Except, per Grace, they just can’t handle a simple task like that.
She says Gen Z just can’t handle dealing with customers.
@gracerocktok If you work at chic fil a or in n out ignore this
♬ original sound – gracerocktok
In the TikTok, Grace explains that she has witnessed firsthand how difficult of a time Gen Z kids seem to have when it comes to working jobs where they deal with customers head on. For reference, people who are part of Gen Z were born between 1997 and 2002. So at the time of Grace’s videos, most of the Gen Z crowd was made up of 20-somethings.
“I’m just gonna say it. I feel like Gen Z does not know how to work. Like, everytime I go into any place where there’s a really young person working and I ask them a question, they look offended. Like, so offended. Or if they don’t know how to do something, they make it your problem. Like, this morning I went to McDonald’s, it was four in the morning, and I was like, I couldn’t sleep, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I want, like, an Egg McMuffin meal, whatever.’ So I go there and I’m like, ‘Can I have an iced coffee instead of a hot coffee? And he’s like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ And then I’m like, ‘OK, cool.'”
However, after that, the Gen Z cashier tells her the computer isn’t ringing her drink up correctly. She explains that customers don’t typically have to help employees solve this type of issue.
The “Gen Z stare” is very real.
Just in case anyone thinks this is a little unfair to Gen Z adults out there, it’s a pretty fair assessment of what this generation between millennials and Gen Alpha is like. When someone posted on Reddit about the Gen Z stare being used when someone is unable to articulate a response or question and instead responds with a blank stare, teachers and those who work with Gen Z and younger generations agreed in the comments that it is absolutely a thing.
“Most of where I’ve experienced this is when paying for something, they’ll tell me the total and then I pay, but then they just stare at me,” a Redditor commented on the post. “Like is it over? Can I leave? Do you have a receipt for me???”
Most people are in agreement with her.
Grace also explains another instance where a Gen Z employee has a difficult time dealing with her as an average customer with a simple request.
“I was at this clothing store the other day, and they were like, getting ready to close or something, and I was like, ‘Oh, can I still use the dressing room?’ Because I think there was, like, still 15 minutes left or whatever. And she’s like, ‘I don’t know. You’re gonna have to ask the girl,'” Grace explains. “And I’m like, ‘Isn’t that your coworker? Like, can’t you go ask her?’ Like, it’s so weird to me…Like, I feel like I would have gotten fired for doing shit like that. I don’t know.”
In the comments under the video, other users shared their own stories of Gen Z robots incapable of taking care of some pretty obvious tasks simply because they didn’t want to.
“I feel like I’m giving them better customer service…as the customer,” one user commented.
Another shared, “I caught my coworker googling ‘How long until 7:30 p.m.’ It was 4:30 p.m…”
“Literally I went to Jimmy John’s with a free reward on my phone and the girl said, ‘Idk how to redeem that,'” someone else wrote. “OK…find someone that does??? Lol like what?”
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