There has recently been discussion on both social media and in articles about why Gen Z workers are getting fired, and it all boils down, it seems, to initiative. This debate seems to be a common thread among younger workers and stems from a misunderstanding of job descriptions and what is considered outside of a person's job description.
The issue Gen Z workers are having, according to TikTok
According to TikToker @littlearcsclub, the biggest disconnect between bosses and managers and their Gen Z hires is simply a lack of initiative.
"When I go into the comment sections of these videos, I see a lot of comments like this: 'Initiative costs more money,'" she said in her video, adding, "'Love how jobs want you to go above and beyond, but won't even pay a living wage to you or go above and beyond for you as a worker.' Fair enough. What I do see in a lot of these comments is a lack of understanding of what is meant by initiative."
She offered up a scenario of an employee who is given a task to reach out to someone at another company to receive documents that are critical for a meeting the following week.
In the first version of the scenario, the worker sends an email to the person they were told to reach out to and checks that job off their list. The boss spends the entire week asking after the documents, only to not receive them in the end.
In a second version, the employee takes initiative: they reach out to the person they were asked to contact, stay on top of the task, because they know that the assignment isn't to send an email, it's to receive the important documents.
The TikToker summarized the outcomes of the scenarios by saying, "Now I also want to note that Person 2 has done no overtime work and has not completed any tasks outside of their pre-assigned job. But I will highlight that they demonstrated an incredible amount of initiative to reach the outcome. So it's not just the task completed that's directly assigned to you, but it's understanding what the goal is."
Reactions to the video
TikTokers and Redditors, where the video was reposted, thanked @littlearcsclub for her clear examples to show the difference in what "initiative" means.
One commenter shared their appreciation for the explanation, writing, "I’m Gen Z about to get fired, and this video made me understand where I’m screwing up. Thank you."
Another TikToker added that it isn't just Gen Z getting things wrong. They said, "I am an administrative assistant. This isn't just Gen Z, but also, there isn't training happening anymore, people just expect you to know how to do everything without instruction."
"Best advice I ever got, from a mentor aptly named Bubba," shared Redditor u/Independent-Spray707. "'Your job is to empty the trash can. If I have to tell you the trash is full, you aren’t doing your job.'"
"I have a lot of Gen Z coworkers in my profession, and very few of them get or do exactly what she’s explaining in this video," u/Comprehensive-Ear283 added. "I call it 'follow through'. My biggest problem is not the fact that Gen Z doesn’t understand this. It’s just that they don’t seem to care. I have to teach many of my coworkers what follow-through is, and they still just refuse to do it, or they say, 'it isn’t my job, that’s extra work. Wild man."
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