Making the multi-generational workplace work

Gen Z has been developing (fairly or unfairly) a reputation as the generation that can’t handle the workplace, and doesn’t pull its weight once it’s there.

Locally and globally, the charges levelled against the latest cohort to enter the workforce follow a familiar script: lack of initiative, low resilience, early exits, unclear communication and poor adaptation – the list goes on.

But while there is certainly some substance to this perception – real differences in Gen Z’s work style, performance, and the mutual inter-generational exasperation that follows – it is incumbent on leaders and companies to look past the frustration and get to the origins of the problem, and its solutions, a leadership expert says.

“For years, companies have been selling a version of work built on fairness, flexibility, purpose, and belonging. The language was (and continues to be) everywhere in employer branding, from job ads to vision and mission statements. Gen Z took that seriously. So when the reality didn’t match the pitch, the frustration that followed got labelled a generational flaw rather than a broken promise,” says Advaita Naidoo, Africa MD at Jack Hammer Global.

Beyond the memes, generalisations and accusations, the mismatch between workplace expectations and Gen Z performance is a challenge that should be taken much more seriously than it is at the moment, Naidoo warns.

“Look at your Gen Z employees, and consider what your leadership pipeline looks like. Gen Z isn’t a passing irritation to be managed until they age into compliance. Their share of the workforce continues to grow every year, and within a decade they will increasingly be running it.

“Every year an organisation spends treating them as a problem to be endured rather than a generation to be understood is a year of turnover costs, disengagement, and lost institutional momentum, at exactly the moment the generation holding the deepest experience is heading for the door,” she says.

It is therefore a non-negotiable for organisations to figure out how to make a multi-generational team work, with older employees bringing institutional knowledge and discernment and younger ones bringing fresh instincts and new skills. And both cohorts must be expected to adapt and integrate, not just the newcomers.

Approach

Organisations serious about closing the multi-generational gap to ensure sustainability, need to move past diagnosis and into structural change, starting with how management itself operates. The autocratic approach has to allow for a more collaborative style where appropriate, and treat context and reasoning as part of the job, not an optional extra.

“That means training managers explicitly in this shift, rather than assuming it will happen on its own, and building feedback loops that run in both directions: employees should have real, safe channels to flag what isn’t working, just as much as they’re expected to receive it,” Naidoo says.

Beyond management style, organisations also need to close the gap between what they say and what they do.

“If the company promises a culture of purpose, flexibility, and transparency, those commitments need to show up in actual policy and daily practice, because the credibility gap this creates is doing real damage to trust and retention. Additionally, structured mentorship in both directions is worth building deliberately, by pairing experienced staff with newer employees for traditional guidance, while also creating space for younger employees to share fresh perspective upward.”

The way forward for Gen Z

Naidoo says waiting it out until the older generation retires or “things improve” isn’t a good strategy for Gen Z employees. In fact, it’s a bet against their own interests.

“Learning to navigate and manage friction and critique, and building resilience, are durable skills you’ll need regardless of who’s in charge, and delaying them only raises the stakes later.”

Further, embracing friction and building “old-school” workplace muscle can be a distinct career advantage, she says.

“Everyone, regardless of generation, has to build career capital that shortcuts can’t produce. As AI increasingly takes over predictable, low-friction tasks, the ability to handle ambiguity and pressure is becoming the real point of difference between employees who advance and those who don’t – which makes leaning into these challenges now less a concession to an old-fashioned workplace, and more a bet on thriving in the one still being built.”

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