ï»żShifting Gen Z Workplace Trends vs. Old Office Playbooks
Timestamp: 00:00
Brad Eather: Hello and welcome to the Selling's Creative Podcast, a podcast exploring creativity's role in sales, leadership, and business. I'm your host, Brad Eather, a digital communication strategist helping businesses and sales teams take that leap into the digital frontier.
I think we can all agree that the world has gone a little bit mad. AI is on the rise, access to information has never been easier, and convenience has never been more convenient. Yet, somehow, many of us feel more time-poor than ever. If you're over the age of 30, chances are you've probably felt a longing for simpler times when life just felt easier. But here's the thing: that fast-paced, always-on, overwhelming world we are adjusting to is the only world many of our younger colleagues have ever known. And yet, we're still trying to onboard them into workplaces that are nowhere near caught up with the realities of the modern world.
When we drop someone raised in this hyper-connected environment into a multi-generational workplace, it's no wonder things start to clash. The way we communicate is different, the way we manage our time is different, and the way we access and share knowledge is different. So the real question is, what are we going to do about it?
That's exactly what we're going to be exploring today. My next guest is the founder of the Praxis Collective and a leading voice in generational intelligence. With over 15 years of experience in the corporate communication sector, she has spent years unpacking what makes Gen Z tick and how workplaces and leaders can better engage, lead, and learn from them to drive stronger business outcomes. Please welcome to the show, Katie Iles. Welcome.
Katie Iles: Thank you for having me, Brad.
Changing Workplace Culture: Why Gen Z is a Catalyst
Timestamp: 02:00
Brad Eather: I'm really excited about today's chat all about Gen Z. I wanted to start off with something broad and just ask you: what are we going to do about Gen Z?
Katie Iles: How do you solve a problem like Maria? If you're not a musical fan, that comment will make no sense to you.
When it comes to what we are going to do about Gen Z, I think we have pathologized an entire generation. It is not so much a question of what we are going to do about Gen Z, but rather what we are going to do about being human. What are we going to do about organizational infrastructure? How are we going to scaffold wellbeing and contribution to create an environment where universal flourishing is inevitable, rather than a byproduct of just jagging the right setup at the right time?
If I may be so bold, we need to stop with the simple, lazy stereotypes. We must allow ourselves to consider that Gen Z is perhaps not the problem, but the feedback loop. They are not a problem to be solved so much as they are a lightning rod or a catalyst inviting us into smarter, more human, more empathic, and more future-fit leadership.
Confronting Lazy Gen Z Stereotypes and Misconceptions
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Brad Eather: You mentioned stereotypes, and I wanted to dig into that because addressing them is the necessary first step. What are some of the complaints you hear most often, and how do you challenge them?
Katie Iles: I want to ask you that question first. What do you hear?
Brad Eather: I think the stereotype that Gen Z is lazy is certainly one. There is also a perception that their priorities are not necessarily on the work, but solely on themselvesâthat they might struggle with resilience and just getting on with things.
Katie Iles: It's an interesting one. I would add "entitled" to that list; that's a huge one. I also hear that Gen Z "can't hack it," to which I always ask: what does hacking it look like? What are we asking them to hack, and why is it so important to us that they do? That usually gets me a bewildered look.
We need to remember that we were all young once. Sometimes what we see isn't a generational pathology or trait; it's simply that they are 20 years old and still learning. They don't have the benefit of 10, 15, or 20-plus years in the workforce, nor the maturity that comes from making mistakes. Our frontal lobes aren't fully formed until the age of 25, so we must ask ourselves if the expectations we place on Gen Z are fair and reasonable.
Regarding the resilience piece, I think there is actually a lot of truth to it, but not for the reasons people think. It has everything to do with how they have been formed and shaped, which is vastly different from previous generations. As you mentioned, older generations yearn for simpler times, but Gen Z has only ever known this hyper-connected reality. We put the technology in their hands, steeped them in this melting pot, and then we turn around and complain, "My goodness, they're always on their phones, they don't know how to communicate". We helped create the environment, so some self-reflection from older generations is vitalâGen Z didn't raise themselves.
Shifting Gen Z Work Ethic and Values in a Digital World
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Katie Iles: Beyond age, Gen Z has grown up in what I would call a "polycrisis". They have had digital connectivity from an incredibly young age. The research shows that, for better or worse, they have been exposed to economic instability, rapid news cycles, and complex paradigms that their brains simply aren't ready to process. They have been universally exposed to traumas that previous generations never encountered in the same way.
During World War I and World War II, you heard updates via radio, newspapers, or telegrams. The speed of information and who had access to it was vastly different. Today, alongside climate anxiety, a collapse of institutional trust, and a global pandemic, Gen Z's brains are working overtime to process it all. Mental health concepts are highly visible now. I find Gen Z to be incredibly self-aware, but they aren't necessarily equipped to self-manage or self-regulate within that awareness yet.
When people call them entitled, it often stems from Gen Z entering a workplace wanting a seat at the table. They want a voice, they want to progress quickly, and you will lose them if they cannot see a clear career advancement or capacity-building path sponsored by the employer. I have Gen X and Gen Y leaders say to me, "They don't want to put in a day of hard work, they just want a promotion". That's how it's perceived, but what if they just aren't energized by thoughtless grunt work? I'm not saying they shouldn't do it, but the core difference is that Gen Z has grown up always having a voice. They have been able to broadcast themselves on YouTube, X (Twitter), and Instagram since childhood. They have only ever known experience on demand and instant, frictionless gratification.
Suddenly, the corporate world asks them to wait in line, sit down, and shut up because they are young. Naturally, Gen Z looks at that and goes, "This isn't meaningful work. Why am I doing this?" The way we scaffold them into the workplace has to begin with understanding that their expectations of work are fundamentally different from previous generations.
Brad Eather: You made a great point about remembering they are just 20. The issue is that when older colleagues think back to when they were 20, the world was completely different. Trying to project your own past experience onto a 20-year-old today doesn't work because the context has fundamentally shifted. We all engage in modern behaviors now, like spending an hour scrolling on Instagram at night, but we are contextualizing those tools through an older, fully formed adult mind. The disconnect lies in forgetting what it feels like to navigate those foundational social pressures and anxieties while having unfiltered access to these hyper-stimulating tools.
How to Bridge the Generational Divide and Communication Gaps
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Katie Iles: Exactly. The data shows that Gen Z spends 75% of their time communicating digitally. Their most practiced method of interaction is digital, whereas Gen Y and Gen X were not formed that way. We really need to build an appreciation for formative experiences. While generational study is an inexact science, there are clear trend lines, cultural moments, and normative experiences that shape how we view the worldâand how the world views usâin terms of how we live, consume, socialize, and engage with career or country.
Digital integration has thrown us for a loop because of its pervasive, real-time impact. If a 20-year-old graduate enters your onboarding program, their baseline norm is digital communication. Misunderstandings happen because the Gen Z employee assumes that is normal, while the Gen X leader assumes the graduate knows "the traditional way" we do things around the office.
For case in point, an ABC producer told me she nearly lost a major interview with a senior Australian politician because of a communication gap. A Gen Z intern received a call from the politician's office noting they had to move the interview time. Knowing the Gen X producer was currently in a meeting, the intern didn't want to disrupt her or be rude by calling, so she fired off a text message and considered the task done. However, the Gen X producer doesn't look at her phone while working; she keeps it in her desk drawer. She didn't check it because her generational assumption was that if something that important happened, the intern would either come find her in person or call her.
Both individuals were acting completely logically in line with their cultural formation. The gapâthe "solving for X"âis that we make assumptions and fail to explicitly communicate expectations. Being practiced in digital communication doesn't mean Gen Z is incapable of verbal or in-person communication; they are simply less practiced. They come into the workforce with a different set of baseline human skills and just need different coaching. They might be able to write code that accelerates your profit margin by a zillion percent, but they might need a bit of guidance to realize when it's time to step up and have an direct, uncomfortable verbal conversation.
Modern Corporate Culture Problems and Outdated Management Styles
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Brad Eather: That is a fascinating shift. The way I view communication is divided between asynchronous mediaâwhere someone can pull information whenever they need itâand direct, one-to-one communication. Gen X and Gen Y grew up with email as the absolute primary channel. Today, email is increasingly cluttered with marketing and spam, rendering it less efficient. Concurrently, older generations are struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of Teams messages, Slack notifications, texts, and phone calls. It gets overwhelming because you don't know where to look, whereas Gen Z just looks seamlessly across them.
I find it helpful to structure a clear corporate communications plan categorized into important, not so important, and informal. For example, I use WhatsApp strictly for informal chats with zero expectation of an immediate reply. I reserve email for formal, documented items. A phone call might mean urgency to a Gen X manager, but a Gen Z employee might lean toward different touchpoints. From a organizational consulting perspective, how do you successfully structure channels to align a multi-generational workforce?
Katie Iles: You just named the core solution: you explicitly set the expectations. One of the great myths of communication is assuming it has actually occurred just because a message was sent. Whatever productivity tool your organization deploysâwhether it's Basecamp, Slack, or WhatsAppâis almost immaterial. The fundamental piece is ensuring everyone explicitly understands how we communicate, what timely response looks like, and how to triage different channels. Without that clarity, leaders hold unspoken assumptions over the heads of their staff.
When I run corporate workshops or consulting sessions, I love putting a multi-generational panel on stage with one representative from each era to ask each other questions. It's often hilarious but deeply revealing. The younger generations (Gen Y and Gen Z) inevitably roll their eyes and say, "That meeting could have been an email". Meanwhile, the Boomers and Gen X managers complain, "Why can't they just come to the office? I sent an email and they never replied". The Gen Z employee replies, "I did reply, I replied on Slack". This creates an undercurrent of unnecessary friction because we assume whatever is familiar to us is empirically better.
Regardless of your generation, leaders need to take a minute to self-reflect and ask: Have I established clear frameworks to get the right information at the right time? What have I assumed? Behavioral science shows that under pressure, humans default to what is most familiar to cut out noise and enter survival mode. But our default is not everyone else's default.
Many executives mistake what their actual job is. Their job isn't to be a two-legged silver bullet with all the answers; their job is to be cultural interpreters and sherpas. They need to build the organizational scaffolding that makes success likely for everyone, regardless of age or workforce tenure.
Our current cultural moment is exhausting. We are hyper-scheduled, constantly online, and many people are just fighting to keep their heads above water. For the first time in history, we have five distinct generations sharing the workplace, and that requires an entirely new playbook and skill set. We can't just assume people will adapt via osmosis without a deliberate operational review.
Why Empathy in a Leader Is Vital for Organizational Trust
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Brad Eather: When you talk about playbooks, you're highlighting that many businesses are still operating on corporate frameworks developed pre-internet. How are these outdated systems clashing with Gen Z values, and how do we leverage emerging talent to write a new playbook?
Katie Iles: If we step back and look at the macro data, such as Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report, we see a massive collapse in organizational trust and what I call a "coherence collapse". In other words, corporate systems don't make logical sense to people anymoreâthe corporate expectations do not align with the actual rewards, especially when you factor in AI, economic downturns, and rapid market evolution.
To any team leader out there: you do not need to have all the answers. Feeling out of your depth doesn't mean you are bad at your job; it just means the modern environment requires us to be much more agile problem solvers. Many senior leaders tell me they are completely exhausted because Gen Z employees come in with fundamentally different relational expectations. They feel like they are being asked to be a therapist, a parent, a coach, and a friend all at once, when they just want to do their job and go home to their families. Many Gen X leaders waited a long time for their turn in the C-suite because Baby Boomers held onto those seats for so long, only to find the playbook they inherited no longer works.
For Gen Z, trust is the number one currency. They are an intensely collaborative and relational generation by natureâhighly tribal, a trait facilitated by their lifelong hyper-connectivity. However, that connectivity doesn't always equal deep relationship quality. You can have 3,000 digital followers but be a mile wide and an inch deep, which explains why data shows Gen Z is also statistically the loneliest generation. Over half report feeling lonely or highly anxious a majority of the time, with young women experiencing the highest margins of anxiety. The key difference is that Gen Z will explicitly name itâthey are very free to voice their emotional states and ask for support.
Mastering Empathy and Leadership to Fix Toxic Workplaces
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Katie Iles: A coherence collapse happens when an organization's systems, signals, and stories do not align. Gen Z can smell corporate BS a mile away. My own kids are 9 and 11, and they look at me sometimes in a way that makes me feel completely outpaced. They are just a different breed. When a precocious Gen Z graduate rolls into an office with a list of ten processes they want to optimize by tomorrow, a tired, traditional leader might feel defensive, thinking, I had to grind for years to get my voice heard, who are you? But we have to realize that their immersive digital upbringing has literally wired their brains differently.
Cognitive and behavioral science show that generations raised in high-stimulus digital environments possess an incredibly high sensitivity to signal-to-noise gaps. Their brains are hyper-vigilant to what their social cortex perceives as ambient threats or inauthenticity. They look at everything and ask: Can I trust this? My kids can spot an AI-generated image instantly at twenty paces, whereas I just think the person looks like they've had great Botox. Gen Z is hardwired for constant code-switching, meta-messaging, and algorithmic filtering; their brains actively seek structural coherence. When you drop that brain into a workplace plagued by institutional cynicism, climate anxiety, purpose drift, and systemic loneliness, you are off to the races.
Brad Eather: At a macro level, those polycrisis issues are the exact same systemic problems governments are wrestling with, and small businesses are absorbing them right in the office. Information is no longer purely top-down or internal; employees are constantly fueled by external streams.
When a hyper-engaged Gen Z worker charges in with a million ideas, it might be perceived as unearned braggadocio. But really, they have been curation-fed via sophisticated online algorithms. A young person obsessed with business has been soaking up top-tier, niche global strategies on their feeds since high school. They aren't trying to be arrogant; they genuinely know these concepts and want to contribute immediately.
The old corporate framework views external online influences as a curse that disrupts internal compliance. The new playbook views it as an absolute blessing. If you ask the right questions, you can lean into the unique individual expertise your people are absorbing via osmosis and channel it directly into business growth.
Katie Iles: Beautifully said. Anthropological and behavioral science show that humans flourish and find true "flow states" in environments of mutual interdependence. Think of an intricate stone archway holding itself together without mortar; each oddly shaped stone perfectly supports the next to make the entire structure sound. That is mutual interdependence.
Leaders need to stop trying to be "the guy" who handles everything. It's commercially impossible. Build a team and lean heavily on the unique giftings, worldviews, and experiences of all your people to achieve the best outcomes. When that eager business graduate rolls in, they don't need to be shut down; they need scaffolding, coaching, and empathy.
At the same table, you might have a tired Gen X manager juggling a demanding executive load and three kids who need to be taxied to extracurricular activities. That Gen X manager came up in an era where you never took a sick day, mental health days didn't exist, and you didn't leave your desk until the job was finishedâwork was life. Gen Z's baseline expectation is completely different: they want a thriving life that involves work, but is not entirely comprised of it, and they have the communication agency to state that boundary clearly.
Without critical analysis skills, we all risk falling into generational echo chambers. When the old playbook fails, managers feel like they are failing, and employee satisfaction plummets. The antidote is meaningful vision and purpose. Leaders must help employees connect the dots between the daily task requested of them, how it is recognized, and the tangible macro impact of that work.
Gen Z is holding up a mirror to the corporate world, exposing how toxic, fragile, brittle, and fundamentally dehumanized much of traditional organizational culture has become. Insecurity and defensiveness never lead to agile business decisions. If an older worker feels squeezed between the rise of AI on one side and a disruptive Gen Z wave on the other, that's a massive one-two punch.
Leaders must go slow to go fast because trust is imperative. We need to step away from top-down, hierarchical managementâthe "I am the boss, I give you money, shut up and work" mentalityâand move toward a collaborative Venn diagram setup. It forces us to ask: What can I learn from this 20-year-old? And what can this 20-year-old learn from this 50-year-old?
We need to treat people as human beings, not commodities or means to a financial end. Too many workplaces have commodified wellbeing as a mere box-ticking exercise to avoid complaints. I highly recommend using strengths-based frameworks, like Patrick Lencioni's Working Genius, to clearly identify where individuals naturally add the most value within a workflow. Scaffolding people according to their unique energy and developmental stage delivers vastly superior business agility.
Tracking Gen Z Values in the Workplace: What Is a Third Space?
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Brad Eather: There is a fundamental operational shift happening. The old playbook defined productivity purely as time spent sitting at a desk. The new model places the onus on individual responsibility and output. We establish the timeframe and the expected delivery, but we grant employees the autonomy to manage their own workflow.
This directly ties into your scaffolding concept. Scaffolding is temporary framework placed around a building under construction; it makes the environment safe for everyone while the final structure is being realized. Modern leadership is about providing that structural safety and direction, rather than just dictating tasks.
Take the corporate attitude toward social media. You have old-school leaders who completely disengage and call it a useless fad, while forward-thinking businesses embrace it as a core public communications platform. We are seeing friction points between the old world and the new world at every turn. If a business remains stubbornly shackled to a pre-internet playbook, it will fail to retain younger staff. Your workforce will simply grow older and older until you are completely out of touch with market reality.
Look at how COVID forced everyone onto cameras to do business online, followed immediately by the explosion of AI. These disruptions have permanently changed how commerce operates. In this volatile market, businesses that refuse to adopt these digital tools will simply collapse overnight. Gen Z is experiencing the exact same macro-volatility we are; we just need to embrace the cultural shift, build the necessary leadership scaffolding, and lean on them for fresh ideas.
Katie Iles: Exactly, and there is another critical sociological layer to this: the erosion of the "third space". Historically, a human life was anchored by three distinct spheres: home, work, and a third spaceâsuch as a church group, sports club, rotary club, or community center. It was a non-commercial, non-family space where you expressed yourself, built multi-generational relationships, and found a sense of belonging. Due to institutional collapse, a faster pace of life, and disappearing discretionary time, engagement with traditional third spaces has plummeted.
Because Gen Z has come of age in a world largely devoid of physical third spaces, they look to their workplace to satisfy those deep communal and relational needs. They want work to be highly meaningful and relational because it serves as their primary community. Data shows that 64% of Gen Z workers would explicitly choose a pay cut if the organization's work aligned deeply with their personal values or offered the flexibility to pursue outside interests.
I recently spoke to a partner at a law firm who proudly declared she would never hire another Gen Z employee because "they have no work ethic". Her evidence? A Gen Z associate asked to leave the office 30 minutes early to make it to an amateur soccer match on time, promising to log back on and finish her legal briefs later that night. The partner viewed this as a diabolical violation of the old law firm mantra: the client is king, and you never leave your desk until the work is done. I asked the partner how many hours she had worked the previous week, and she said 90 hours. That sounds completely miserable.
Brad Eather: On a previous episode, I interviewed happiness researcher Declan Edwards, and he flipped that exact corporate paradigm on its head. He noted that the client is not kingâthe employee is king. Sustained employee wellbeing is the direct driver of superior client outcomes.
Unleashing Creativity and Maximizing True Human Potential
Timestamp: 48:09
Katie Iles: Absolutely. Gen Z is looking at the old corporate social contract and saying, "No thanks, that model is broken". It's not that they don't want to work hard; they want to work hard for things that actually matter. They are wildly altruistic, want their contributions to make a difference, and demand baseline respect in the officeâwhich really isn't any different from what older generations wanted deep down. The only difference is that Gen Z has the digital voice and agency to say it out loud. Traditional managers get defensive and say, "You need to suck it up and pay your dues because that's what we had to do". Gen Z looks at those burnt-out, divorced, 90-hour-a-week managers and goes, "Yeah, that didn't seem to work out very well for you guys, so I'm going to pass".
Rigid, brittle organizations that refuse to evolve will simply get overrun by talent attrition; it's the natural evolution of the marketplace. Look at Barnes & Noble in America. When Amazon threatened to wipe out traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores, Barnes & Noble revolutionized their business model. They didn't try to compete directly with Amazon on digital logistics; instead, they introduced an incredible, tactile human experience. They turned their physical bookstores into a compelling "third space" complete with community areas and cafes. Now, they are driving massive sales, fueled largely by Gen Z's viral love for books via online subcultures like "BookTok".
To reduce generational friction, organizations must embrace deep self-reflection. Leaders have a responsibility to understand the implicit assumptions they make, learn how different generations were fundamentally shaped, and build empathy for the true everyday experiences of their staff. When we triangulate a person's reality with our current cultural moment and business objectives, we rehumanize the workplace. Gen Z's rejection of toxic overwork forces us to abandon lazy stereotypes, eat a bit of humble pie, and adopt a posture of curiosity and humilityâthe two universal traits of great leadership.
When workers hit their 40s, especially in a volatile climate of AI disruption and shifting social structures, it's easy to feel professional insecurity. That identity crisis can cause leaders to become territorial, defensive, and micro-managing. But friction and attrition can be solved by explicitly building organizational trust, structural coherence, and genuine human empathy. I don't mean holding hands and singing Kumbaya; I mean scientifically understanding the human experience to help people thrive. The post-industrial corporate obsession with indexing a human being's worth strictly by what they materially produce has created a massive mental health and societal crisis. Gen Z is the corporate feedback loop, forcing us to move back toward healthy mutual interdependence.
Brad Eather: It's a fascinating paradox. The modern market demands instant results, but building empathy and structural scaffolding within a workforce is a deliberate, long-term play. Business owners always ask how to calculate the immediate ROI on empathy. It requires viewing corporate culture as a continuous operational upgrade.
Katie Iles: It is exactly like an operating system upgrade. If the behavioral code running behind the scenes isn't producing the commercial or cultural outcomes you want, you have to adjust the core operating system. Modern leadership requires us to step up, build agility into our daily frameworks, and become accurate cultural diagnosticians. We naturally judge and categorize people through our own limited worldview glasses, and the further away we are from someone, the easier they are to stereotype. But when you sit down and ask someone three to five intentional questions, your posture completely changes because you are engaging with a human being, not a commodity.
Holding space for the human experience unlocks a natural neurobiological flow state that fundamentally spikes employee wellbeing and organizational productivity. It requires having uncomfortable conversations and adjusting the scaffolding on the fly as we build this plane while flying it. We cannot default to lazy stereotypes; we must use friction as an invaluable feedback loop to guide our leadership.
To close out our discussion, I have one final question for you: what is your personal definition of creativity?
Katie Iles: I love this question. I am convinced that creativity is what naturally happens when a human being becomes fully alive. When we are awakened to our unique genius, potential, and individual beauty, the organic overflow of that grounded energy forces us to contribute to the world around us. It isn't restricted to writing a song or painting a canvas. True creativity is when we step into our full potential to solve real-world problemsânot for commercial advantage or competition, but out of a desire for beauty, truth, and goodness.
It's the innovator who figures out how to bring solar power to thousands of isolated islands in the Philippines, completely transforming an entire generation of children's access to education. That is an act of creativity born from a person being fully alive and choosing to make a sacred contribution to humanity. If we connect creativity to the visceral experience of being fully alive rather than just the fine arts, we will unlock incredible pathways forward.
Brad Eather: I love that. So much of this conversation has centered around deploying empathy to improve organizations. Your definition of creativity perfectly drives home that message: being kind to humans and understanding their experiences naturally unlocks outcomes that are simply better for everyone.
Katie, if our listeners want to connect with you, where is the best place to find you?
Katie Iles: Thank you, Brad. People can find me directly at thepraxiscollective.com or connect with me on LinkedIn. I would love to chat with anyone looking to optimize their generational intelligence, workforce strategy, or leadership models.
Brad Eather: Awesome. Thank you so much for joining me on the Selling is Creative podcast, Katie. And thank you to everyone tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like and subscribe. In the meantime, happy selling!
