The job market broke before Gen Z did

A Generation Misunderstood

Members of Generation Z have become the latest target of workplace criticism. They are often described as “unemployable,” “unmotivated,” or “distracted by screens.” Commentators accuse them of lacking ambition, of prioritizing personal fulfilment over professional advancement, and of rejecting the traditional work ethic that shaped previous generations. Yet this narrative overlooks a deeper truth: the workplace itself has changed far more than the workers have.

Gen Z is entering a professional landscape defined by precarity, automation, and constant evaluation. The conditions of modern employment, digitized, depersonalized, and increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence, have created an environment that is not only difficult to navigate, but at times psychologically draining. The disillusionment of young workers is not the symptom of a cultural flaw; it is a rational response to a system that no longer rewards effort in the ways it once did.

A digital gatekeeper

For many job seekers today, the path to employment begins and ends online. Automated portals filter résumés before a human ever reads them. Algorithms decide who advances to interviews based on keywords and formatting rather than competence or potential. Candidates are often required to complete personality assessments or one-way video interviews processes designed for efficiency, not empathy.

The result is a system that feels transactional and opaque. Rejection has become silent and impersonal. Where earlier generations might have faced a face-to-face interview or even a phone call, many of today’s applicants receive no acknowledgment at all. The digital hiring process has lowered the barrier to entry while simultaneously erasing the human dimension of opportunity. Even for those who succeed in breaking through, the victory is often short-lived. The workplace that awaits them is increasingly governed by metrics and monitoring tools rather than mentorship and trust.

Work without humanity

Once employed, young professionals often encounter a culture of surveillance disguised as productivity. Software tracks keystrokes, measures screen time, and monitors “idle” minutes. Performance is quantified in real time, creating an environment of constant self-censorship and anxiety. Employees are expected to multitask across multiple roles while receiving little guidance, growth, or psychological safety.

The erosion of mentorship and the rise of “self-learning” have left many feeling unsupported. The promise of career development has been replaced by online modules and digital feedback systems, emphasizing self-optimization over collaboration. The modern workplace, once a site of community and purpose, has been reimagined as a data stream.

This dynamic is not simply frustrating, it is dehumanizing. The traditional social contract between employee and employer has weakened, and the notion of loyalty has been replaced by short-term efficiency. Older generations may remember workplaces that offered stability and gradual progression. For many members of Gen Z, such experiences are stories from another era.

The emotional cost

Unsurprisingly, the psychological toll is mounting. Many report feeling both replaceable and overextended, pressured to perform beyond their capacity while aware that their jobs could vanish with the next algorithmic adjustment or budget cut.

This erosion of stability has blurred the boundary between personal identity and professional worth. For a generation that grew up in the aftermath of economic crises, political instability, and a pandemic, the workplace was supposed to offer a sense of progress and belonging. Instead, it often amplifies uncertainty and isolation.

What appears to older observers as apathy may, in fact, be a form of self-preservation. Gen Z’s pursuit of flexibility, autonomy, and balance reflects not a rejection of work, but a rejection of unsustainable conditions. Their critique of the traditional career path is less about entitlement than about survival.

New definitions of success

In response, many young workers are redefining what stability means. Some have turned to freelancing, creative entrepreneurship, or digital content creation, not out of a collective desire for fame, but from a wish to reclaim control over their time and labour. Others are reviving interest in collective organization and unionization, seeking structural reform rather than individual escape.

This shift suggests that what older generations interpret as disengagement may signal a new kind of engagement, one focused on agency, transparency, and dignity. Gen Z’s work ethic is not absent; it is evolving to meet the realities of an economy that rewards visibility and adaptability more than endurance.

A system in need of reflection

It may be tempting to dismiss Gen Z’s frustration as immaturity. Yet their experience reveals a broader crisis of meaning in modern labour. The technological and economic systems built to maximize efficiency have eroded the very human qualities: trust, mentorship, creativity that make work fulfilling.

The question, then, is not why young people seem unwilling to work, but why work has become so alienating. Before condemning a generation for its disillusionment, older societies might do well to ask whether the institutions they built are still worthy of belief. Gen Z did not break the job market.
They simply arrived to find it already broken.