TED Talks Daily - Work is broken. Gen Z can help fix it | Amanda Schneider

Episode Date: March 29, 2025

Would you rather stay in your current job until you retire, or change jobs every year? Researcher Amanda Schneider says Gen Z's answer to this question says a lot about the evolving workplace. Sharing data-driven insights on the young workforce, she debunks common misconceptions about Gen Z employees and explains why their preferences are key to unlocking a more flexible, effective workplace for everyone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. You're listening to TED Talks Daily where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hume. Research shows that many millennials, so people my age, say they'd rather stay in one job until retirement, whereas Gen Z-ers tend to say they'd rather switch jobs every year. In her 2024 talk, consultant and researcher Amanda Schneider shares how our younger peers

are reshaping the office as we know it, and why it's best that we listen to what they have to say about the future of work. Coming up. I'd like to start with a little game of would you rather. So I'm gonna invite everyone to go ahead and stand up. Alright, take money off the table. Would you rather stay in the same job that you're in right now for the rest of your career? If so, you're going to go ahead and take a seat.

Or would you rather change jobs every year from now until you retire? If so, you're going to remain standing. All right. Looks like around 60-40. You guys can go ahead and take a seat. So about 60-40 with the majority preferring to stay in the same job. Now Gen Z will make up 27% of the workforce by next year.

And when we asked them this same question, the majority of them said that they would rather change jobs every year from now until they retire. While tenure, loyalty, and longevity have often been thought of as reasons to hire someone, our Gen Zers thought, would I rather build the collective insight from multiple different companies or only deep insight from one company. I share this to highlight just how differently from our traditional work norms Gen Z sees

the world. And we have a choice. We can ignore them. We could study them to stereotype them, but how did that work for all you millennials in the room? I want to suggest, rather than stereotyping, we look to Gen Z as prototypes to help us build a better future. When we prototype something, we keep the aspects that work,

and we iterate on those that don't. Now, I've spent my career researching and writing about topics that matter to the world of workplace design and the knowledge workers who inhabit those spaces. If that's you or you manage a team of office workers, I'm glad you're here because I want to argue that this topic right now has never been more important.

In fact, I want to suggest that work is broken. But don't worry, in the next 10 minutes, I'm gonna take you on a journey to understand why I say that and give us some inspiration, some what-ifs, to fix it. Now, let's start with my story. My father instilled in me a deep curiosity for the working world when I was very young. And my mother instilled in me a deep desire to become a mother. I wanted to do both, and I wanted to do them well.

And I was blessed with a phenomenal start to my career. But then came my second desire. I was blessed with my first son less than a decade into my career. And the transition was really tough. Here's why. Most of my paycheck was going to daycare. When we found out we were pregnant with our second son, before we even called our parents,

we called the daycare only to discover that even with sibling priority, he wouldn't have a spot until he was seven months old. And I found myself, because of the standard accepted eight to five work hours, I was waking my kids up to rush them to daycare, to rush to work, to rush back, to pick them up, to feed them dinner, to put them in bed. We were spending more waking hours apart than together.

And I hit a moment where I asked myself, what's the point? And sadly, this is the moment many women like me leave the workforce. But if we're honest, I would guess in the tumultuousness of the past four years, many of you have also had your own what's the point moment. So I'm going to invite you to close your eyes for just a minute. When was your what's the point moment?

All right, you can open your eyes. But keep that moment in mind as I challenge that the norms our working world are built upon today are based on outdated rules that no longer apply. We still generally work bankers hours, a norm created when it was mostly men working with stay at home wives, and our linear career paths are built

so that life peaks in your mid-career. This is the same time our duties caring for our elders and caring for our children peak as well. It's a recipe for burnout. But here's the good news. In the past four years we've seen a massive shift in how knowledge workers work. Hybrid work is on the rise. This is the perfect time to rethink norms for the next era. And the solution in my research comes from looking at the youngest generation in our midst. Adam Grant calls this a vujade moment. It's seeing things we've seen many times,

but with fresh eyes. Now, my research team and I have intensely studied Gen Z and how their perceptions will affect the future of work. Here are three of the most interesting things that we've learned. Number one, Gen Z is blind to their own physical digital fluidity. One of the most memorable moments in the research was when we were talking about hybrid work and one of our young Gen Zers said, permission to speak freely?

He said, of course. He said, I'm sick of everyone talking about how hybrid is hard. This isn't hard. It's just how we work. This is really a change management issue for you old people. And as a Gen Xer, that's stung of it. But if you think about it, Gen Z, the earliest of whom graduated in 2019, just pre-pandemic, hybrid isn't hard.

It's simply the air they breathe. A fish doesn't know it's in water. It's just swimming. So let's get digital. That's physical plus digital. Now contrary to popular belief, Gen Z doesn't want to be fully remote. They're also least likely to want to be five days a week in the office. They seamlessly and naturally understand how to blend the two worlds.

So perhaps by studying them, we can find clues that will help benefit the future work for all of us. And as we look at broader research, most people actually would rather they care more about when they work than where they work. But if I do my best work at 4 AM and you do your best work at 10 PM to make that effective, we have to develop new communication norms, define core working hours for team interactions,

and develop new ways of asynchronous working. While most of us have likely never had this privilege, the future of work starts with all of us looking deep to clarify when and where we're most productive. Number two, Gen Z expects transparency. You've likely heard about this from viral and very public salary discussions on TikTok. But we all were raised with the golden rule, right? You all can say it with me,

treat others the way you want to be treated. But as a working mother who appreciates hybrid flexibility, to a Gen Z-er who maybe has to go into the office five days a week to escape a crowded roommate situation, perhaps the new platinum rule should be treat others the way they want to be treated, not the way you want to be treated, not the way you want to be treated. So let's find clarity through transparency.

We all know that clarity is kind. And overall, in this five-star rating world, people want to know what will make them effective at your company. It's okay for people to move on. It's also okay for them to be clear about what trade-offs they will and won't make for people to move on. It's also okay for them to be clear about what tradeoffs they will and won't make for work and their lives. But our companies must

do the same. My hope is in the future, companies have a range of options where some as their competitive advantage are fully remote, others as their competitive advantage are fully in office and there's a range of options where majority of them exist in between. The future of work will start with companies boldly declaring their policies to help all of us make better career matches. All right. And number three, Gen Z insists on inclusion. Managers can't do it all, but they're often burdened feeling like they

have to. This can lead to implementation overload where new ideas feel overwhelming. All the while Gen Z is saying put me in coach but they often don't know where to begin. So let's engage new voices. Now one of my favorite stories I've heard about this is that of the Gucci Shadow Board. In 2017, Gucci recognized that its sales were declining as its core demographic was aging. So, they put in place a Next Gen Advisory Board to advise their senior leadership on how to connect

with the next generation through product development and marketing initiatives. The result was 136% sales growth at the same time period that their largest competitor declined almost 12%. The future of work will start with engaging new voices from new places, but also all of us being open to hearing them even when they don't

match what we previously believed to be true. Now let's return to my story, which obviously started well before Gen Z in the office was even a thing to study, but I think you'll find some similarities. Now in 2011, I left my traditional job thinking it was a side step in my career. By 2015, that side step was so successful that we actually incorporated and I started hiring other working moms that had left the traditional workforce for one reason or another. This group of powerful women effectively doubled our business 100% by word of mouth year over year until ultimately we were acquired in 2018

by the largest media brand in our industry. And we were able to do this because we got Fidgetal. Like Gen Z is expecting, we blended synchronous and asynchronous work. We found clarity through transparency. Our work style and culture was not for everyone, and some left us because of it. But those retained were the best fit for our culture and actually helped us build an even more authentic brand.

And finally, we stayed open to new ideas, even when it didn't match what we previously believed to be true. So what I'm most proud of is, although this was developed for a group of working mothers, it grew to include an empty nester, it also grew to include a single 40-year-old, and even a veteran shifting its career. We've proved success not only for those individuals, but success for the business. So I'll leave you with this. Work as we know it is broken.

Gen Z can help us fix it, but it will take all of us to make it happen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was Amanda Schneider speaking at TEDxFargo in 2024. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian

Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar, and Tonsika Sarmarnivon. It was mixed by Christopher Fazy-Bogan, additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balarezzo. I'm Elise Huw. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. This episode is sponsored by Edward Jones. You know, as I talk about these big ideas that shape our world, I sometimes think about the decisions that have impact on our daily lives like financial decisions. That's where Edward Jones comes in. Earning money is great, but true fulfillment in life isn't just about growing your wealth.

It's about using your resources to achieve your personal goals. And Edward Jones gets this. Their advisors take time to understand you as an individual. They build trusted relationships to help you develop strategies that align with your unique goals. What's special about Edward Jones is their holistic approach. They see financial health as a key part of overall wellness, just as important as physical or mental well-being.

It's not about chasing dollars, it's about finding balance and perspective in your financial life. That's something anyone should be able to achieve. Ready to approach your finances with a fresh perspective? Learn more at edwardjones.ca. Money's a thing, but it's not everything. This episode is sponsored by Audible Canada. If you loved The Hunger Games or the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, get ready, because the games are about to get even bigger.

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