11 Things Gen Z Thinks Are Unfair That Are Just Part Of Normal Life
If anyone told you like would be fair, they were definitely lying.
Lightfactory / Shutterstock Gen Z lands between 13 years old and 28 years old, which puts them in a prime position to decide who they are and what they value. Above all else, Gen Z doesn’t want to be put into boxes, assigned by someone else. They want to define their own identities and they have high expectations around what they want their lives to look like.
Whether they’re starting middle school or settling into the workforce, Gen Z are facing some of the world’s harder realities. There are many things Gen Z thinks are unfair that are just part of normal life, but that doesn’t stop them from challenging the status quo and expecting to be taken seriously.
Here are 11 things Gen Z thinks are unfair that are just part of normal life
1. Entry-level jobs that require experience
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Gen Z has a hard time accepting that entry-level jobs ask for a certain level of experience. They think that requirement is wholly unfair, yet for every other generation, it was just part of normal life. Yet Gen Z’s assessment might not be wrong, especially since it seems to be getting more extreme.
According to Peter Cappelli, a professor at Wharton Business School, this hiring trend reflects how companies see their employees: Not as people, but as a means to an end.
“Everybody wants to hire somebody with three years’ experience, and nobody wants to give them three years’ experience,” he said. “We’re not helping people learn how to get proficient in their jobs, and for sure we’re not helping them develop.”
“If you don’t have entry-level jobs where people are going to be trained, or you expect them to just know what they’re doing when they walk in, then it’s super hard for people who are leaving college to get jobs,” he explained.
“The simple answer is to try to get something that looks like experience,” Cappelli advised. “What you are trying to do is persuade hiring managers that you have already done what their job requires.”
It might seem unfair, but volunteering or landing an unpaid internship are often the best ways for younger workers to get their foot in the door and prove their professional worth.
2. Having to take jobs they’re not passionate about
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Gen Z walks a fine line between being practical and hopeful, which impacts their perspective on what it means to work. According to research from Deloitte, Gen Z places less emphasis on salary than other generations. When asked if they’d rather have a high-paying but boring job versus a more interesting job that paid less, Gen Z’s responses were fairly evenly split.
Gen Z thinks that being expected to commit to a job they don’t feel passionate about is unfair, but really, it’s just part of normal life. The mundane nature of working a 9-to-5 job isn't easy to swallow, as Gen Z is quickly learning. Yet not everything in life will align with your passions, and in some ways, that has to be okay. A major part of adulthood involves doing things you don’t actually want to do. It might not be fair, but it’s how normal life works.
3. How different their parents’ values are from theirs
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Gen Z thinks it’s unfair that their parents don’t automatically accept their values, yet that divide is just part of normal life. As psychology professor Dr. Jean Twenge shared on the “Where Parents Talk” podcast, the generational divide is nothing new, yet there’s so much older generations and younger generations can learn from each other.
“There’s a tendency for younger people to say, ‘oh, you know, older people, whatever, we’ve moved on, we don’t need to know their perspective,’” she said. “Yeah, you do. Because there’s wisdom in every generation. And it’s better if we try to understand where each is coming from.“
“There’s absolutely that opportunity for us, of all ages of all generations, to learn about each other, and understand each other’s perspectives, through empathy, through understanding, through listening,” she explained.
Dr. Twenge advised young people “to just take a step back and realize, this person you’re talking to, they grew up in a different time, and ask what that was like. Even a five minute conversation can really expand your understanding.”
4. Friendships don’t always last
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As hard as it is to accept, friendships aren’t always made to last. Gen Z thinks this social reality is unfair, when really, it’s just part of normal life. For all that they’ve experienced, Gen Z are still young, which means they’re still learning what it means to be in relationships with other people.
“People are dynamic, not static, and our needs and abilities shift over time,” counselor and professor Suzanne Degges-White revealed.
“We only have so much ‘social capacity’ to commit to friendships, so it’s totally natural that less close, less rewarding, or more labor-intensive friendships may lose their intensity or value,” she explained. “It’s part of the process of human development and human limits.”
It might hurt and it certainly isn’t easy, but letting go of friendships that no longer serve us creates space for us to find new, fulfilling friendships.
5. The need to network for professional opportunities
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Gen Z thinks there’s too much emphasis put on personal connections when it comes to finding a job, yet networking has always been part of normal life. The impact of networking isn’t necessarily fair, but it is part of the professional status quo, and the more Gen Z leans into it, the more successful they’ll be.
According to networking expert Jean Evans, being digitally fluent provides Gen Z with some major advantages, but that trait can also make in-person networking feel overwhelming for them. She shared that Gen Z can leverage their social media skills and “engage with thought leaders, industry experts, and companies you admire,” along with sharing “your thoughts, insights, and experiences to establish your personal brand and expertise.”
Still, some IRL networking experience is necessary to make connections, and Evans advised attending workshops and seminars, joining professional organizations, and finding a mentor.
“Building genuine relationships with people who share your interests and values will be more beneficial in the long run,” Evans concluded.
6. Scheduling appointments over the phone
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For all their tech-savviness, Gen Z is seriously phone-avoidant. They think it’s unfair that they’re expected to actually pick up the phone and place a call to schedule necessary appointments. In their ideal world, every human interaction would be whittled down to a quick text, but that’s not how the real world works.
Even though it seems inefficient to them, calling to schedule appointments is a normal part of life. The enduring presence of iPhones has absolutely streamlined certain things in our lives, but sometimes, we still have to listen to someone else’s voice and use our own, as much as Gen Z doesn’t want to.
7. Working 40 hours a week
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Gen Z thinks that working 40 hours a week is unfair, even though it’s just part of normal life. Yet Gen Z makes up more of the workforce than they once did, and their shifting values could have a major impact on the way work gets done.
More than 75% of workers said they could complete their workload in four days instead of five, but most U.S. employers are still hesitant to actually put that change into action. Gen Z prioritizes flexibility more than anything else. Almost one-third of Gen Z workers said they feel most inspired in the early morning or later in the evening, outside of the traditional 9-to-5 workday.
8. Change happens slowly
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As a digitally fluent generation, Gen Z wants fast results in everything they do. They’re the most diverse generation yet, and their political and social ideals reflect how much they want the world to change. They expect those changes to be immediate, and they think it’s unfair that the rest of the world hasn’t caught up with their perspective.
Stanford University research scholar Roberta Katz described a typical Gen Zer as “a self-driver who deeply cares about others, strives for a diverse community, is highly collaborative and social, values flexibility, relevance, authenticity and non-hierarchical leadership.”
“Younger people are necessarily future-oriented, and as we all are increasingly coming to appreciate, the digital-age future is quite different from the industrial-age past,” she explained.
She offered her personal perspective on Gen Z, noting that “they often do things differently, have some different values and have some different ideas about the future than I do, and I have come to appreciate and trust that they often have a new and better approach.”
9. Emotional closure isn’t always guaranteed
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Ghosting might be more socially acceptable than it once was, but it’s still a painful experience, one that leaves people searching for answers and wondering what they did wrong. As much as someone wants closure, they won’t always get it. It might seem unfair, but it’s just part of normal life.
In their still-young lives, Gen Z has yet to come to terms with the fact that emotional closure isn’t a guarantee, no matter how many times they ask their ex for some form of justification. Once they realize that closure is essentially a myth, they’ll feel more at peace.
As psychologist Dr. Abby Medcalf revealed, “This is the secret to understanding and getting closure: It’s about working on yourself, not the other person. It’s about focusing on your own healing and growth as opposed to obsessing about the other person.”
10. Relationships often mean compromising
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It’s not necessarily fair, but compromising in relationships is just part of normal life. There’s no such thing as a perfect partner. Making the decision to build a life with someone else means accepting their imperfections, along with your own.
As important as it is to express your needs directly and expect them to be met, the truth is, no one person can meet every single one of our needs. At the end of the day, relationships are about giving and taking, and there’s bound to be some imbalance between those two things.
11. Life being unpredictable
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The world is an uncertain place, which isn’t fair, but it’s just part of normal life. Nothing is ever predictable, as much as we might wish it were. The truth is, stability isn’t something we can ever depend on. There are so many factors that make up our lives, and all of them are always shifting, in one way or another.
As the saying goes, change is the only constant. Gen Z might think the world’s larger instabilities are unfair, but learning to navigate them is part of normal life.
Alexandra Blogier, MFA, is a staff writer who covers psychology, social issues, relationships, self-help topics, and human interest stories.