The way the younger generation works is quickly changing - and not everyone thinks it's a good thing. Photo/Getty Images.
The way the younger generation works is quickly changing - and not everyone thinks it's a good thing. Photo/Getty Images.
The latest edition in our ongoing series, made possible by MYOB, pits two familiar foes against each other as they discuss the future of work.
"Give graduates a chance" that's the message from the nation's newest batch of graduates as they retire their pencils for the last time and preparethemselves for a new test, the Kiwi job market.
Of the hundreds of students gathered around Shadows, the University of Auckland's student bar (they cringe at the terms millennials, Gen Zs or anything else their academic peers have dreamt up) there are mixed emotions about their future in the labour force. Principal among their fears were uncompetitive wages, student debt, job security and resentment from their older colleagues.
"One of the ways that we're seen, the younger generations is that we're just [at work] to get extra cash. Then older people it's like 'oh they're here to make a living'. That's not the case, we're there to earn a living too, as young as we are," says Veronica Sen'oui.
"We have all the financial debt building up so we can't afford to buy homes, it's a complete contrast to what they [baby boomers] experienced. When I was looking for jobs, it was extremely competitive, and the wages. They just weren't," says David Anamosa, a post-graduate millennial studying finance.
They are concerns that sound a wolf whistle for the Kiwi workforce's outgoing incumbents, including the likes of veteran shock-jock Leighton Smith, who has been known to deploy the taboo phrase "millennial" to masterful effect when describing his younger colleagues to his thousands of daily listeners.
Smith, celebrating his 45th year on the air at Newstalk ZB, will retire in December, but his criticisms of future generations aren't unique to him. What gets on Smith's goat is the lack of patience and level of presumptuousness of the incoming generation.
"Millennials when they arrive, there is a lot of enthusiasm. A lot of over expectation. I mean you've still got to put your time in even though you've walked out with a qualification of some kind".
David Anamosa, left, and Marius Salzmann share their views on the future of the workforce. Photo/file.
Taking pot shots at the next generation is in vogue globally. Australian millionaire and property mogul Tim Gurner famously won headlines last year when he regaled his first home buying experience to 60 Minutes. "When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn't buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each," said Gurner.
There wasn't a smashed avocado on toast in sight at the University of Auckland's Quad food court. The students we interviewed were knocking back $3.99 cartons of deep-fried Mr Chips.
The students don't just have culinary deponents of that stereotype. Academic research cited by University of Auckland professor Elizabeth George is on their side as well. She's studied the economic trajectory of millennials and says it turns out, the demonised generation of skinny jeans and exhausted disposable income may in actual fact be no more impatient or disloyal than their predecessors. As for their scepticism of the corporate environment? Turns out it may be justifiable.
"There was an organisation who asked me to give them a talk about managing millennials. I went and very seriously looked up research over like 50 years to see what do we know about these differences. It's inconclusive.
"Every generation is a product of whatever they grew up in. So the current generation grew up in economic turmoil, their parents were in jobs that potentially were being outsourced and so on. They've dealt with sort of the infidelity of organisations. Why would they be attached?"
Newstalk ZB broadcaster Leighton Smith has strong opinions about millennial workers. Photo/File.
It's a sentiment echoed by student David Amamose. "They [companies] don't really offer the benefits they did. Why would I stay with a company, when I can just jump on another one for more money? I want to get the highest paying job that I can."
The next generation is entering a New Zealand where both wages and housing affordability are amongst the worst in the OECD and while they're issues that government strategies such as minimum wage increases and KiwiBuild are designed to target, George concedes there is no quick fix.
It's an argument even Smith is willing to entertain, agreeing that he may have been no more judicious than the current generation. He even goes right up to the line of conceding the fact the next generation may have it tougher.
"Will I have more job security than others? Well that's a tough one. Was I frugal in my earlier years? No. No, I wasn't. I always had the belief that I was never going to have a problem with money. That while I was short of it plenty of times, I was never concerned about the future."
It seems what breeds most of the resentment from Smith and his sympathisers is that this generation seems to bear little understanding of the trials and tribulations of their generation. Car-less days and record high interest rates for example.
"Let me give you an example of what does drive me nuts. There was an editor of a newspaper in Australia who gave millennials a test. Their knowledge of important matters was minimal. Politicians, events in history etc. Their knowledge of movie stars and social media was phenomenal and I think that frustrates a lot of us."
The next generation hypothesises that in some way Baby Boomers' concerns are related to a fear of missing out on their share of complaints. Millennials label that #FOMO.
The likelihood of Smith and his followers butting heads with millennials in the workplace is less likely than it once was. He hands over the microphone at the end of the year along side thousands more retiring Baby Boomers. But his loyalists will stay tuned, the radio mogul will unveil a podcast in early January. The next generation concedes he may even garner some new young listeners on his all-digital platform as both stand eager to debate the merits of who has and will have it worst.
Despite potential followers of the next generation at stake, Smith won't change his stance on them. When asked if he thought the road could be made a little smoother for millennials, he retorts "I don't think the playing field needs to be levelled. I think it is a case of adjusting to whatever exists at any given time."
For their part, it seems the next generation of Kiwi workers aren't asking for anything too outlandish of their forbears.
"If I'm starting off in a job, just knowing that they're patient helps," says Grace Richardson.
