Our children: We provide love, comfort, security and boundaries – and get sloppy kisses and sticky fingerprints in return. This may or may not change as they grow up.
Then, as a more obvious example of a transactional relationship, you have bosses and employees.
The boss provides the training and equipment necessary to do a job and earns profit from the worker’s labour. The worker completes the tasks required of them in exchange for payment.
Transactional. Literally.
And this type of relationship has only grown more transactional in modern times.
Young people are seemingly expecting more of their employers and workplaces than the older generations did – to the utter disgust of some older folk.
“Entitled” goes the refrain. “They expect everything handed to them on a silver platter.”
Take a recent viral video, for example.
Australian real estate auctioneer Tom Panos claimed on TikTok that he was interviewing an inexperienced man, aged in his early 20s, for a job in one of his real estate teams, but ended the interview after 12 minutes because of the questions the young man had asked.
“[The man] asked me what commissions he’d be paid, asked me what hours he’s expected to be there, asked me what days he’d have off during the week, and then went on to say — this is the one, this is the question — ‘give me three reasons why I should pick this employer versus someone else’.”
Panos continued, “I just said to the guy, ‘I can’t think of one’. I said, ‘Mate, let’s just finish this off — this is not for you, this is not for me, this is not for us’.”
The auctioneer also had a caption on his video: “Getting sick of these punks”.
The reaction to Panos’s video has been interesting, to say the least.
“Entitled” is right up there, of course. As always. We can’t talk about young people without sprinkling a few “entitleds” in. And “arrogant”, “unrealistic” and “dodged a bullet”.
But there has also been interesting discourse asking why some found the questioning so offensive, particularly the “give me three reasons why I should pick this employer” line.
Attitude aside – because let’s face it, we’re only hearing Panos’ side of the story – what is so wrong about asking an employer to sell themselves to a prospective employee?
Bosses want good employees, workers want good employers. Why shouldn’t both parties ask the other to prove their worth?
The youngest millennials and oldest Gen Zers came of age during the Great Recession.
Their parents and grandparents were in danger of losing the positions they’d spent their entire working lives investing their blood, sweat and tears into.
Those who did lose their jobs, especially those nearer retirement age, struggled to find another job, let alone one that paid anywhere near as well as their previous employment. Their hard-earned experience was often treated as more of a liability than an asset as younger people were usually cheaper to hire and perceived as more adaptable.
That’s the environment these young folk came of age in.
They know that loyalty and hard work don’t necessarily pay off, that jobs come and go with the turning of the tides, and that the only people who will advocate for them are themselves.
They know their jobs are unlikely to be there forever.
So, they approach the job market with that in mind. Get the best deal, stay long enough to gain experience, and then move on when a better deal arises.
Transactional.
In fact, these Gen Zers might be smarter than many give them credit for.
There is a train of thought that suggests staying in a job longer than two years is going to result in you earning about 50 per cent less over your lifetime.
From what I’ve read, that’s because you’re more likely to be successful in negotiating a higher starting salary than a pay rise.
These young people know all this information. It’s shared all over the internet – that’s where I read it, too. And they use it to their advantage.
Sell me the job, that young person said. Tell me why I should work here instead of somewhere else.
I have options. I am free to move on if I don’t like a job. I know my worth, even if you think I’m entitled or arrogant. There are other jobs out there and I don’t need to take the first one that’s offered to me.
Oh, to have that kind of courage and self-belief.
All power to them, I say. They have every right to aim for the stars. And bosses have every right not to like it.
But these people are our future.
Their way will eventually become our way – until the next generation comes of age and shakes things up even more.
- Sonya Bateson is a writer, reader, and crafter raising her family in Tauranga. She is a Millennial who enjoys eating avocado on toast, drinking lattes and defying stereotypes. As a sceptic, she reserves the right to change her mind when presented with new evidence.
