[Inside Chodong] The M and Z Generations Divided by COVID-19

Recently, a survey conducted by the U.S. online job platform Resume Builder among over 1,300 corporate executives in the United States revealed that 65% of respondents ranked 'Generation Z (Z generation)' employees as the top candidates for layoffs.

Generation Z refers to young people in their early 20s born after 1997. Having grown up surrounded by smartphones and social networking services (SNS) since their formative years, this generation is often viewed by older generations as impatient, demanding their rights while shirking responsibilities, and extremely individualistic. In short, from a manager’s perspective, they are a generation that is not desirable to work with.

However, paradoxically, the evaluation of the Millennials generation, also known as the 'M generation,' which is not much older than Generation Z, is different. The M generation refers to young people born between 1981 and 1996, the generation immediately preceding Generation Z. In Resume Builder’s survey, the M generation was ranked first among the generations that U.S. executives preferred to hire over Generation Z.

Young people born from the early 1990s to the early 2000s, spanning the late M generation and early Generation Z, are not separated by a large physical age gap, yet corporate managers’ reactions to them differ significantly. What exactly is the difference between the M and Z generations, both considered individualistic, that leads to such contrasting evaluations from corporate managers?

Experts agree that the COVID-19 pandemic is the key factor that has greatly widened the gap between the M and Z generations, which are often lumped together as the MZ generation in Korea. The wave of changes that swept across society during the three years of the pandemic completely divided these two generations, despite their small age difference.

When the M generation entered adulthood and joined society, the prevailing global context was the 2008 global financial crisis. They were a generation that overcame economic downturns and unemployment to secure jobs through fierce competition, and they were the last generation to receive collective, in-person job training known as probationary training after joining a company.

In contrast, Generation Z experienced most of their university classes and post-employment job training remotely due to COVID-19. As a result, they are not accustomed to communication for work in social settings, and their lack of collaboration experience made things even more challenging. Being the first generation to receive job training remotely without time to understand the company culture or face-to-face opportunities with middle managers and seniors, there are very few superiors who understand their difficulties.

The unprecedented pandemic disrupted Generation Z’s face-to-face training, which directly led to a decline in job performance. The problem is not simply that they are less capable at work, but that communication itself is difficult, and their excessive individualism makes integration within organizations challenging?a criticism voiced worldwide. The decline in academic performance seen in elementary, middle, and high school students during the pandemic, with learning abilities dropping by more than 20%, has similarly manifested among adults.

No matter how much executives place Generation Z at the top of layoff lists, their proportion in the overall labor market will inevitably grow over time. Simply dismissing them is not a viable solution. It is essential to listen first to the difficulties they actually face in communication within organizations and to find ways to strengthen the job training they lost due to COVID-19.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.