Tomorrow’s Talent: What does Gen Z really want from work?

ASHLAND — During her internship at Priest Dental in Ashland, Chloe Ediger has sterilized equipment, observed dental work and administered stitches to patients.

Ediger, a senior at Ashland High School, said the internship served as a critical part of setting her goals for the future.

She heads to the University of Cincinnati in the fall, where she will study to become a dental hygienist. Still, it wasn’t Ediger’s first choice for a career path. 

In fact, she said she wanted to be a farm vet for years. But after a job shadowing opportunity in that field during her junior year, Ediger realized it wouldn’t be a good fit for her. 

It would’ve required years of schooling.

Veterinarians need to earn a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from an accredited college, which typically takes four years on top of a bachelor’s degree. Not to mention, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a veterinarian has to work full-time and then some, responding to emergencies outside of a regular work day.

But Ediger wants to start a family.

As a dental hygienist, she said schooling requirements would be shorter, and she’d have more flexible hours. Both will be positives for her when it comes to becoming a mom someday.

“I really wanted to be a farm vet, but, I don’t know, with the school and the job — it just really didn’t fit the bigger picture,” Ediger said. 

Without the internship and job shadowing experiences she had in high school, Ediger said she would’ve made a “mistake” by going to school pre-vet. 

Instead, she found out she loved her work at the dentist’s office. It made things “click,” she said.

She knows what the future will hold for her. She feels confident that with good grades in college, she’ll end up in a job she’ll enjoy. 

Ediger’s story illustrates multiple factors local Gen Z students listed as priorities when they think about the future: work-life balance, opportunities to learn and grow, relationships and job security.

What do today’s high school students want from a career?

Source Media Properties surveyed 1,140 area high school students this spring, asking them to share their perspectives on college, careers and workforce readiness.  

Students were asked to rank how important various aspects of a future career were on a scale of one to four, with one being not important and four being extremely important. 

We averaged these values together to determine which factors were most important, on average, to local teens.

The survey revealed today’s emerging workforce still values many of the same things as their predecessors.

The majority of respondents ranked factors like salary, positive relationships with co-workers and benefits like retirement and health insurance as “very” or “extremely” important. All of these items received an average score of 3.12 or higher.

But the most important factor for teens was work-life balance, with an average score of 3.34. Students also placed a high value on opportunities to learn and grow, with an average score of 3.23.

We’ve included the full list of factors, plus their average rankings, in the graphics below.

While some factors garnered higher averages than others, all of them earned a median score of three — with two exceptions. Work-life balance had a median score of 4, while working from home had a median score of 2.

Work-life balance crucial for Gen Z workers

Nevertheless, there are differences between the way Gen Z and older generations perceive work.

Vicky Kothari, a retired lawyer and accountant, dove into these differences during a recent workshop on leading a cross-generational workforce.

Kothari led a presentation from Skillpath for members of the Knox County Chamber of Commerce.

She spoke with attendees about misconceptions employers have about Gen Z, from their job-hopping tendencies to relationships with co-workers. 

According to Kothari, Gen Z are hard-working, but tend to be less willing to work overtime. They value work-life balance more than the appearance of being a hard worker.

This theme also emerged during in-person conversations with students from Mansfield Senior and Ashland High School. Many voiced frustration that their emphasis on work-life balance and mental health is often misinterpreted by adults. 

“I feel like a lot of people see that as lazy when you take breaks from school,” said Olyvia Marshall, a senior at Mansfield. 

“To get through life, you have to have a really good work and life balance. If you can’t sustain both, you’re not going to make it anywhere. You’re not going to be happy and that’s not really success.”

Multiple students said they think the stereotype of the lazy Gen Zer exists in part because every generation tends to have a negative perception of youth.

“I’ve heard a million times, ‘Gen Z is so lazy. They want everything handed to them.’ I think I have as much of a drive as anybody, if not more,” senior Brandon Polak of Mansfield said. 

“There’s definitely people that are like that in Gen Z, but I think you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t say that every other generation that has come before us has had those exact same people.”

Experts say Gen Z employees value respect

Kothari also emphasized younger generations have developed different values than older ones regarding the way they want to be treated at work.

Older generations, she said, may have stuck it out in jobs even when they faced challenges like gender bias or toxic work environments. Gen Z, though, has less tolerance for that type of behavior, Kothari said. 

I think Gen Z is really coming to a consensus about some social norms they don’t think are right.

Michael Seveigny, Jr., mansfield Senior high School Senior

In the past, Kothari said there was a cost to job-hopping. There still can be. According to reporting from the New York Times, hiring managers still view it as a concern when they evaluate new resumes.

But, for Gen Z, employment is likely to still be achievable without it. At the end of March, U.S. Bank states there were 8.5 million job openings, while only 6.5 million people were unemployed. That means there are more jobs available than there are employees to fill them.

To keep employees, Kothari said, employers have to meet their needs. That includes making them feel respected, valued and offering them some control. 

Those insights Kothari offered about Gen Z tracked with students’ opinions, too.  

Senior Michael Seveigny Jr., of Mansfield Senior, summed up Gen Z’s expectations for employers as mutual respect. He and other peers questioned the reasoning behind offering a two weeks’ notice before quitting a job. 

“If you’re not a good boss, you’re not going to have good employees,” he said. “If you expect a two weeks’ notice, why don’t you give a two weeks’ firing notice?

“I think Gen Z is really coming to a consensus about some social norms that they don’t think are right.”

Jacob Grove, director of career-technical education at Madison Comprehensive High School, said Gen Z may have different values, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t hard workers.

At Madison, more than 70 career tech students left school on work release. It’s a program that allows career tech students to get academic credit for working at least 15 hours a week in their field of study.

Together, they’d worked more than 40,000 hours by April of the 2023-2024 school year.

“Kids are different. Generations are different and that’s okay,” Grove said. “That’s ok to have a different mindset and still get things done and still be serious. It doesn’t mean that kids aren’t smart or kids aren’t willing to work.”