A business owner asked older managers to treat her Gen Z staff better after witnessing two young workers burst into tears while at work.
Sunshine Coast local Rachel Lynch witnessed older bosses reprimanding younger workers for minor mistakes on two separate occasions.
A cafe boss left a staff member in tears after shouting at him for forgetting an order, while another manager left a worker in tears after messing up the order.
Lynch shared her experience on TikTok on May 24, stating that older bosses didn’t seem to be working well with Gen Z Australians.
He asked his followers if the incidents were just a “Sunny Coast thing” or a “generational thing”.
Many argued that Generation Z was too soft and needed to toughen up, while others claimed that older managers should be more patient with staff.
Sunshine Coast business owner Rachel Lynch has shared a video about the generational issue facing the workforce between older managers and younger Gen Z workers.
In the first incident, Lynch went to a cafe and was served by a young woman who took her order for a ham and cheese baguette on May 24.
While waiting 15 minutes for her food, Lynch said she overheard the young worker reveal to other customers that she had forgotten her order.
“He comes in and tells his boss that he already forgot the order they gave him outside,” Lynch said.
Then the door closes, as if that will help. It’s an old Queensland building, we can hear everything.
Then he starts yelling at her: “You can’t keep forgetting orders, you can’t do this.” “He’s screaming, she’s obviously panicking and starts crying.”
Lynch said the manager was not overly aggressive and he was justified in feeling frustrated, but he believed the confrontation was unnecessary.
He added that the boss’s reaction did not solve the problem.
In another incident that occurred a few months ago, Lynch said he saw a “kid” crying and about to have a panic attack because he had messed up the order.
Lynch said the manager, who she believed was somewhere between “old millennial and boomer” in age, was “pretty explicit in his outrage.”
“It wasn’t in an aggressive way where people had to intervene… but it was loud enough that everyone in the restaurant could hear,” Lynch said.
Lynch, who runs Dog and Gun Coffee, said older managers need to learn how to better support the “more fragile” Gen Z workers.
He described the generational divide as an “intense relationship” in which both parties approach criticism differently.
‘It’s like this intense relationship between older managers and business owners and their younger staff. “You hire young staff because you don’t want to pay a lot, I understand, business is difficult,” said Mrs. Lynch.
‘But it is necessary to learn to work with younger people, especially with different generations.
‘Generation Z is softer, more fragile and wants to work more collaboratively. “You can’t just yell at them, that doesn’t help them.”
Ms Lynch explained that she saw, on two occasions, an older manager yelling at a much younger member of staff. She added that boomers need to learn not to shout, as that doesn’t solve problems and doesn’t work with the “more fragile” Gen Z workers.
Lynch said the environment boomers experienced when they were young and at work wouldn’t necessarily work for Gen Z Australians starting their careers.
He noted that yelling at Gen Z workers could leave them “heartbroken.”
“When one boomer yelled at another boomer, they would pull up their socks, move on and say, ‘I’ll show them I’ll work harder than ever,'” Ms. Lynch said.
The video sparked fierce debate among social media users, with many arguing that Gen Z workers had “rights” and needed to toughen up.
“I’m an elderly millennial manager with a lot of Gen Z staff – they’re a terrible entitled generation with no work ethic or common sense,” one person wrote.
“Gen Z has an unwarranted sense of entitlement and gets angry when people criticize them,” a second person commented.
A third added: “The young generation needs to take a teaspoon of cement and harden it.”
Others claimed that older managers should never yell at their staff, even if that’s what they learned when they were younger.
‘You are both wrong. bBusiness practice should not be to remember everything and you should never yell at employees,” one person commented.
‘It’s employers’ job to give their staff the tools to do the job properly – literally, just give them a pen and a pad. “Yelling at staff is totally unprofessional/unacceptable,” a second person wrote.
‘I remember being young and also lacking resilience and crying at work over stupid things. I think it just takes time to build trust! Not necessarily a gen thing,’ a third person chimed in.
A fourth added: ‘I agree with what you’re saying. That managers shouldn’t yell at people, but they shouldn’t pander to younger people either. There was always a different way to express your point of view.’