Gen Z not afraid of criticizing supervisors

In her first month working as a content creation executive at a Ho Chi Minh City media company, Nga realized several inefficiencies in the workflow. She often received last-minute requests at 11 p.m. or midnight to complete tasks urgently by 6-7 a.m. the next morning. She was also asked to always be ready to answer calls from her supervisor, even after working hours, regardless of what she was doing when the call came.

Nga felt the disorganization of the job left no time for her personal life, so she started making suggestions to her boss on how the company work processes might be adapted.

After suggestions she made during an initial private meeting with her boss were met with no change, Nga began to be more straightforward and open in more-publicly critiquing her supervisor’s way of distributing work. Several colleagues of her age supported her.

"I wanted to save face for my boss, but then the boss viewed me as an inexperienced youngster and ignored my opinions," she said.

"That’s when I became uncomfortable and thus directly messaged in the group chat, so everyone could see that the method we were using was not okay."

Nga said she also proposed how work should be divided and how time should be managed in her messages.

In response to her suggestions, her boss retorted: "How can you demand the boss to do this and that for you at work?"

Expressing their opinions to bosses is a common approach to work among Generation Z (people born from 1997 onward) today. Almost three quarters of working respondents in this age group replied to a 2023 Adobe survey by saying they were comfortable evaluating their superiors. Some 90% were okay with critiquing colleagues, and a similar proportion was open to discussing job satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

A growing trend among Generation Z employees, born from 1997 onwards, is their comfort in openly critiquing or challenging their bosses. Illustration photo by Freepik

Another survey conducted by Fortune also pointed out that Gen Z-ers show that they are not afraid to speak up at work. Instead, they are even "brutally honest in pointing out their bosses' mistakes."

Working as a manager at a Hanoi marketing company where over 60% of employees are Generation Z, Ha Phuong, 35, said she was embarrassed when staffers she managed challenged her at meetings. She also said she had to work extra overtime because her employees refused to do so.

"Young people like to give feedback," she said. "Each of them has a distinct personality, and some among them give so much feedback that I feel embarrassed before the meeting."

"You should be like this" and "I already told you so" are some of the most common top-of-tongue sayings that young employees present to their supervisors, Phuong claimed.

"They might be right, but [they give criticism] so bluntly that I think if it were not me who tries to understand them but some other hot-tempered boss, they would definitely explode," she added.

But on the other side of staff members who critiques are at least a form of constructive criticism, there are also young employees that challenge their supervisors just for the sake of arguing. They make "every meeting tense" by "opposing the whole team’s plans based on feelings rather than any rational grounds," Phuong said.

One common response Phuong gets if she contacts members of her team outside of office hours for urgent tasks is: "It’s the weekend, why are you assigning work to me?" This reply often makes Phuong complete the tasks on her own instead of sharing them with others, simply to "avoid fights."

Ta Thi Phuoc Thanh, a business management consultant, said she received many complaints from businesses about the hardships Gen-Zers are creating for their bosses. She explained that Gen-Zers are different because they have access to various modern phenomena.

"They tend to express their personalities more frequently and more easily than in the past, as they have grown up in the Internet era," she said.

From Nga’s perspective, she asserts that her suggestions show her dedication to her profession, aiming to prevent work from being affected and to gain respect from her superiors.

"There is no reason why I spend time and effort contributing to making things at work better other than being serious and committed," she said.

She also added that those who accept things their bosses say without voicing their opinions will gradually lose respect from the bosses.

To help ease employers’ "Gen-Zers headache," Thanh notes five points that can be helpful for high-level executives in managing Gen Z employees:

First, clearly communicating work processes is necessary. Employees need superiors to understand them to be motivated in their work.

Second, specific task assignments and discussions should be issued to guarantee the efficiency of working with Gen Z employees.

Third, leaders should set good examples as young employees often imitate their leaders.

Fourth, business owners should create an open and friendly working environment. Frequent check-ups on work progress, health, and other matters are recommended to shorten the gap between bosses and employees.

And finally, avoid strict and inflexible rules.

Thanh also suggested letting young employees manage the whole department or company for a day can be a way to help them understand a supervisor’s viewpoint.

Phuong recommends thinking of ways to better connect with employees.

"If I am countered by a young employee in a meeting, I will wait until their tense emotions have gone away and then buy snacks for them and joke with them during breaks," she said. "Their reactions will soften after that."

In case of lingering dissatisfaction, Phuong said she will ask young employees to develop an alternative measure that can make results.

"Overall, don’t be too stressed and try to behave in a more tactful way."

For Gen Z-ers, it is also important to learn how to provide feedback to others while avoiding negative repercussions for themselves.

Quang Linh, 23, also spoke up directly about what he saw as unreasonable aspects of his job when he was working as a content review executive in Ho Chi Minh City. Linh said he did not like it when he had to write explanatory reports for "minor errors," something he had not been aware of before officially starting his job.

"I suggested that everyone was being too rigid, which wasn't beneficial for me or the team," he said, adding that he presented several changes for better and more stable development.

"I was questioned about my self-perception and my work experience after that."

Though his intent when giving feedback was to improve work, Linh said, it was misunderstood. His suggestions led to isolation, and he eventually resigned because he could not take it anymore.

"The takeaway is that criticism should come with solutions, instead of just pointing out problems to make others feel at fault," he concluded.