--- title: '‘Too Lazy, Too Sensitive’: What Employers Actually Say About Gen Z' description: Some hiring managers say they avoid younger workers because recent college graduates aren’t prepared for the workforce. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 499 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Kaitlin Mulhere role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/kaitlin-mulhere/ bio: Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com. Since joining in 2015, she’s written and edited about a variety of personal finance topics, including banks, credit, student debt, saving strategies and more. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2015 articles: 217 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/KMulhere - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaitlin-mulhere-64503048/ published: '2025-09-16T15:45:22.000Z' section: Career Advice word_count: 517 canonical: https://money.com/hiring-managers-gen-z/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo collage of a young man in an office, throwing a paper airplane, and an older man speaking into a megaphone next to him](https://img.money.com/2025/01/News-Managers-Say-GenZ-Workers-Entitled-Lazy.jpg) A recent survey finds that hiring managers often don’t look favorably at recent college graduates, suggesting that Gen Zers face an uphill battle when it comes to landing their first job after graduation. Roughly 1 in 4 hiring managers say that recent grads aren’t prepared for the workforce, according to a [recent survey](https://www.intelligent.com/1-in-4-hiring-managers-say-recent-grads-are-unprepared-for-the-workforce-many-plan-to-avoid-hiring-them-in-2025/) from the education publisher Intelligent. An even larger share of hiring managers said that recent grads lack work ethic (33%), are entitled (29%) and are too easily offended (27%). Some 17% said recent grads are lazy. Not even a decade ago, these complaints were lodged almost verbatim [at millennials](https://www.axios.com/2018/03/09/millennials-a-tale-of-two-generations). Now it’s Gen Zers, commonly defined as those born between 1997 and 2012, who are getting criticized in the workplace. ## Expand your network and your career with the help of a Job Search Site ### Job Search Sites allow you to put your resume out there for tons of companies and potential employers to see. Click your state to begin networking today! [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/u4fa93008842?ap_referrer=%2Fhiring-managers-gen-z%2F) The purported issues with recent grads have led 12% of companies with entry-level openings to avoid younger workers and prioritize older candidates, Intelligent said. “Instead of avoiding recent college grads entirely based on biases and stereotypes, hiring managers need to adopt more proactive and nuanced approaches to identifying promising candidates,” Huy Nguyen, Intelligent’s chief education and career advisor, said in a statement. The bias could be one of the reasons why recent graduates and younger workers have disproportionately high unemployment rates. According to [data](https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market#--:explore:unemployment) from the New York Federal Reserve, the unemployment rate for recent grads is 5.3% compared to 2.5% for all college grads and 4% for all workers. Young workers in general, aged 22 to 27, have an unemployment rate of 6.7%. ## Isn’t that age discrimination? In most cases, companies can legally avoid hiring recent grads if they choose to. When that phrase is a code for younger workers, that’s when it gets complicated. Federally, there are legal protections for age-based discrimination for workers 40 and older, according to the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)](https://www.eeoc.gov/youth/age-discrimination). But there are no explicit federal rules keeping them from discriminating against workers younger than that on the basis of their age. However, at least a dozen states — including Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New York and others — have extended employment protections to younger workers, in essence banning age discrimination across the board in the workplace. But in most places in the U.S., workers under 40 won’t enjoy those same rights. Nguyen recommends recent grads and younger workers should prepare for that reality. “Be aware of the negative perceptions and biases,” he said, and that means doing some extra legwork [before the interview](https://money.com/how-to-prepare-for-an-interview/), in some cases, to know how to stand out from your peers and win over hiring managers. In Intelligent’s survey, managers especially railed against specific quirks during the interview stage, such as not making eye contact, dressing inappropriately, [requesting “unreasonable compensation”](https://money.com/young-worker-salary-expectations/) and — the mother of all interview faux pas — bringing a parent. “By understanding what frustrates managers the most and taking an intentional approach to interviewing,” Nguyen said, “candidates can increase their chances of making a good impression and standing out.” ## ZipRecruiter actively helps connect people to their next great opportunity ### Apply to jobs anytime, anywhere and get notified instantly when your application is reviewed. Click below to start searching for your new job today! [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/t317b961d1c1?ap_referrer=%2Fhiring-managers-gen-z%2F) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/27719/medium_9633d36b-648e-4420-a12e-40662257d5b5.jpg) Find a great job match with ZipRecruiter [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/qca8f5a853ec?ap_referrer=%2Fhiring-managers-gen-z%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/hiring-managers-gen-z/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Job Interview", "item": "https://money.com/job-interview/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "‘Too Lazy, Too Sensitive’: What Employers Actually Say About Gen Z" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/hiring-managers-gen-z/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/hiring-managers-gen-z/", "name": "‘Too Lazy, Too Sensitive’: What Employers Actually Say About Gen Z", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2025-09-16T15:45:22.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/hiring-managers-gen-z/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/hiring-managers-gen-z/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "‘Too Lazy, Too Sensitive’: What Employers Actually Say About Gen Z", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2025/01/News-Managers-Say-GenZ-Workers-Entitled-Lazy.jpg", "width": 1152, "height": 768, "caption": "News-Managers-Say-GenZ-Workers-Entitled-Lazy" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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