Инаковость поколения Z на рабочем месте: поведенческие и ценностные особенности в глазах работодателей

Мониторинг общественного мнения: Экономические и социальные перемены. 2026. № 2. С. 24–45.

Chernysheva N., Петрова А. Д.

This article examines employers’ perceptions of the behavioral and value-based characteristics of Generation Z employees. The focus is on interpretations of youth “otherness” articulated by managers across various employment sectors. The study is grounded in a qualitative methodological framework and draws on empirical data from 20 in-depth interviews with employers from the manufacturing, socio-cultural, service, and high-tech sectors of Saint Petersburg’s economy. The analysis was conducted using thematic coding. Findings show that employers most frequently express Gen Z’s otherness through accounts of workplace challenges: emotional sensitivity, weak professional socialization, disruption of workplace hierarchies, and insufficient responsibility in task execution. However, employers also exhibit a willingness to interpret these traits as markers of new emotional regimes in the labor market, with Generation Z as their primary carriers. The narratives emphasize Gen Z’s idealistic expectations, especially their demands for work-life balance and rapid self-fulfillment, which often clash with employers’ institutional capacities. According to respondents, this strong idealism may contribute to labor market shortages, as Gen Z tends to reject available positions in pursuit of imagined, ideal opportunities. The study highlights the importance of considering institutional context and age-related factors when interpreting generational differences and questions the validity of universal models used to describe youth labor. Moreover, we demonstrate how the articulation of generational “otherness” fits within the conceptual framework of moral panics and serves as a means for Millennials, those closest to Gen Z, to reaffirm generational boundaries.

Keywords: рынок труда, молодежь, youth, поколение z, labor market, generation Z, межпоколенческое взаимодействие, intergenerational interaction, working modes, generation behavior, generation values, режимы работы, поведенческие характеристики поколения, ценностные характеристики поколения

Publication based on the results of: The diversity of forms, effects and barriers to integration of modern Russian society in synchronic and diachronic dimensions (2025)