Research from Foresight Factory finds that 37% of U.K. employees ages 16 to 24 easily accept the authority of their bosses.
By Maggie Mancini
Despite concerns that Gen Z employees are less inclined towards hard work than previous generations, research from Foresight Factory finds that this cohort in the United Kingdom still easily accepts the authority of their bosses and considers their work as a core part of their identity at higher levels than Americans of the same age.
The proportion of Americans ages 16 to 24 who easily accept the authority of their boss has declined significantly between 2016 and 2023, from 45% to 30%. And the proportion who reject outright the authority of their bosses has increased from 7% to 17% at the same time.
Foresight Factory does not see such a dramatic change or negative sentiment toward bosses in any other age group or market, although the trend is reflected elsewhere: Chinese Gen Z employees (38%) are also 6% less likely than the global average to say they accept the authority of their bosses easily.
However, Gen Z is not the same across the world—far from it. In the U.K., Gen Z workers ages 16 to 24 are significantly more likely than Americans of the same age to accept the authority of their bosses. The proportion of young British people who do so has risen from 33% in 2016 to 37% in 2023.
In addition, a relatively high proportion of European Gen Z workers view their bosses as authority figures: 66% in Sweden, 50% in Germany, and 47% in France.
Contrary to reports that have suggested young employees are simply working for their pay, their career is an important part of Gen Z identity in the U.K. British workers ages 16 to 24 are more likely to say their job is important to their personal identity (28%) than Brits over 45 years old (15%).
When it comes to return-to-office mandates, British Gen Z employees are more likely than older workers (59% versus 25% of baby boomers) to say they enjoy working from home and have everything they need to do it easily. One-quarter (25%) of Gen Z employees say they expect to work from home more in the next 12 months than they did pre-pandemic, compared to 18% of Gen X and 4% of baby boomers.
