What Gen Z need from work

Gen Z have been shaped by recessions, the pandemic, geopolitical instability, not to mention financial insecurity and world changing technology. That's the finding of the Edelman Gen Z Lab as told to me by the leader of the project Jackie Cooper. Most powerfully she explains that Gen Z's have a ' visceral need for safety' - that's financial, social, cultural and even physical. They respond to fear by asking questions and wanting to be heard , which older generations often misread as entitlement or disrespect for hierarchy. Politically, Gen Z is fragmented . Younger Gen Zs, especially boys/young men , are leaning more conservative and drawn to strong-man archetypes; older Gen Zs, shaped by Obama / BLM, are more idealistic about progressive politics. Algorithms and “TikTok-isation” amplify those splits. I was blown away to see Jackie Cooper from Edelman talk about the research that the company has done to understand the new generation of workers entering the workplace - I think you'll love this discussion. You can read the report here Full transcript on the website. Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website . Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to What Gen Z need from work online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

What Gen Z need from work is an episode from Eat Sleep Work Repeat by Bruce Daisley.

This episode is 38:38 long.

This episode was published on Nov 25, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Eat Sleep Work Repeat when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.