What do Generations Z and Y want from a job: money or well-being?

Do a mental exercise before you start reading this text: what do you look for in a job, regardless of your profession? A good salary? Well-being? Flexible hours? Stability? Your choices say a lot about which generation you belong to.

This is because millennials and centennials have very different ambitions when it comes to employment. Just as, before them, Gen X and boomers had other priorities.

And now, these people from Generations Z and Y want other things for a work environment. They are redefining the market's priorities and expectations and, in doing so, can cause significant changes in it.

What do Generation Y millennials want?

People born between 1980 and 1994 can be considered part of Generation Y and are better known as millennials. These people want a job that allows them to balance their personal life (family, friends, hobbies and courses that can improve their professional life). Precisely for this reason, they like to have more flexible schedules.

The researcher Pompílio Arthur de Faria Rosa, from Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), carried out this survey. According to the research he did for his master's degree, these people even tend to give up higher positions if it takes away their personal time.

They also seek feedback on their actions, to receive more constant recognition. And, because they were born and raised in a time of total technological innovation and process revolution of our daily lives, they want to work in companies that innovate and have interesting and challenging.

What do Gen Z centennials want?

On the other side, there are the centennials of Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010. Their experience is already completely different from that of millennials. For them, seeking information in analogue media is almost like a trial by fire – after all, they lived little of this time.

For them, it doesn't make that much sense to stop looking for an answer on Google and read it in an old, dusty book at the top of the living room shelf. This has an impact on the type of work they want.

Just like Gen Y, they also prefer flexibility at work and like (much more than millennials) home office. According to consultancies McKinsey and Box1824, they also tend to choose companies and jobs with a strong appeal to social and sustainable causes.

They also prefer work environments that exchange ideas and encourage professional development and innovation. Centennials also tend to be much more empathetic towards others and do not tend to stay in the same job for long.

On the other hand, they demonstrate a very low tolerance for frustration.

How will this impact the job market?

In fact, it has already had an impact. The search, mainly, for flexible hours has led large companies to reevaluate their work processes. Even because millennials and centennials, together, are the majority in the job market.

With this, companies seek to offer a more innovative, transparent and authentic environment to retain these talents. Furthermore, especially when it comes to people from Generation Z, companies strive to offer some attractions, such as salary bonus, health plan, access to gyms or daycare centers and the possibility of doing volunteer work during the office hour.

Researchers also pointed out that the generation does not think completely alike and that it is wrong to put everyone in the same box. However, they treat the changes and trends that are emerging in the job market as undeniable.

*with information from Tecmundo

Graduated in Social Communication from the Federal University of Goiás. Passionate about digital media, pop culture, technology, politics and psychoanalysis.