In the quest to be themselves, many young workers communicate casually. It doesn’t sit well with all companies that see professionalism differently.
When Anna landed a job in the art department at a prominent London-based hedge fund straight out of university in 2022, she was the youngest member of her team by a decade. Unfazed by the age gap, Anna, who’d graduated at the top of her class, was eager to learn from colleagues. Their feedback was mostly positive, she recalls, but for one issue: her boss said her casual language and informal manner undermined her credibility.
She brushed it off. “I had good relationships with clients – I think it’s better to be personable than austere,” says Anna, now in her mid-20s. “I was performing well and thought that would be enough.”
Four months into the job, however, she was fired. Her manager cited her “lack of professionalism”, including her frequent use of filler words like “like” and “totally”, as a contributing factor. Anna’s supervisor said she didn’t come across as an “intelligent” person who should be working at a top hedge fund, and that her demeanour didn’t fit the firm’s image.
Anna was devastated. “No-one told me beforehand what to say or not say. And everyone my age talks this way. How was I supposed to know?”
Older generations have nearly always looked down on younger ones, often arguing they are weaker, less serious or less prepared – especially at work. But experts say the current clash over Gen Z’s work language extends beyond standard-issue generational divides. Instead, it’s emblematic of how much life and work have changed throughout the past several years – and a harbinger of things to come.
Tension building
As new employees enter the workforce, they face the challenge of defining their professional identities. Figuring out how they conduct themselves, both through their speaking styles and overall manners, is part of the process. In past years, the task usually has not been so formidable. The workplace has traditionally demanded a type of formality in which employees are expected to conform to established norms set out by older leaders.
Yet these old ways – which establish a largely homogenous work culture – aren’t sitting right with a new generation of workers who prize individuality. The post-pandemic rise of remote work and its blurred lines between the personal and professional has contributed to a shift toward a less formal work environment as well.
“With new technologies and shifting values, younger people increasingly want their work and personal identities to be one and the same,” says Christopher G Myers, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, US, and an Academy of Management scholar. “They don’t want to have a fake work voice and persona. They want to be natural – they want to be themselves.”
For some members of Gen Z, the notion they must adhere to someone else’s standards seems artificial and at odds with their values of authenticity and self-expression, says Michelle Ehrenreich, who directs the communications program at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, US. “The upcoming generation has been told, ‘Be yourself! You’re you, and you’re wonderful!’ But there’s a tension when they start working in a more corporate environment,” she says.
Bringing these attitudes and experiences to work means directly bucking the conventions that have been governing workplaces for decades. And that’s not what most employers are looking for – companies largely don’t usually want workers’ unvarnished selves in the workplace, says Ehrenreich. Instead, employees are expected to speak and carry themselves in a way that matches the organisation’s culture.
This can be especially difficult for Gen Z, lots of whom lack the professional lexicon of past generations. Gen Z’s social media upbringing has left many with limited exposure to formal communication, says Caroline Goyder, a London-based communications and speech consultant who trains a mix of corporate clients.
The upcoming generation has been told, ‘Be yourself! You’re you, and you’re wonderful!’ But there’s a tension when they start working in a more corporate environment – Michelle Ehrenreich
Instead of watching or listening to mainstream news broadcasters with a more formal style, for instance, they’ve grown up with a variety of social media influencers, she says. In the US, late 2023 data from Pew Research Center shows roughly a third of adults younger than 30 regularly get news from TikTok. “Influencers tend to use warm, friendly tones and informal, high-energy speech patterns, such as bouncy-up talk, to make themselves seem more approachable,” says Goyder – a far cry from the buttoned-up vernacular of the Baby Boomer, Gen X and even millennial workplace.
The disconnect presents a problem for the youngest workers. Although communication standards can vary among industries, company sizes and roles, Ehrenreich says certain traditional rules of professional conduct remain essential in many situations.
Some data has shown professional success hinges on personal polish. A 2018 study published in Harvard Business Review showed that weak executive presence and poor communication style are the two most critical factors that can stall career progress. Even though the workplace has changed since this research was conducted, Ehrenreich believes the conclusions are still highly relevant today. To help young people succeed in employment, she works with students at Boston University to refine their communication skills, focusing on tone, eliminating filler words and improving eye contact as well as posture and body language.
And although it’s true an informal approach in the workplace can help build connections, if employees are perceived as too casual, it can have the opposite effect. (Just ask Anna.) “You can’t run a committee or make hard, serious decisions without balancing strength and warmth, formality with approachability, and task and relationships,” says Goyder.
Which side wins?
Although Gen Z will still need to be aware of traditional “professional” language – and must adhere to it for now, at least if they want to keep their jobs – the issue isn’t black and white in a changing world of work.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, dress codes are looser, hours are more flexible and people work from home more often. All of this means communication too, is evolving in offices around the world. In the UK, an August 2023 survey by Barclays showed nearly three-quarters of respondents say that Gen Z are changing the formality of language in the workplace.
Gen Z’s casual speaking style could be an indicator of professional changes to come. “The approach that we take to our interpersonal communication is constantly evolving,” says Myers. These changes may slowly find their way into the workplace – but Myers says it often “lags behind and is slower to adopt some of these new ways of being”.
He adds that while younger professionals are expected to adapt to professional standards, senior leaders must also appreciate that language conventions and employee needs change over time. Leaders should be open to embracing a less formal approach that perhaps allows for more personal expression, he says. For instance, although they may still want to prioritise keeping “critical moments of communication at work” formal, there may also be situations, such as internal chats or team meetings, “where there isn’t as direct a business case to be made, policing language might not be worth it”, he says.
You can’t run a committee or make hard, serious decisions without balancing strength and warmth, formality with approachability, and task and relationships – Caroline Goyder
Taking a long view, as Baby Boomers and Gen X gradually cede the reins of leadership to younger generations, a more casual tone may permeate the workplace. “Maybe when older generations move on, things will change,” says Ehrenreich. “But at the moment, the people in charge have expectations that they enforce.”
As for Anna, she’s found a job in television, which she says is much better suited to her personality and skills. When she thinks back on her abbreviated stint at the hedge fund, it’s with a mixture of embarrassment and enlightenment. “I’ve done a lot of self-reflection,” she says. “I shouldn’t have been hired; it wasn’t the right job for me.”
It was, however, a learning experience. She says she still strives to be her “true authentic self” at work, but that she’s also focused on getting better at how she presents herself. She’s actively working on limiting “like” and “totally” from her vocabulary and figuring out how to make the most of her time with executives. “If I am in a meeting with someone senior, I sit up a bit straighter and smarten up my language. I am not fundamentally changing the way I speak, but I talk a bit differently.”
This, says Ehrenreich, is the smart approach – at least for now. “You’ve got to be able to flex your style if you want a big corporate job. It’s not about changing who you are, it’s about adapting.”
