UAE: Why Gen-Z is rejecting performative work culture in the age of AI

Khaleej Times

19-06-2025

I have worked hard to offer as apolitical and well-rounded a viewpoint I can, but it's harder and harder as time goes on to remain so aloof. This is because I have changed and, readjusting my views on journalism and my role in this industry, have a desire to centre problem solvers on the ground rather than the bloody leading story of a given topic. How I'll be doing this here is focusing on what you and I can do in our day-to-day lives wherever we are and whomever we're with.
With that in mind, this week I wanted to look at the workplace for the under-40 crowd, primarily those professionals like me with a degree and desire to work in an environment that no longer exists. AI is eating up entry-level jobs, or they are simply going to someone who will do the job cheaper or under more stress, while for many of us the urge to perform or put on a face has lost all meaning.
One clash is the junction between work responsibility and the importance of feedback. At one of my jobs, it's not often my direct supervisor and I communicate; trust goes both ways, I'm punctual and they treat me well. When we do check in, it is prompt and I receive feedback unbidden, because relatively early in my work when a line was drawn between management and the workers over a cascading series of mistakes, of which my failure was only the result of a manager's failure, my supervisor— who also hired me — offered a shoulder to cry on and an explanation when management had already forgotten.
In recognising my fear and anxiety, a wall between us fell; often-times, older managers and supervisors see those of us younger than them, even millennials now older than 40, as children. They speak to us like children, they expect us to shut up and be seen and not heard like children, and they expect us to deliver unto them respect they didn't earn as if they are our parents and elders.
I've encountered this beyond age and when they are much closer, and though I haven't heard my peers and friends with bosses younger than them describe similar problems, but with a similar ease not unlike my situation. Why I mentioned outlook is here; we as people need to ascend
the work ladder together, but dispel the notion we have to or are even capable of coordinating.
Under 45, or simply a millennial or younger, the problems that Gen-Z experiences are not exclusive to us. Many of the expectations put upon Gen-Z surrounding culture, technology and communication stem from those Millennial, Gen-Y and Gen-X already survived. A perfect example would be communication surrounding workload; I don't know a 'young' person who isn't as honest as they can be about how busy they are and their ability to take on more.
I have found that it is older folks or people with responsibilities that will take additional work on out of a belief that they must, while Gen-Z have no interest in putting up a facade of hard work. This plays into the shifting goalposts of performance, and that my stagnating salary cannot do for me what it did for my dad in the same industry twenty, ten or even five years ago.
In abandoning the performative, what results is calm assurance and mental stability. We must and should allow a part of ourselves to be stressed, to feel anxiety around work, but we all need to acknowledge the times we live in and that around the world, everyone knows that the performance is nonsense.