Gen Z workers don't think talking about wages and telling managers what they're doing wrong are taboo subjects
- Three-quarters of Gen Z workers surveyed by Adobe say they're comfortable telling managers what they're doing wrong.
- The majority said they were okay with talking about taboo topics like compensation.
Talking about wages and telling managers what they're doing wrong aren't taboo topics for Gen Z workers.
Almost three-quarters, or 74% of Gen Z workers surveyed by Adobe in September, said they're comfortable giving upward feedback to their supervisors. And almost 90% said they were comfortable about giving feedback to their peers.
The majority of respondents also said they didn't mind talking about typically sensitive topics — nearly 8 in 10 said they were comfortable with talking about their wages, and almost 9 in 10 said they were comfortable with discussing their job satisfaction at the workplace.
For the report, Adobe surveyed 1,011 US Gen Z workers, which they defined as those born between 1997 and 2012. These respondents worked full-time for up to three years at companies with 750 employees or more.
This survey adds to prior research that shows how comfortable Gen Z is with changing long-held workplace norms.
"Perhaps the defining characteristic of Gen Z is that, instead of wanting to revolutionize, Gen Z is comfortable with the idea of change through structure," Tracy Francis, McKinsey's chief marketing officer, previously told Insider.
Plus, Gen Z workers are the most likely to switch jobs and land the biggest pay increases when they do, Insider previously reported.
Even the office lingo is shifting. The majority of UK respondents surveyed by Barclays Bank said Gen Z workers are making workplace language more casual — and over a third of those surveyed now consider "yours truly" and "yours sincerely" to be old-fashioned.
To be sure, managers also told Insider that their Gen Z workers often struggle to focus on work and lack motivation.
And nearly three-quarters of managers surveyed by ResumeBuilder.com in April said they find Gen Z employees the most difficult to work with. Over a quarter of those surveyed said they fired a Gen Z employee during that employee's first month on the job.