A career influencer says millennials and Gen Z don't want to be managers anymore — here's why

• Many millennials and Gen Zers don't aspire to be managers anymore.
• A career influencer explained why in a TikTok, saying the extra money wasn't worth the hassle.

Millennials and Gen Zers don't seem to want to be managers anymore, and a career influencer has explained why that might be.

A recent survey of 1,000 Americans by the workplace-analytics-software company Visier found that less than half — 38% — said they aspired to be a manager at their current company.

The survey prompted an article on the website Entrepreneur discussing why young workers had no desire to manage their peers.

Some arguments that were put forward included the young workers' lack of trust in senior leadership, the limited financial reward, and their greater focus on a work-life balance and time off.

Kyyah Abdul, a TikToker known for her career advice, posted a video with her own take.

She said millennials and Gen Zers didn't want to become managers because these positions were like "a glorified unpaid internship."

Abdul argued that the pay for management positions was "not worth the work that you're doing."

She demonstrated her theory using pirate money —"doubloons" instead of dollars. Entry-level positions were paying half a doubloon, she said, but people wanted to move up and earn more after a while.

"So you become a manager, and you realize, 'Hold on, I only get a full doubloon despite doing three times the work I was previously doing as an associate?'" Abdul said.

"This is where people get to a point in their career that they're like, you know what? I'm going to take it on the chin, continue to do this work because I know it's an internship opportunity to make it to the next level where I'm really going to start making the pirate's booty."

But other people were deciding it wasn't worth it, she said, and staying at the middle-management level or returning to the associate level.

"There are senior associate levels where you can get a doubloon and a half, perhaps," she said.

Abdul also argued that the higher up on the ladder, "the less you do," meaning there was less turnover at the senior level.

Pointing to a chart she made, she said people with executive- and director-level jobs who "happen to be boomers and Gen X" often had highly paid jobs that could be less demanding.

"These people don't want to leave because of how much money they're getting for very little work," Abdul said. "I personally believe there are people out there that want to be managers, and they want to progress up the ladder, but there's a standstill right here."

Though it's hard to say for sure, her analysis is probably right: Most companies are going to have fewer senior positions than middling or junior ones.

Statistics compiled by the site Data USA suggested there were 15.8 million management jobs in the US in 2021, compared with about 200,000 CEO positions that year.

Abdul argued that a surplus of people in middle-management positions was making these roles pretty unattractive to the younger junior employees who once sought them.

They were seeing how "burned out" managers were, Abdul said, and managers "not being able to progress."

"So these people are like, 'Heck no,'" she said. "'I'm not about to go through what these people just went through for only half a doubloon.'"