Conscious unbossing: why gen Z are refusing to become managers | Work & careers

Name: Conscious unbossing.

Age: Definitely new, this one.

Never heard of it. What does it even mean? Is Chris Martin going to be the drummer in Coldplay? Eh? Oh I see – because of his and Gwyneth’s “conscious uncoupling”. That may be where the phrase came from, but this is different.

Is it to do with Keir Starmer trying to get everyone back to work again, because we love our country? Again, no. I mean, that is a thing, just not this thing.

Go on then, what is this thing? It’s about gen Z not wanting to take up middle-management roles.

Give middle management the middle finger! If you need a slogan, that could be it.

And why don’t they? Too stressful.

Aw, bless, they might have to make a decisiony-wision … Oi, less of the ageism. It’s more about not wanting to tell underlings what to do.

I know what I want to tell them to do! Calm down, Boomer. This is about generations and the gap in their attitudes to work.

Don’t tell me, there was a survey. There was a survey, by the recruitment company Robert Walters. It found that 52% of UK gen Z professionals did not want to take on a middle-management position in their career.

What do they want? Seventy-two per cent said they favoured the idea of an “individual route to advance their career”.

What’s one of those? One that focuses on “brand and approach” or “personal growth and skills accumulation”.

What about the money? Don’t they want a raise? The raise isn’t big enough: 69% said mid-level management was “too high stress, low reward”. To be fair, in another recent survey, 75% of middle managers said they felt “overwhelmed, stressed or burnt out”.

The young ones? Lucy Bisset, a director at Robert Walters, said: “Many younger professionals are less interested in climbing the company ladder … professionals of all ages feel layers of management create an ‘us v them’ attitude.”

In my day, we had ambition and loyalty; we looked at our senior colleagues and strove to one day step into their shoes (which were nicer than ours). Mate, not wanting to state the obvious, but your day has passed.

It’s because of Covid, isn’t it? Their shoes have hardly even set foot in the office. To some extent. Bisset said: “Younger professionals, having entered the workforce in a largely remote or hybrid capacity with a huge focus on digital capabilities, are less inclined towards complete company loyalty.”

But if everyone is concentrating on their “brand and approach” and “whole self”, nothing’s ever going to get done, is it? Bisset did admit that it “could spell trouble for employers later down the line”.

Do say: “Regional manager? Nah, you’re all right, I’ll pass, bro.”

Don’t say: “Bloody snowflakes.”