Gen Z is forcing a workplace reckoning that should have happened years ago

• Gen Z, on the heels of the pandemic, is pushing for changes to how we work.
• Priorities range from better work-life balance to different hours to a four-day workweek.
• Workers across generations are benefitting from some of the questions Gen Z has been asking.

Thanks, Gen Z. The workers of America owe ya.

The recent shade-throwing over how effing soul-crushing the 40-hour workweek is might obscure how much change you — with a big assist from the pandemic — are bringing to many jobs. And it's clear you're not done.

From the four-day workweek, to the idea that a job should be about more than just a paycheck, younger workers are pushing the oldies in charge to make big changes. Gen Zers aren't likely to get everything they're asking for — at least not right away. But the fact the youngest segment of a labor pool is chipping away at workforce pillars that have stood for a century is a big deal, workplace experts told Insider.

Pradeep Philip, lead partner at Deloitte Access Economics, told Insider developed economies have created enough wealth in the past 50 years that it's enabling those who are new to the workforce to question whether the old ways still make sense.

"There is now space for the younger generation to be thinking about what is our value set in this? What do we do with this wealth? How do we live our lives?" Philip said. That's led to questions about work-life balance and flexibility around jobs, he said.

While some bosses will continue to push back, in general, letting workers of all ages have more autonomy is here to stay, said Nicole Kyle, cofounder of CMP Research, which examines workplace trends.

"If you're in the game of long-term employee retention, you're gonna have to figure out flexibility at some point," she told Insider.

Asking why we work Monday through Friday, or why employees don't have more say in the hours they work, or why they can't log on from a beach can come across as entitled to many older workers.

That was the take from one man on TikTok incensed by a young worker's protest about a 40-hour workweek: "All of my blue-collar brothers right now are stifling a laugh that would just drain the soul out of that kid," he said.

Yet across the board, many workers are winning better treatment from their bosses — and echoing some of the demands many Gen Zers have been making. Consider the landmark deal the United Auto Workers just scored with the Detroit Three. It restores cost-of-living bumps and it means some workers will be earning $42 an hour by early 2028. At UPS, a union victory over the summer means drivers for the shipping giant will ultimately make about $170,000 in pay and benefits.

Those gains aren't all thanks to Gen Z, of course, but the fact that there's been widespread questioning of workplace norms is due, in part, to how quickly information now spreads, Philip said. And younger workers who've gone viral with posts about work are helping propel ideas like the four-day workweek.

The idea for working fewer hours for the same pay started with tech workers and creative agencies, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author and program director at the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global, told Insider. But he said it's notable that the UAW proposed a four-day workweek in its negotiations with heads of the automakers.

While the union didn't win that concession, "I think that it is going to stay on the agenda for unions," he said. Pang noted other groups who are often part of unions — from workers at high-end restaurants to nurses — are pushing for four-day weeks and other reconsiderations about how work gets done.

Questioning the basics of how we've worked for decades could be a first step toward driving substantial changes.

Pang said the global trial on remote work shows how developments that were once seen as unworkable can actually work. "That's really kind of opened the door," he said, to new ways of working.

Here are some of the ways Gen Zers are helping reshape work:

(Side) hustling on their own terms

Younger workers are wondering aloud how they can make work less of a drag. Maybe it's finding a side hustle that inspires — or at least helps them pay the rent.

Some — including a mom who went viral in defense of her kids — clap back against the eye-rollers that many young workers have struggled to cover their bills while boomers have enjoyed financial prosperity.

Read more: A Gen Zer quit her first office job after 8 months. She said corporate culture is 'soul-sucking'.

Tearing down taboos

Gen Zers, as the youngest of five generations in the workplace, are talking about some things that were once whispered about. Polling suggests younger workers are OK discussing salaries and even confronting managers about missteps. This might mean "managing up" so that your boss knows what you need and what your ambitions are.

One young worker who complained that her corporate role felt like a "full-time acting gig" encouraged people to be themselves at work.

Read more: I'm a Gen Zer who gets asked what young workers want. It's simple: to be included in conversations about our careers and the workplace.

Making the office feel more like home

Many young workers, contrary to knocks from older generations that 20-somethings are forever attached to their screens, say they want IRL experiences in their jobs so they can learn. But just because they might want to have a place to go to doesn't mean they want to show up to an office governed by the same directives older generations abided by.

The workplace dress code has become more casual thanks, in part, to a pandemic-induced aversion to hard pants. And even workplace jargon — that code for showing you belong because you know how to toss it around — is getting a Gen Z rewrite.

Read more: Gen Zers want to be in the office. But their bosses are at home.