MAGGIE PAGANO: Tough love may be best to help Gen Z in jobs market
Youngsters in their first job are unable to pick up the phone because they are so scared. They are also too shy or afraid to talk to colleagues or take part in work social activities.
Many school leavers have to ask to take days off for ‘anxiety’ because they are too fearful to go into work.
There are others who don’t understand that if their work starts at 9am, then that’s when they should be at work.
Equally terrifying, many school leavers don’t have a clue how to work out what 10 per cent of something is.
These are only a few examples of the problems facing Gen Z, according to business owner Rachel Watkyn.
Interviewed on Radio 4 earlier this week after Alan Milburn’s review into the UK’s youth unemployment crisis was published, Watkyn’s diagnosis is damning.
The lucky few: Alan Milburn predicts about 1.25m youngsters will be economically inactive over the next few years
She describes a generation suffering neglect, a lack of care and being robbed of their childhoods.
Watkyn, the founder and managing director of the UK’s biggest gift packaging business, Tiny Box, should know. She employs about 100 people, with 20 or so from Gen Z. Like John Boumphrey, Amazon’s UK country manager, who also recently said businesses cannot find youngsters with the right skills, Watkyn insists that it is not their fault.
So what is to blame? There are multiple factors behind the changes which have led to a million youngsters being not in education, employment or training – or Neets, as they are known.
Gen Z’s addiction to social media and the cult of influencers, and texting rather than speaking, are obvious problems, while there’s no doubt the Covid lockdown experience traumatised many youngsters.
On the supply side, there is a generation either frightened of or not equipped to work.
But the demand side has been hit, too. Labour has whacked businesses with higher taxes with the rise in the minimum wage and increased employer National Insurance.
In other words, a perfect storm. And it’s a storm that’s becoming more violent. Milburn’s review predicts about 1.25m youngsters will be economically inactive over the next few years.
More worryingly, unemployment is rising across the board.
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of potential redundancies at an average 8,900 a week, up 76 per cent on the same period in 2025. It is the highest level since the pandemic. What’s to be done? We can’t wait for Milburn’s solutions.
Watkyn suggests businesses should adapt. She has sent staff on mental health training days so staff can help with their anxiety while jobs have been created to suit the young.
As she admits in the interview, she spends a lot of time mothering. But as mothers know, that doesn’t mean being soft – tough love is often the best.
BP snowflakes
‘Six of one and half a dozen of the other’ is how one BP insider describes the brutal sacking of chairman Albert Manifold.
Manifold doesn’t mince his words – and it is said recipients of his tirades were too soft to take criticism. A little snowflaky.
The chairman was doing a good job, so the trick would have been to find a go-between to smooth relations among the chair and his executives, as other great chairmen known for their rumbustious behaviour have done in the past.
DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS
AJ Bell
AJ Bell
Easy investing and ready-made portfolios
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown
Free fund dealing and investment ideas
interactive investor
interactive investor
Flat-fee investing from £4.99 per month
Freetrade
Freetrade
Investing Isa now free on basic plan
Trading 212
Trading 212
Free share dealing and no account fee
Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.