Generation Z is taking positions in the labor market. According to the IV HR Challenges and Trends Report: Keys to the new work balance prepared by Pluxee, intergenerational management in the workplace is already a strategic challenge for 95% of Spanish companies, with up to four generations coexisting on the workforce simultaneously. However, these generations could not be more different and that will impact the relationship of the youngest with companies.
So much so, that a survey has revealed that nine out of ten young people have reservations about using company resources for personal matters, or downplay the importance of respecting their work schedules.
Rules are meant to be broken. Something that Generation Z has clearly demonstrated is that work etiquette is not made for them. According to the data obtained by PapersOwl after interviewing 2,000 young people between 18 and 34 years old, 95% of young people from generation Z said that it was acceptable to leave work early ( or arrive later), use company resources for personal matters and even take a nap at work.
Another worrying fact is that 29% of members of millennials and generation Z have been using ‘catfishing‘ impersonating another person during a recruitment and then disappear without a trace and leave the company that hires them in the lurch.
Schedules are optional. Leaving work early is, by far, the rule most frequently broken by Generation Z. 34% of those surveyed claim to do so, as is arriving late without prior notice, a practice that 18% of those surveyed regularly do.
On the other hand, 27% of Gen Zers said they had called in sick just to take a day off. 11% of those interviewed claimed to have signed up for more hours than they actually did. in the record of your day.
Go to work, but not always to work. Those who attended work at the assigned time were also not exempt from “cheating” at work. 11% claimed to have had a nap during work hours. Four out of ten young people claimed to put into practice “coffee badging”. That is, clocking in at the workplace just long enough to have a coffee and make an appearance to avoid the return-to-office regulations, and then go to work. work from another location.
Among the reasons that lead them to do so, 66% affirm that it is because of their desire to obtain greater flexibility in the working day, while 44% prefer to work from another more comfortable place, or 32% choose to work in an environment less prone to interruptions.
silent vacation. The report Out of Office Culture Report prepared by The Harris Poll in May 2023, indicated that around 40% of young millennials and generation Z had at some time done “silent vacation“. This term refers to pretending that you are active, when in reality you are taking a day off (or several) without the company’s permission.
PapersOwl’s data goes a little further. They have revealed that 51% of young people from Generation Z have done it between one and three times in the last year, while 4% of those surveyed have done it more than five times in the last 12 months. 52% argue that they did it to recover from stress either avoid burnout.
Unstable jobs. A new study of 2026 published by PapersOwl on Gen Z at work highlights that only 45% of young people between 18 and 28 years old describe their current work relationship as solid and committed.
32% define it as “complicated” and 21% define it as “convenient for now”, but without a long-term horizon. A new phenomenon also appears: almost 6 out of 10 Gen Z workers admit to having used artificial intelligence tools in their work without communicating it to the employer. And 7% have resigned in the last year as an act of protest motivated by feeling ignored or undervalued.
A version of this article was published in February 2025.
In Xataka | “They are much more daring”: Gen Z is overturning all labor consensus in its massive entry into work
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