One of my favourite genres of social media content features a variation around the following theme: a bully manager and a brazen Gen Z character lock horns over an unfair demand made by the former. This demand usually presents itself as an order to complete a task after work hours or having to be available during paid time off for emergency calls and meetings.
However, instead of remaining a silent victim of an unfair work culture, the Gen Z employee reads out the riot act to their manager, threatening to complain to HR for being coerced into doing unpaid overtime. The exchange, almost always pitched as short-form content, usually concludes with the manager ending the conversation in a huff, throwing a whiff of threat in the air, while their younger colleague signs off on a tone of mature equanimity.
Such content “Office ka kalesh” is a reliable guarantor of dopamine rush. Why do I enjoy these reels so much? I’m sure, like many others who are incensed by the miscarriage of justice, big and small, I am not alone in my interest in these prickly exchanges. But there’s more to it. As a Gen X employee whose default has always been to go over and above his mandate, I get a kick out of watching the younger generation refusing to play by the rules of yore. Except I was never quite sure if such pushback is really becoming the new normal at workplaces or is it just an exception—until recently, when I came across the term “effort recession” in two extensive reports published by organizational development consultant Great Place to Work, India.
The headline-making finding of these surveys is the fact that 63% of Indian organizations are finding their employees less and less willing to go beyond their core responsibilities. Significantly, 26% of the workforce now comprises Gen Z employees (the number has doubled from 13% in 2023) and, unlike their senior colleagues, the new generation isn’t interested in proving their allegiance to their company by burning the midnight oil in office or pulling in extra shifts or covering for colleagues or taking on any and every task their manager delegates to them.
“Our dataset covers nearly 5.7 million employees across around 2,000 organizations across India,” says Balbir Singh, CEO of Great Place to Work, India, “We’ve seen similar patterns across sectors, whether it’s IT, manufacturing, retail, or services. The intensity varies, but the overall trend is remarkably consistent.”
This isn’t good news for Gen Z, who already get a bad rep for being not as committed or motivated as their predecessors. Remember the controversy created by Infosys founder Narayana Murthy’s injunction to the youth of India to work 70 hours a week? L&T Chairperson S.N. Subrahmanyan went a step ahead by pushing up the optimal number to 90 hours a week. But, as the reports show, the correlation between Gen Z and lack of commitment at work is misguided.
As Singh says, it’s not that the younger workforce does not want to make extra effort. “Rather, they’re asking, ‘Why does this extra work matter? How does it contribute to the organization’s goals? How does it help me grow professionally?’” he adds. “Once they understand that connection, they’re willing to contribute—but they want clarity and purpose first.”
It should be pointed out, though, that it isn’t as if a great revolution is unfolding in workplaces across India to overthrow the status quo. There are segments, such as manufacturing, where the decline in discretionary efforts is noticeably less at 44% compared to retail (88%) or IT (77%). The resilience of these sectors is, for the large part, due to the kind of talent that joins them. As Singh points out, it is difficult to draw top Gen Z talent into manufacturing compared to, say, IT or banking. There are other factors, too, such as demographics and location, which influence workplace behaviours significantly. Add to these, the varying access to opportunities. When your job security is under threat and you have limited avenues to explore, chances are you’ll do your best to keep your employer happy. The data gathered by Great Place to Work, India, in the two surveys bears this phenomenon out.
“The (effort recession) is much more visible in urban, knowledge-driven sectors such as IT and professional services, particularly in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities,” Singh says. “In contrast, employees in Tier 3 and Tier 4 locations—especially those working in manufacturing, hospitality, and similar sectors—often have different motivations influenced by local socio-economic conditions and community values.”
Work Vibes is a monthly column on ideas to help you thrive at what you do.