Why Gen Z is choosing fulfillment over authority in the workplace

Recently, a close family member, who is a marketing professional in her late 20s, came to me for some career advice. At her current job, which she joined around two years ago, she has a remote role. She enjoys her work, finds it creative and fulfilling, gets on with her manager, and has already been promoted twice based on her performance. Yet, she’s stressed and unhappy, confused about the direction in which her professional life is going.

Ironically, with each elevation in her role, her enthusiasm has taken a dip. With more and more people assigned to her team, she found herself spending the bulk of her time overseeing others instead of doing the work she loves. Dealing with behavioural issues, troubleshooting 24x7, and picking up the flak are depleting her energy, leaving her anxious and dissatisfied each week. In the forthcoming appraisal cycle, she wants to request her boss to realign her role and make her an individual contributor (IC) again so that she can go back to do the things that fulfill her at work.

As a Gen X-er, my initial reaction to her decision was mild alarm. Her thinking seemed to defy everything I have been told most of my working life—that career growth, in any workplace, comes with gains and losses. In the corporate world, as you climb up the ladder, you begin to make more money, gain more authority, and join the next line of leaders. At the same time, you also start to shoulder far more responsibility and accountability. You are no longer just worried about the next deadline and daily deliverables—you begin to lose sleep over revenue, top line, bottom line, attrition, and cost cutting. Every time a client throws a tantrum, you’re expected to put yourself on the firing line.

There are plenty of reports on how badly managers around the world are burnt out. A recent survey, conducted by organisational behaviour platforms Future Forum and Gallup claims that only 21% of middle managers report to be “thriving”. The overwhelming majority, in contrast, report that they feel shortchanged, sandwiched between the top leadership and ICs, and continue to struggle to manage (mostly unreasonable) expectations seven days of the week. Small wonder that younger millennials and Gen Zs are increasingly opting for what is being called “conscious unbossing,” which is as much of a workplace trend as a lifestyle reset.

REFRAMING AMBITION

When Robert Waters, a recruitment firm, ran a study on Gen Z employees in 2024, it found a startling shift in career priorities. More than half the respondents (52%) were declining middle management roles because they didn’t want to take the burden of people management, and everything that comes with that package, on board. After seeing their managers struggling to achieve work-life balance and being subjected to high-stress, toxic work environments, their decision wasn’t difficult to make. Experts predict that this will be a leading workplace trend in 2026.

Older millennials and Gen-Xers may be inclined to dismiss such ideas as sheer laziness. But that would be unfair. It’s not that the Gen Z employees are fundamentally averse to growth or progress. In fact, 72% strongly indicated a desire for both, but through deepening their skills, rather than following the exhausting route of people management.

With their appetite for continuously learning new skills and keeping abreast of innovations like AI, Gen Z will play a leading role in workplaces of the future, especially by helping senior colleagues stay up to speed. They are willing to mentor juniors and support their peers, but outside the trappings of hierarchy. They are more interested in mastering skills, going deeper into their domain, than taking on the invisible labour of people management, and the heavy toll that it extracts from the body and mind.

But long entrenched beliefs are hard to undo. A report by organisational consulting firm Korn Ferry claims that 90% of employers still have full faith in the crucial role that middle managers play in a company. There is merit, of course, in that view. Middle managers are often the glue that keeps a disgruntled lower order and clueless top management together. But, acting as the intermediary between these two levels, they are also the hapless messengers, who everyone loves to shoot, a low-hanging scapegoat for all that is failing in the system.

Whether organisations like it or not, conscious unbossing should push them to rethink the idea of leadership—take on board the fact that the next generation of leaders are more interested in leading through the skills they have honed instead of defaulting to their tenure and seniority. For Indian workplaces, where the culture of hierarchy and paying obeisance to authority based on age is deeply ingrained, it will be tough to change the dominant mindset on leadership. For as long as previous generations can remember, promotion has been a coveted prize. It has taken Gen Zs to de-glamourise designations and highlight the punishments that come with it.

Work Vibes is a column on ideas to help you thrive at what you do.