Not all men Gen Z…

I just had a technician came to fix my washing machine’s inlet which conveniently started leaking on Christmas Eve.

Judging from his look, I was guessing the washing machine guy to be around 23-25 year old. I’m a bit surprised because usually I got older technicians.

So, as usual, I asked some questions to (hopefully) make him feel welcomed and comfortable to do the necessary work.

Me: So where are you from?

Washing Machine Guy: It depends... Are you asking where my service center is or where I live? My service center is in Bekasi (est. 30-ish km from my apartment) but I live just nearby in Depok.

And then he began working. I asked if there’s anything I can do to prevent the same problem from happening again and he basically said it would happen again as long as I’m using the “official” setup. There’s a hack that would keep it working longer but since he’s coming from the official service centre he couldn’t suggest me that. Oh, well.

I was telling him how far it is for him to go to work everyday and he just casually mentioned that he’s also enrolled as a university student taking night classes after work.

All I could think of was just, “Oh, these Gen Zs…”

I understand how stereotypes are formed mostly from what’s happening in the world. Somehow, of all stereotypes flying around me regularly, the Gen Zs “lazy and spoiled” generation of workers bugs me more than the other stereotypes, mainly for two reasons. The first is how as a millennial myself I have seen too many of my generation also fitting into the “lazy and spoiled” archetype, so it’s like “what’s new here??”. The second one is how life has been sending me the opposite of lazy and spoiled — and interestingly they are coming from a very different life path.

My washing machine guy is very likely coming from a working class. Judging from the university he goes to, it doesn’t look like he’s coming from any privilege at all.

A few years ago, I worked with Gen Z girls who come from the opposite end — the affluent fam. When I came to work with these girls, I had never had any subordinate coming from affluent background so me, being a village girl, I had some hesitation. But at the end of the day I just needed the job done so I worked with these girls the usual way, giving feedback and direction where necessary while giving room for them to exercise their judgments. Mama, they worked hard and I was surprised by their perseverance.

There were times I was thinking to myself why are they working in the first place? I believed the monthly allowance they received from their parents was way larger than their monthly salary. But then again I suppose anyone wants to be proud of working for their own money.

We stopped working together because they found better opportunities and I supported them for it because (a) they were still so young and (b) I also agreed that it was better opportunities for them. After working in their new places, sometimes we still met up and I remember one of them saying “I’m soooo tired” like 100 times within 2 hours followed by “but I like doing it and I’m learning a lot”. Another one was telling me how she had to arrange so many things on her own because she didn’t have a team and how happy she was that the events she worked for went well.

That felt so not Gen Z.

I don’t know if the stereotype is actually not as it is hyped for or I’m just ultra lucky to be crossing path with Gen Zs that are nowhere near the stereotype.