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Content warning: This content includes sensitive discussions of suicide, mental health, and COVID-19 mortality rates, which may be distressing for some readers.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that every generation has been seen as lacking motivation and pragmatism by the generation before. Gen Z – the world’s first digitally native generation – faces the same challenges today.
Born between 1996 and 2010, they are estimated to make up a third of the workforce by 2025, but engaging Gen Z is already a hot debate in workplaces around the globe. This conversation is even more nuanced for Bangladesh, where students leaving for higher education abroad have tripled in the past 15 years.
Against this “brain drain” issue, the need for actively including the younger generation in the workplace in Bangladesh takes on added significance. Can embracing Gen Z at work be an antidote to this macroeconomic problem?
Nearly three-quarters of managers and business leaders find working with Gen Z more complex than other generations. The general perception of this group is dominated by a perceived lack of effort, motivation, and productivity – undercutting this generation’s unique struggles with a confusing, fickle, and terrifying world:
“While our previous generations had the internet, they also had a large portion of their childhood without the internet. We were born into a digital world, where content is everywhere and much more personalized than it was before. It is much more difficult for us to segregate the digital world from our lives.”
– Female Gen Z from Bangladesh
Despite the general consensus, work is not simply transactional for Gen Z. We care about the broader scheme of how our workplaces fit into our lives and our values. McKinsey and Company reported in 2023 that flexibility, career development, meaningful work, and a safe, supportive work environment are more important to Gen Z than compensation in deciding to stay with a company.
Deloitte’s 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey lists Gen Z priorities as work-life balance, diversity and inclusion, and societal impact – and we are much more likely to switch jobs to find it.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found in 2022 that young people are hopping jobs more frequently than previous generations. The median tenure of workers between 55 and 64 was 9.8 years, while it was only 2.8 years for workers between 25 and 34.
“Work-life balance is important to me in ways that I have not seen in our previous generations. For example, I have noticed that an older person who is expected to work outside of working hours is much less bothered by it than I would be in their position.”
– Male Gen Z from Bangladesh
For Bangladeshi Gen Z, this is on a macroeconomic scale: the greatest minds of our generation are not just leaving workplaces, they are leaving our country for opportunities.
Around half of the students from each batch at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the top engineering university in the country, seek educational opportunities abroad, and often do not return.
Motivations behind this include better-paying jobs, increased scope of growth, a greater sense of purpose, and even the scope for more freedom and individualism. At the end of the day, these are not very different from the aspirations of generations before us, but it is often felt more intensely because we have so many more possibilities today.
“I think our previous generations, to a certain extent, held onto traditional ideas of life more strongly than we do. In a way, they did not get to choose a whole lot about their life outside of work – it was within a stricter notion of what was acceptable in society. In contrast, our generation has more freedom to decide what kind of life we lead, which is why we tend to value life outside of work – and, subsequently, work-life balance – a lot more.”
– Female Gen Z from Bangladesh
It is simplistic to claim that workplaces in Bangladesh hold the power to reverse the brain drain problem, but it is also naive to think that they cannot make an effect on it at all.
Decision-makers in the top management at firms would benefit from accepting that it is far easier to cultivate a Gen Z-friendly work environment than it is to criticize them into changing their values. For Bangladesh, this is even more crucial, because without sufficient opportunities, this generation retaliates with a flight response not only to other jobs but to other countries.
Some of the ways to embrace Gen Z include the following:
“While diversity within a team is not something I specifically look out for, it is extremely important to me that the team is accepting of diverse identities and expressions.”
– Male Gen Z from Bangladesh
“There is an expectation to always consider societal approval or perceptions when I am making personal decisions about my self-expression, which is exhausting. I want to be able to express myself how I want to without having to think about whether it might be acceptable in my working space.”
– Female Gen Z from Bangladesh
Migrating to a foreign land away from loved ones is not an easy decision for anyone, but it is one that more and more Gen Z’s are making in the hope of a better life. In a different world, perhaps young, bright Bangladeshis would return with a great sense of citizenship and responsibility, but this is rare in a generation where feeling powerless and frustrated has been so frequent.
Gen Z has grown up in a precarious world, and any dialogue on the brain drain needs to address this in order to be holistic.
To reverse the drain, our approach requires more robust engagement from workplaces. We need to be able to come back to our home countries and find jobs that satisfy us in terms of purpose, overall fulfillment, and quality of life.
For this, it is vital that our workplaces listen and evolve to fit our needs. Perhaps if Gen Z can find greater satisfaction in workplaces at home, we can close the gap in long-term opportunities, and leaving home will at least be a more difficult decision for more young people, giving them reasons to stay.
This article was authored by Raidah Morshed, former Business Analyst at LightCastle Partners. Bijon Islam, Wasema Rahman Sreya, Sutopa Ahmed, Priyo Pranto, Anusha Din, Samiha Anwar & Mustafa S. Hamid provided help and guidance in the writing of this article. For further clarifications, contact here: [email protected].
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the organization.
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