Careers

Gen Z workers expect a promotion after one year on the job, and their bosses are creating new titles and throwing 'workversary' parties to keep them happy

Gen Z employees
The majority of Gen Z workers believe they should be promoted within the first year of their jobs, a recent survey suggested. Caiaimage/Chris Ryan/Getty Images
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Young workers aren't shying away from asking for promotions.

Like millennials, Gen Z workers (or those age 22 and younger, according to Pew) feel more comfortable asking employers for more perks and compensation without planning to stick around very long. A new survey found Gen Z employees are seeking promotions in their first year on the job.

More than 75% of Gen Z members believe they should be promoted in their first year, a recent survey by the workplace-coaching company InsideOut Development found, and 32% believe they deserve a promotion within the first six months of working.

"Young employees just think, 'Oh, I've been here a year, so that means I'm getting promoted, right?' Promoted to what?" Jill Tipograph, a college-graduate mentor at Early Stage Careers, told The Wall Street Journal

Read more: 5 major differences between the lives of millennials and baby boomers

Employers that can't promote a young employee right away are still hoping to keep young workers satisfied so that they don't jump ship and cost the company thousands of dollars to replace. Examples include carving out step-by-step plans for career growth, handing out new titles, and holding "workversary" celebrations to recognize employee achievements, The Journal reported. 

Across the board, younger employees tend to ask employers for bigger pay or better perks, compared with older generations. 

Young millennials and Gen Z workers are demanding more paid time off and work-from-home benefits than boomers, Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor's chief economist, told Business Insider in 2018. But most Gen Z workers reported that they plan to leave their companies within two years, and 43% of millennials said the same.

Boomers, meanwhile, have worked through the largest recession in US history and may feel less comfortable asking for perks right away or job hopping. A 2016 poll found 40% of Boomers stayed with an employer for at least 20 years, and 18% of them stayed for 30 years or more.

Though some hiring managers believe the trend signals that young workers feel "entitled" to perks or high pay, other researchers say older generations have always had bias against young workers: "If you go back in time, Boomers were also referred to as the 'me generation,'" Michael Wood, founder of the research firm 747 Insights, told Business Insider's Libby Kane.

"There was so much promise around millennials because of technology and the internet and how strong the economy was — this is a generation that held so much promise," he added. 

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Allana Akhtar was a senior health reporter for Insider, where she covers the emerging wellness industry and general health topics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Allana wrote extensively about nurses, mask mandates, the vaccine rollout, and disparities in access to health. Her articles include features on nurses needing to re-use PPE in the early days of the pandemic, ones who struggled to get paid time off after getting COVID-19, and those who left bedside care after grueling pandemic working conditions. Allana also spoke to flight attendants and retail workers who faced violence as they enforced mask mandates, and community health workers who said they struggled to receive equitable vaccine access during the initial rollout. Allana now reports on emerging trends within the wellness industry, including the Westernization of indigenous medicine and dangerous wellness trends spread through social media. She also writes about plastic surgery, racial disparities in healthcare, and breaking health news. Allana has won numerous awards for her work, including the Best News Story by the Michigan Press Association in 2015, Best Reporter Covering Nurses in 2019, and the Morris and Lola Wasserstein Award for her contribution to the the University of Michigan's student paper as an Honors student. Before Insider, Allana wrote for USA TODAY, US News & World Report, Money Magazine, Health Magazine, Jalopnik, and more. You can email her at aakhtar@bjinnox.com, call/text her at (646) 376-6058, or follow her on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Secure tips line: Signal # 248 760 0208'We're grossly unprepared': Nurses share their frustration as the coronavirus spreads with little direction from the government or hospitals on how to mitigate it'Sexy nurse' costumes demean one of the most in-demand professions in American life — and they're a bestseller on Amazon right nowFlight attendants describe 'unprecedented' violence as travel returns and passenger aggression soarsG/O Media fired a queer employee of color who wore crop tops, shorts, and heels to work, violating a brand-new dress code that others say they routinely violated without being punishedContractors at controversial startup Rev say they worked long hours for little pay, feared they could lose their job at any time, and had to transcribe interviews with sexual-abuse survivors without warning