Gen Z can handle stress — they’re just brave enough to say it’s unacceptable 

Older people disparage them for lacking resilience, but it takes grit to challenge a destructive status quo at work, writes Bruce Daisley

Gen Z: Their induction into the world of paid employment is no picnic: unpaid internships, student debt to service, and a work environment that impinges more and more on what would once have been viewed as leisure time.

Steven Bartlett, the entrepreneur and superstar podcaster, ruffled a few younger feathers recently when he described Gen Z as “the least resilient generation I have ever seen”. 

He added: “I just fear that when I’m hiring people in that generation, I almost need to go an extra length just to check they can cope with a high-intensity culture where demands might come on a Saturday — because the world doesn’t just stop on a Saturday and Sunday.”