Who are the real Gen Z? Breaking down Korea's latest workplace stereotype

Korea Herald

16-02-2025

They show up to work in sweatpants and hair curlers dangling from their bangs. They wander the office with AirPods firmly planted in their ears. And when the clock strikes six, they're already hovering by the door, bags packed and ready to bolt -- unfinished projects be damned.
At least, that's how the story goes.
Tales of Generation Z workers have taken on almost mythical proportions in Korean offices. In break rooms and boardrooms alike, stories of their workplace misdeeds and faux pas spread like wildfire -- each retelling crazier than the last.
"I've never seen anything quite like it," says Kim, a 57-year-old dentist who runs a practice south of Seoul, asking to be identified only by her surname. Her voice is tight with exasperation as she describes her younger employees -- recent graduates in their early to mid-20s.
"The second you bring up anything about work responsibilities or expectations, they get all defensive. It's always, 'But that's not in my contract,' or, 'That's past my hours.' These kids are a pain in the neck to work with."
Complaints about Korea's newest workforce have taken on lives of their own, fueled by viral social media posts and comedy sketches. The most outrageous is SNL Korea's wildly popular "MZ Office" segment aired last year, where young employees are portrayed as self-obsessed nuisances who film TikTok videos during meetings and demand iced americanos from their bosses.
But who exactly are these supposedly difficult young workers? And do these caricatures hold any water?
Beyond the stereotypes
While not entirely comfortable with common media portrayals, Gen Z individuals interviewed by The Korea Herald generally acknowledge that their generation does march to the beat of its own drum.
"Sure, I haven't worked a full-time job yet, but I think our generation definitely speaks up for ourselves," says Lee Ye-eun, 24. " But this idea that we're all troublemakers? At least from what I've seen, people are just trying their best to fit in."
Nineteen-year-old Woo Ye-rin, who regularly sees workplace comedy sketches on social media, agrees: "Sure, some of it rings true – I know people who can be pretty stubborn and self-centered."
"But the way we're portrayed on TV -- that's way over the top. Most people I know who've started working are actually super careful about making a good impression," she says.
Products of their time
While cautioning against broad generalizations, experts say these generational traits -- real or perceived -- didn't emerge in a vacuum. Rather, they're shaped by the socioeconomic realities Gen Z here grew up with.
"Major historical events shape the collective consciousness of a generation, especially those in their teens during those events," explains Han Min, a cultural psychologist who lectures at Ajou University. "The financial crises of 1997 and 2008 profoundly altered Korea's socioeconomic landscape and left indelible marks on those born in the '90s and early 2000s."
This generation watched their parents' generation struggle through unprecedented economic upheavals. Many saw neighbors lose homes, parents lose jobs and families upended by financial instability. The chronic low growth rate and job insecurity that followed shaped their approach to work and life.
"What older generations might interpret as selfishness is often actually self-preservation," Han tells The Korea Herald. "They've learned early on that traditional promises of lifetime employment and loyalty-based culture don't necessarily hold true anymore."
First digital natives
Then there's the smartphone factor -- perhaps the most visible marker of Gen Z identity both in Korea and globally.
While Millennials came of age during the early stages of mobile technology and the internet, Gen Z entered a world where smartphones were already a fixture of daily life.
The smartphone revolution came later to Korea than to North American and Western European markets – the iPhone's 2007 debut and BlackBerry's 2008 rise barely made waves here, where flip phones held sway at least until 2010.
The real transformation picked up steam between 2010 and 2012, when domestic giants Samsung and LG entered the smartphone market in full force. By May 2013, smartphone penetration hit 70 percent here, fundamentally reshaping how young Koreans interact with the world.
This rapid shift, coupled with the rise of new forms of social media like Facebook and messaging apps like KakaoTalk, marked a clear dividing line between generations and defined what it meant to be Gen Z in Korea, says Park Jun-young, author of "Gen Z's Smartphone" and chief consultant at CrossIMC.
"Gen Z here are the first true digital natives," Park tells The Korea Herald. "They don't just use technology – they live and breathe it. This enables them to be both consumers and creators of content, actively pursuing their specific interests."
In her book, Park tracked the smartphone usage patterns of 300 Korean Gen Z users over 2 1/2 years, comparing them with their contemporaries in Europe and Southeast Asia. What she found challenges the negative stereotypes about Gen Z being unmotivated slackers frequently echoed among preceding generations.
"Korea's Gen Zs stand out globally in the sheer number of apps they use," explains Park. "And many of these apps are for self-development and time management. While older generations like to portray them as lazy and lacking motivation, I see them driven by self-exploration and achievement."
"If managers connect with clear vision and goals, these young workers can outperform anyone," she added.
Same old story, different generation
Complaints about younger generations are hardly new -- they're part of a script that has been played out countless times throughout history.
As each generation settles into positions of social and economic influence, their criticisms of younger cohorts naturally gain outsized attention and authority in public discourse.
Korea has seen this movie before. Not so long ago, Millennials were the ones under fire – criticized for being too risk-averse, preferring the safety of government jobs over entrepreneurship and innovation. Before that, it was Gen X that bore the brunt of familiar accusations.
A January 1997 Maeil Business article famously blasted young employees of the time as "totally self-centered," "meticulously calculating what's mine vs. yours," and "putting 'me' before any sense of 'we.'"
These same Gen Xers now find themselves managing workplace conflicts with Gen Z employees, often echoing remarkably similar complaints to those once directed at them.
"When different groups don't closely interact, they resort to what anthropologists call 'mythological understanding,'" explains Han, the cultural psychologist. "They start seeing each other as these strange creatures instead of people trying to navigate the same workplace."
"It often turns into this backward-looking view that everything was better in the past," he adds. "But really, young people are just trying to make sense of the world they inherited. The circumstances they're adapting to weren't of their making."
The reality on the ground often tells a different story from media portrayals, according to Park, the marketing expert who regularly works with Gen Z employees.
"I've worked with many Gen Z employees, and they're often the most prepared and competent workers," Park says. "Sure, younger generations tend to be more individualistic -- that's happening everywhere in the world, not just in Korea."
'And that's not necessarily bad. We're in an era that needs different leadership styles, one that values individual motivation over group conformity," she said.