Gen Z Has Basically Zero Tolerance For 7 Work Phrases Gen X & Millennials Use To Sound Professional
stockfour / ShutterstockAs the youngest generation in the workforce, it doesn’t take much to make Gen Z feel like the odd one out at the office. So many things their older co-workers do seem totally outdated.
Gen X and millennial employees often rely on phrases they believe sound professional, but that feel like a foreign language to young people. Gen Z would love nothing more than to ban this overused business jargon forever, as all it does is completely frustrate and alienate them.
Gen Z basically can’t stand these phrases their Gen X and millennial co-workers use, thinking they make them sound professional
1. ‘Per my last email’
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For many older workers, saying “per my last email” feels as natural as breathing. But to Gen Z, it really just feels rude.
It’s a part of workplace culture now, but Gen X and millennials have to remember that Gen Z would never word anything this way. That makes it feel more like a scolding to them than a reminder.
This could easily be used against Gen Z in the debate about them being too sensitive. It really doesn’t seem strange for young people to rethink this phrase when email isn’t even the way people communicate the most at work anymore, though.
2. ‘Let’s circle back to that’
When Gen Z started their careers, they heard a lot about working with results in mind. That’s why it feels weird for those same colleagues to also say they’ll circle back to something later. It’s like they’re sweeping a problem under the rug instead of facing it head-on.
This honestly makes it seem like someone is trying to avoid what’s stressing them out, which doesn’t help anything. Young people don’t understand why it would be better to put off addressing an issue. Chances are older workers don’t really understand it either, but they’ve gotten used to saying it.
3. ‘Please advise’
There was a time when work-related communication was supposed to feel pretty impersonal. Now that everyone is used to sending quick messages to co-workers that they’ve actually gotten to know, it feels wrong to stick to that standard. Saying please advise is clearly a product of that earlier time. It’s direct and to the point, but it feels demanding sometimes.
Gen Z is a big fan of paying attention to nonverbal communication, which includes tone. There’s really no way to soften the tone of “please advise” so it’s less abrupt. That doesn’t mean it needs to go, but maybe people should be more careful when using it.
4. ‘Go after the low-hanging fruit’
It’s pretty ironic that this classic business metaphor for doing the things that are easy but still rewarding first is used to sound professional when it really just sounds bizarre. Thinking about it for too long would be enough to give anyone a headache.
The actual principle of low-hanging fruit is a good one that older employees should encourage younger ones to follow. Gen Z would just prefer they say it differently.
5. ‘Just wanted to touch base’
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This is one of those phrases people use at work all the time without even thinking. It’s not the worst thing Gen X and millennials say, but it is annoyingly difficult to figure out what it’s actually supposed to mean.
What’s probably a bigger offense to Gen Z is the use of the word just, though. That makes it sound like the person saying it thinks they’re being a bother. They’re basically offering an unnecessary apology that undermines their authority, which seems pointless.
6. ‘Let’s take this offline’
Aside from the fact that it’s not really possible to take anything offline at work these days, this makes it clear that there are some employees who know more about a company than others.
That’s technically necessary, but talking about it this way gives people the feeling that there are secrets they don’t have a high enough status to know. That’s bad for employee morale, which is the last thing Gen Z wants now that they’re just getting used to their careers.
7. ‘We don’t have the bandwidth for that’
Talking about bandwidth at work is normal for Gen X and millennials but annoying for Gen Z. Still, they don’t have a very good explanation for why they feel that way.
It’s just one of those things that sounds strange. That’s probably because bandwidth is actually a tech term that refers to how much a network can handle. It’s not meant to describe people or businesses, and making that jump doesn’t seem right.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
