As an early 90’s millennial, I’ve never noticed a “gen z stare” as described in news articles like a “blank face that shows lack of social skill or ability to think”. The only times I’ve witnessed it happen and seen the older person accuse them of “gen z stare” is when the older person says something off hand or dumb but isn’t self aware enough to realize they’re being weird. Hell, I’ve given people a blank face countless times because I was taught it was better to say nothing at all sometimes. Especially when it came to talking to older people at work.
I remember when I was 16, some middle aged guy at work accused me of having no personality. In reality, I kept all conversations short as possible with him (like almost everyone in the store) because they were casually racist and misogynistic.
Me too, with all people, but specifically only the breathing ones. :P
Each generation goes through a phase where they need to weigh out what “vocal authoritative” people are saying.
Each generation later goes through a phase where they try to pass “what worked for them” off to the younger generation.
Sometimes, it rings true, some times is rings out of touch. Sometimes the advice is too suspect to trust but they don’t want to start an argument.
My father tried to tell me I needed to get in somewhere that had a nice pension plan because Funds where bullshit. Turns out funds are bullshit, but pension plans are dinosaurs now and often get raided even worse than fund sheets.
My own is find a good place to work with managers that listen, work hard, become dependable, work harder, become hard to replace, start climbing the ladder.
Either of these things should absolutely cause a blank processing stare on a 20-30 something, because neither are anywhere near universal,