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Younger workers are shunning management roles and seeking ways to advance their careers without overseeing others. The trend, known as “conscious un-bossing,” could create future leadership gaps, experts say.
According to a recent survey of 835 Canadian professionals conducted by human resources consultancy Robert Half Canada, 40 per cent of professionals prefer promotions that don’t require people management. The number jumps to 50 per cent among Gen Z respondents and is only 19 per cent among baby boomers, which suggests the idea is more popular among younger workers.
“[Gen Z] started their careers with remote work, with flexibility regarding when they start and end their day and they don’t want to give that up [to become managers],” says Robert Half Canada regional vice-president Sandra Lavoy. “The younger generation of workers will actually take less money to avoid a position where they have to manage or supervise people in order to have a better quality of life.”
That’s not to suggest that Gen Z is less ambitious than other generations, Ms. Lavoy says; they’re just less likely to see people management as the only path to career advancement. Instead, she says many prefer an expansion of their responsibilities as an individual contributor.
“Our research shows us that the people who remain individual contributors are influenced by work-life balance and the hands-on work,” Ms. Lavoy says. “They like what they do, they don’t want to stop to switch into leadership and you have to respect that because if they’re happy and engaged it has a positive effect on company culture and growth.”
Previous generations saw management as a key step in their career advancement, but the data suggests young people are less inclined to take that step, suggesting there could be a significant deficit of management skills in the future.
“It could cause leadership gaps as people retire in the next few years,” Ms. Lavoy says. “In the past, it was more organic – you move the director to VP, and the VP to senior leadership – but you can’t take for granted that’s what employees want today; some will say ‘no.’”
Ms. Lavoy encourages employers to engage early – and often – with younger staff members they feel have management potential to gauge their interest in leadership and address any potential hesitations.
“They might say, ‘I need work-life balance. I need to be able to spend time with my family. I don’t want to come into the office three days a week. I have a young family at home,’” she says.
“It’s important for companies to remain proactive, engaged with their employees – and not just talk to them once a year on their annual review – to avoid missing out on developing strong leaders.”
The importance of wellbeing
The younger generation’s preference for remaining individual contributors rather than people leaders is consistent with their overall prioritization of mental health and wellbeing over earnings, given that managers often report higher stress levels. According to a survey of 2,000 full-time American workers by videoconference technology company Owl Labs, their stress levels are 55-per-cent higher than non-managers.
“Our data show that 45 per cent of Gen Z workers already report increased stress levels over the past year,” says Owl Labs chief executive officer Frank Weishaupt.
According to the survey, 26 per cent of Gen Z workers are feeling burnt out and 17 per cent say their mental health has declined over the last year.
“The data paint a clear picture that workplace stress is growing, manager roles are significantly more demanding and a large portion of the workforce feels burnt out and disengaged,” Mr. Weishaupt says.
“This isn’t a passive disinterest; it’s a deliberate choice to prioritize factors like work-life balance over traditional career advancement,” he adds. “They’re making a conscious decision that the perceived benefits of leadership don’t outweigh the costs.
Mr. Weishaupt says getting the younger generation interested and excited about leadership requires addressing some of those concerns such as lowering employees’ overall stress by offering more flexibility.
“Employers should also focus on giving Gen Z a clear sense of purpose within leadership roles,” Mr. Weishaupt says. “This generation wants to understand the impact of their work and how their contributions as leaders can drive meaningful change.”
He says employers can bolster those efforts by ensuring their training is up to date and in-line with Gen Z’s values around empathetic leadership, mentorship and psychological safety.
Gen Z more likely to stay in meaningful roles
As opposed to millennials, who job-hop to advance their careers, Gen Zers are more likely to leave employers for failing to meet their work-life balance expectations, according to a 2024 study published in the Personnel Review journal. In fact, the study shows Gen Zers were 3.6 times more likely to stay in roles that they felt were meaningful and gave them purpose.
“The most significant shift in work values [between generations] was the decreased importance of ‘opportunities for advancement,’ which may be indicative of [Gen Z’s] lack of leadership aspirations,” explains Eddy Ng, a professor of equity and inclusion at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and one of the study’s co-authors. “For [millennials,] advancement was the top priority, but it dropped out of the top five for Gen Z.”
Prof. Ng suggests that leadership aspirations seem to skip a generation, with millennials following in the footsteps of their highly ambitious Boomer parents. Gen Zers, meanwhile, tend to take after their relatively more laid-back Gen X parents.
“Gen Z prioritizes work-life balance and job security more than millennials,” he says. “While Gen Z still values career growth, they see it more as a path to financial stability and personal enrichment rather than an end goal in itself.”
As younger workers examine the costs and benefits of management, Prof. Ng says organizations are going to have to re-evaluate how they position those opportunities.
“If millennials don’t see a path to leadership, they get impatient, and they’re much more likely to jump ship,” he says. “With Gen Z, you can’t glorify work in selling leadership, because they’re not looking for that.”