Culture Why Gen Z professionals are getting fired so frequently - Where did work ethic go to die?

https://nypost.com/2025/08/31/lifestyle/why-gen-z-professionals-are-getting-fired-so-frequently/
https://archive.is/DmJxU
By
Lauren Robinson, Kidspot
Published Aug. 31, 2025, 9:13 a.m. ET

1:35

Where did work ethic go to die?

This week, I’ve got a prime suspect… LAX.

A MAC makeup artist at the airport was fired after posting a “day-in-the-life” TikTok that breached serious security protocols.

The clip included a shot of her TSA badge, her cash drawer setup, timestamps of her shift and even customer interactions.

It all led to her termination.

A MAC worker at LAX airport was fired after posting a “day-in-the-life” TikTok breaching protocols. Ones of the clips included a shot of her TSA badge brymarixx/TikTok

Oversharing isn’t a work perk​

I watched, stunned. Then I asked myself: what happened to basic professionalism?

For me, filming sensitive work processes, especially anything tied to security or finances, is a line you just don’t cross.

That’s what got her fired, and it’s a sharp reminder of how high the stakes are when you overshare at work.

Showing the cash drawer setup, timestamps of her shift and customer interactions in the video led to her termination. Oversharing at work can could make you lose your job over a lack of work ethic

My parents raised me with work ethic, and for that, I am thankful.

I had my first job at 14, working at Hungry Jack’s, and I was expected to understand the value of a dollar.

At that job, I learned the importance of customer service, the idea that people were choosing to invest in the business I represented.

If that meant keeping the drive-through timer under three minutes or tackling another kids’ party in a dodgy fairy costume (all with a smile), then so be it.

I couldn’t imagine asking my boss if I could film my drive-through conversations, like the time I had to explain why someone couldn’t order a McChicken at Hungry Jack’s.

Her reaction would have made me want to crawl into the fryer.

Karen? No. Former waitress with PTSD? Yes.​

“I couldn’t imagine asking my boss if I could film my drive-through conversations, like the time I had to explain why someone couldn’t order a McChicken at Hungry Jack’s,” Lauren Robinson writes. Getty Images

I was told to smile, be polite, and remember that “the customer is always right.” As I moved into waitressing, that became harder.

Did I want to roll my eyes when someone asked if the buttercream pancakes were vegan? Absolutely. But I smiled. I worked for the tips.

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These days, when I pull up to the McDonald’s drive-through, the preteen wordlessly holds out the EFTPOS machine on a stick. Occasionally, they point to the screen. Heaven forbid I tell them I’m paying with cash.

I know I sound like a Karen, but I promise I’m not. I’m always kind to customer service workers, because I’ve been them.

I know how tough it is to deal with real customers and their real problems.

They say you judge a person based on how they treat their waitstaff. Well, I’m judging people on how they treat customers.

Still, if I show up with a smile and politeness, I hope for the same in return. I get that the customer before me might’ve been awful, but that shouldn’t mean I’m met with an eye roll.

Maybe it’s a generational thing. As a millennial, I was taught to grin and bear it. Gen Z and Gen Alpha? They’re not afraid of the resting bitch face. They’ve even given it a name: the Gen Z stare.

According to Robinson, Gen Z and Gen Alpha waitstaff are not smiling or being polite. polack – stock.adobe.com

And if being openly rude is so common that it has a brand, that says something.

Perhaps as parents, we’ve stopped teaching our kids the value of working hard with a great attitude. That careers aren’t about entitlement. They’re about showing up, respecting the role you’re given, and working your way up.

That’s what I’ll pass on to my son, both through how I approach my own work, and when I encourage him to start his.

Oh, and one more thing: I’ll also tell him to never film it.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

The problem is that certain jobs require professionalism. I have seen, first-hand, a Zoomer pharmtech get chewed out by the head pharmacist for giving a customer the wrong medication. Correct label and everything, but put the wrong med in the bottle. The Zoomer was totally blasé about it and then got indignant when she was fired on the spot.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't pharmacy techs have to take some class to do so? It's not like they can move up from shopping cart attendant to pharmacy tech, and I'm pretty sure that whatever minimal schooling pharmacy techs get is very clear that fucking up on the medication means that you COULD kill someone.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

They are saying "You won't let me reproduce like an adult, have freedom like an adult? You want to keep me in this nanny state? Fine, I will be an eternal child. *pulls out phone*"

You make it sound like a spouse and reproduction is some sort of entitlement program or luxury good.

Being on welfare has never impeded breeding, in fact I’d say the opposite. At total nanny state dependency breeding is incentivized with increased welfare benefits and housing priority.

I think it’s just path of least resistance and how easy it is to slide into being a NEET. Not only is not trying an option, but it’s not an even an uncomfortable option for many.

 

[CircuSphere]

You make it sound like a spouse and reproduction is some sort of entitlement program or luxury good.

Being on welfare has never impeded breeding, in fact I’d say the opposite. At total nanny state dependency breeding is incentivized with increased welfare benefits and housing priority.

I think it’s just path of least resistance and how easy it is to slide into being a NEET. Not only is not trying an option, but it’s not an even an uncomfortable option for many.

Yeah that's why I carved out an exception for the system exploiters collecting kids from different baby daddies and living in court. The lower class is going to soak up welfare and reproduce like crazy. I'm talking about (theoretically) educated, well fed, middle class kids that would otherwise be capable and productive in any other time. The backbone of society looking at the state of the workplace/country and checking out. It's literally that scene from the Lion King where Simba meets the lazy-ass boar and his meerkat pal and says "Fuck doing lion things, that's hard and this isn't" and the only thing that pulls him out is his sex drive....only most of them will be eating grubs forever because they can't just kill their shitty uncle, reclaim the status they rejected a decade earlier and stick their barbs into Nala.

This lifestyle is spreading into the middle class like wildfire, these kids see what is on offer for walking the straight and narrow, jump off the wagon and never catch back up. The middle class girls still have their standards and use birth control, the (native) population is declining. For a male finding a mate is what motivates everything else outside of subsistence. They can't get good jobs so they seek clout instead because fame and power get you laid in a world with no financial stability.

We have gone full mouse Eutopia. There is no place for males to compete that is beneficial to society, the only competition is between females playing social games in the upper classes and the males of the lower classes fighting in the streets. The rats that once worked diligently for their pups sit in their holes preening neurotically and never even go out to have said pups.

Ps. They will either bring about the collapse themselves, or the system will start ratcheting like crazy, tightening the noose and closing the taps, heading back toward the world you described earlier. They have to ratchet to keep the system afloat but it's also the ratcheting that will set the keg off with the smallest misstep.