Jane Lowney: Senior Director of Robert Walters Brisbane on the idea that Gen Z workers are arrogant

To some, it seems that kids these days just don’t want to work. 

Australian Gen Z’s have been labelled as ‘arrogant’ by recruiter Tammie Christofis Ballis from Realistic Careers, saying their expectations are leaving a “bad taste” in bosses’ mouths. 

Ballis claims kids have told her they won’t get out of bed for anything less than $100,000. 

Jane Lowney, Senior Director of Robert Walters Brisbane, told Mike Hosking that the belief is a little bit harsh. 

She says that when they surveyed 5000 workers across Australia and New Zealand, the sentiment was broadly the same regardless of the way you sliced it. 

“I think the whole workforce is looking for things that are, you know, pretty aligned: salary, career progression, work-life balance.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
About this week in Australia or I've at a recruitment
film's view on what they're seeing From Jeans Zaida's the
claim was we're seeing them telling recruiters they won't get
out of bait to listen one hundred grand a year.
Robert Walter's Brisbane Seeing You director Johan Lownie is with
us on this giant morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning, Mike, how are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
You reckon? It's true.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I think it's a little bit harsh, to be honest,
I personally haven't heard the quote of not getting out
of bed for one hundred thousand. I think that was
Naomi Campbell back in the day for one hundred for
a million. But yeah, look, certainly there's sentiments that are
you know, in the workforce right now around their expectations.
We recently surveyed five thousand employees across Australia and New Zealand.

(00:42):
But the thing I would point to is the sentiment.
Whether you slice it by nationality, age, or kind of
industry background, the sentiments are broadly the same. So I
think the whole workforce is looking for things that are
you know, pretty aligned salary, career progression, work life battle,
and so I do agree things like work life balance

(01:03):
and the opportunities to work from home or high on
people's priority list at all ages or all generations. So
I do think gen z get a bit of a
hard time at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Is it up to the recruiter to get the person
or the person to get the recruiter.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Look, I think you can do both. I think, you know, obviously,
there's a fair bit of migration happening from New Zealand
to Australia right now, and I always encourage people who
are coming to a new country to be proactive in
their job search. You'll pick for my accent. I'm not
a local either, so we made the move across the world.
You know, ten years ago, international moves have been very normal.
They just seem a little bit more heightened at the

(01:39):
moment because there's that kind of what I'm calling the
post COVID hangover of pent up desire to go overseas.
But I don't think it's trending, you know, any more
aggressively than it had done. You know, twenty eighteen, nineteen twenty.
You go on your oe, you do a couple of years,
you come back, you know, that's a pretty normal transition
in terms of the recruiters find. We certainly headhunt search,

(02:00):
seek out talent for our clients, but equally, you know,
we're a global brand, so we find a lot of
people come to us looking for us to represent them
into the market.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Fantastic good and so I appreciate you so very much.
Jane Larnie, who's up early for us in Queensland this morning,
out of Robert Walters in Brisbane. You'll note the lilt
of the Irish accent. I'm led to believe tomorrow is
the day in Ireland that they'll be calling an election ahead.
Where is it there it has I've got it a
poll out of Ireland finn a Gael, fin a fail,

(02:29):
Gail's still ahead, twenty six fin of fail, twenty shinfean eighteen.
The Greens who are involved in the government at the moment,
they're on four, so they're expected tomorrow to call a
vote and will be interesting too. A lot of democracy
going on in the world at the moment. For more
from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

(02:51):
on iHeartRadio.