Jennifer Liston-Smith’s reflections on leadership, work-life blend and the meaning of work.
In an ocean of media attention on the multigenerational workforce, HRreview and work and family solutions provider Bright Horizons boldly singled out just Gen Z and Gen X for a webinar earlier this month.
Catherine Ritchie, senior wellbeing and people experience manager at global law firm Clifford Chance, and I discussed the needs of these generations. Hosted by millennial James Marsh, hundreds of HR leaders attended and gave it a 94% approval rating.
So why should employers focus on Gen X and Gen Z?
Don’t make assumptions about Gen X
Age is one of nine “protected characteristics” covered by discrimination law (Equality Act 2010): be careful how you are viewing Gen X. In a recent article about multigenerational teams, pretty much the only features listed for Gen X (born 1965 to 1980 and currently aged 45 to 60) were “needing time” to adapt to new technology, “resistance to change” and potentially favouring “job security and benefits” over career development opportunities. Ouch.
The founders of Google, YouTube and Amazon are all Gen X (or just slightly older, in Jeff Bezos’ case). Elon Musk is also an Xer.
Gen X was dawning just as Silent Generation/Baby Boomers, The Who, released My Generation. That was in 1965, and the song suggested that all the older people who didn’t understand should just “f…f…f…fade away and don’t try and dig what we all say”.
But that was then. The Economist recently published an article titled “Why Gen X is the real loser generation”, pitching Gen X as the least happy, and objectively disadvantaged. Now sandwiched between childcare and eldercare, Xers were less fortunate than Baby Boomers with the property market and subject to the vicissitudes of the late 1990s dotcom bubble and the noughties financial crisis, just at the point when careers are meant to be surging.
Gen Z is navigating a confusing world
Our Gen Z colleagues (born between 1997 and 2012 and currently aged 13 to 28) are early career professionals, disrupted by covid during formative times, navigating the workplace amid an “always-on” world, rapidly acquiring skills and naturally questioning everything.
Like Gen X before them, it’s quite reasonable that they resent those who went before, and who have not done it well enough.
Ritchie sees the waves of new arrivals at Clifford Chance and remarks that Gen Z really seems to be the generation that has got us talking about generations at work: “There is a lot more narrative about this particular generation.”
She added that “Gen Z are really ready for a conversation about health and wellbeing, on entry to the workforce”. But it’s important to be aware that readiness for a conversation is not a bad thing, and not to “overly-label” this group as “difficult”.
Not my ‘generation’; it’s my life stage
So a key question here: are we just seeing someone’s life stage and calling it generational difference?
Perceived generational difference is partly about what was happening when you grew up, and also about what you’re carrying just now. People aged 45 to 60 often have multiple responsibilities: older and younger family dependants, high financial stakes and perhaps a looming future self with an inadequate retirement pot.
They’ve also seen all the cycles of change before, which sometimes reads like cynicism. People aged up to 28 are forging their psychological contract with employers in an ultra-connected world that thrives on questioning everything.
As Ritchie observed: “Generational differences get larger as change accelerates”. The difference between the context you grew up in and the one you’re working in is greater in a period of rapid change. So rather than labelling Gen Z as challenging, we could see how they are making sense of the conditions they are navigating.
What is Gen Z bringing?
Ritchie is also a clarity coach in her own private practice, enabling aspiring leaders to find clarity and confidence. “I have a lot of Gen Z and Millennials coming to talk about values: What should I be striving for? What is my career development?” she says.
In a world-class law firm like Clifford Chance, it’s well understood that the workplace has demands: lawyers love to do the work they do and all generations enjoy the problem-solving and want to deliver to the deadline. “But younger people are more prepared to come forward and talk about their needs too,” she adds.
Thinking about all life stages
A poll during our webinar showed HR leaders agree that all generations need more attention and that Gen Z in particular needs leaders to listen up. The key is not to stereotype but to see the people in front of us and engage with them, not with a set of assumptions.
Take family life stages. Most leading employers pay some attention to new parents now, largely addressed at Millennials (currently aged 29 to 44), but needs span much wider, into planning ahead for parenting, raising older children and adult and eldercare. The youngest group is more concerned than we might imagine across all these stages.
Bright Horizons’ Modern Families Index 2025, encompassing 3,000 UK parents and carers, showed that 78 percent of 18-34 year olds consider an employer’s family support provisions before accepting a new job or promotion (compared with 72% aged 35-54 and 52% of those aged 55+). Among those who declare adult care responsibilities, 78 percent aged 18-34 look to their employer’s care provisions before taking up a role (81% aged 35-54, 67% over 55).
Of course “paw-ternity” is increasingly discussed, with employers providing access to pet care to ensure office attendance. Again, the pattern shows high need in the youngest group of workers, and relevance across all age groups (61%, 48%, 46%).
Another poll in the HRreview webinar shows HR leaders know we are neglecting certain areas:
When we think about family support across life stages, which area tends to get most neglected?
– Planning and becoming a parent 6%
– Parents of primary age children 4%
– Parents of teenagers 29%
– People caring for adult dependants or elders 48%
– Pet care 12%
Respond culturally, developmentally and practically
Leading employers make sure there is recognition and support at the levels of culture, development and practical solutions. Culturally, this includes flexibility – trust to get things done in the best way – and having senior role models who are willing to speak up.
Developmentally, it means networks which normalise challenges and share solutions, and coaching, mentoring or buddying to help people tap into their own resourcefulness with a well-informed roadmap.
Practically it often means access to care solutions and expert advice. Ritchie talked about Clifford Chance’s popular Back-Up Care programme through Bright Horizons, and online access to advice and support. Among the many cultural and developmental supports, the firm’s mental health champions span all generations, alongside diverse wellbeing resources: “modality matters,” says Ritchie, when different people like to access things in different ways.
Diversity of thought matters too: be ready for fresh angles. Another insight shared by Ritchie is enthusiasm among Gen Z for starting clubs: from rowing clubs to choirs. These sit alongside established employee resource groups as ways of building community and bring something fresh too, reflective of the way each new generation builds on the past, at the same time as it disrupts.
Jennifer is a business psychologist, leadership coach, coaching supervisor and consultant to HR leaders.
As a UK pioneer of parent transition coaching, Jennifer set up, and for a decade led, the Coaching & Consultancy side of what became Bright Horizons Work+Family Solutions, advising employers in banking, professional services, STEM and wider sectors on programmes for working parents and carers and evaluating their impact and ROI, as well as developing coaches and coaching capability.
More recently she was Head of Thought Leadership with Bright Horizons and now serves as an independent consultant in this area.
