'Are they just [THAT] afraid of confrontation': Millennial boss sparks discussion about "ghost quitting" and whether it's a Gen Z thing or a minimum wage job thing

Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor

Mar 31, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

Have you ever started working a job that you quickly realized you did not enjoy and wanted to peace out as fast as possible from? You can't usually do this with big fancy jobs, but something like you just got hired at a fast-food restaurant or some retail shop? It's pretty easy to just leave after lunch and ghost. One millennial manager reached out to Reddit on r/smallbusiness asking if any other managers were experiencing this thing she called "ghost quitting" and if it was a generational thing—she specifically contributed it to Gen Z.

The small business owner seems to run a pretty smoother operation. She pays competitive wages, has very flexible scheduling, no early mornings or late nights, and many of her employees have been working for her for several years—one has even been there for over 15 years! So she cannot understand why multiple times now she hires a new employee and they simply ghost, no two-weeks notice or even a simply "I quit" note. As a small business, she checks in on the well-being of all her employees, so when they ghost quit like that it is upsetting and she has even come close to filling a missing persons report.

This has happened to this millennial manager only by Gen Z, so she wonders if it is just something that generation does because they are afraid to face any sort of confrontation. However, in a shocking turn of events, millennials and Gen X have come to an agreement and DON'T blame the Gen Z. They say it is simply a low wage job-thing. If it is a job that is hardly paying them enough to live off of, then many people simply don't want to give anymore effort and that includes the effort of going through the professional steps of quitting.

We are still shocked that millennials and Gen X are in agreement. Check out below what they had to say and read how some of them even "ghost quit" themselves back in the day.

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