Customer Disservice
Compared to previous generations, Gen Z has been through a lot of chaos in their short lifetime. Jumping straight from a brief childhood into a social media frenzy, onward through pandemic-driven young-adult years, they have survived a tumultuous entry into the real world. Gen Z isn’t even 30 yet, and they’re already socially exhausted. With the climate in crisis, the economy tanking (again), and seemingly bleak prospects in their future, Gen Z is coping in any way they can by protecting their mental wellbeing by cutting corners in the socialization department. While it may seem impolite or unconventional to avoid small talk, Gen Z views idle chitchat as a waste of everyone’s time.
Besides, having lived most of their life socializing online and connecting with their real friends on social media, in-person conversations with strangers have lost their magnitude, proving to be a menial and trivial performance.
However, the infamous “Gen Z stare”—that blank, unblinking gaze from an exasperated Gen Z customer service worker—has been making waves for the older generations. Convinced that Gen Z is just lazy and entitled in the workplace, Boomers, Gen X, and even Millennials have struggled to comprehend why Gen Z is staring at them for so long. After a lifetime of chaos, Gen Z has learned that silence and a blank stare are an effective communicator, choosing to “Freeze” instead of fighting or flying away from escalated social circumstances.
In an exclusive Cheezburger Hot Takes interview, sociology expert, Dr. Casey White, says, “[Millennials] were taught to perform emotional labor. Smile, nod, smooth things over, even when we were uncomfortable. But a lot of younger people weren’t raised with that same script.” Gen Z didn’t grow up getting forced to use a friendly customer service voice all the time, instead they grew up staring at their phones, stressing about an ever-changing future, and finishing their education via remote learning. Being quiet doesn’t mean they’re shutting down. According to Dr. White, “We just read it as rude or awkward because we were trained to over-function socially and perform emotional labor.”
The deadpan, glazed-over expression of Gen Z workers in the customer service field represents an entire generation’s values, their emotional bandwidth, and their alienation from their elders. Prioritizing realness over insubstantial filler speech, Gen Z inadvertently calls out the meaninglessness of the entire customer service machine. With no prospects of capitalizing on some future promised land, Gen Z opts instead to live out their truth in real time.
Commenting on the absurdity of the social miscommunication between the generations, Emma Beddington, a Gen X reporter for The Guardian, says, “They don’t get jobs, homes, or a livable planet—but we’re getting huffy about their ‘rudeness’ and ‘lack of social skills’?” Quite frankly, with the cards that Gen Z has been dealt for their future, the least of their worries is making a good impression on the short-tempered Karen at the front of their coffee shop line. Because to Gen Z, when a conversational inquiry doesn’t warrant a response, perhaps the only way to truly respond is with a blank, emotionless stare.
What’s the Point?
In my 20s, I worked in the retail space, enduring long hours on my feet, snappy customers, and unrealistic managerial expectations. During those retail years, I realized that there’s a point in every customer service career where an employee’s social and emotional bandwidth is tested. For folks on a budgeted social battery, starting off every day with a smile and a cheerful demeanor is completely unrealistic. Already run ragged with the woes of the world, Gen Zers struggle to slap a fake-nice expression on their face and upswing their vocal tones just to please some random, chatty customer. And to them, the practice is nonsensical.
According to Rodney Luster Ph.D. with Psychology Today, “Person-to-person interactions that one might consider agonistic or threatening, such as an offending remark, familial disagreement, or a negative communication of some kind activates aggressive rhetoric.” And as many customer service role survivors would argue, the typical work day is brimming with unpleasant customer interactions that are argumentative or even demeaning. Dr. Luster points out that in these inflammatory circumstances, silence is an effective tool for personal protection and deescalation, providing the space for reflection before reaction.
Instead of defaulting to fraudulently friendly pleasantries and apologetic platitudes like the Millennial and Gen X employees before them, Gen Z, instead, communicates their displeasure with the power of silence.
Via u/ChelseaStahll
Lost in Translation
Our social skills are shaped by the evolving world around us. As Gen Z’s chaotic entry into the world has shown, their relationship to the strangers around them is far more distanced than the elders who came before them. While Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials obsessed over good impressions, friendly street interactions, and jovial customer service manners, Gen Z, who has constantly been plugged into their socialization sphere via social media, never saw the point of placating strangers.
Through their vow of silence, perhaps Gen Z can teach every generation a thing or two about deliberate communication, encouraging everyone to think for a moment before they speak. Conversation may connect two strangers in this world, but there are some social interactions that don’t require pleasantries to proceed. We don’t need to befriend our local barista and we’re not actually emotionally connected with the bartender, they’re just performing a prescribed song-and-dance that has been perpetuated for generations.
As the social landscape shifts, so do the ways in which we interact with one another. Gen X may gripe about the “entitlement” of their 20-something-year-old barista, but perhaps it’s time to reflect on Gen Z’s entire point. Would you rather have a real, serendipitous interaction with a person, or do you want to go on pretending that they’re genuinely happy to be serving you at their abysmally underpaid customer service job?
Via u/BenGoody