When I started my career in Tata Consultancy Services back in 2007, the workplace was completely different. There were cubicles with desktop computers, everybody would wear formals, and I would address supervisors as “Sir”. Fast forward to today, I am managing teams where a 22-year-old developer would casually suggest we completely overhaul our deployment process during a standup meeting.
Working in tech for more than 15 years, I’ve seen waves of new people come and go. But honestly? Gen Z has been different. They’ve shaken things up in ways I didn’t expect, and I’m still figuring out how to manage it all.
These Gen Z folks just get technology differently than we do. We had to learn programming step by step, but they seem to breathe it. They jump straight to automation, AI and cloud stuff that honestly makes me feel old sometimes.
I used to pride myself on working long hours a day and weekend deployments. It was a badge of honour. There was no concept of work from home. But watching my Gen Z team members set clear boundaries has honestly made me a better manager—and probably a healthier person. They’ve normalised conversations about mental and physical health, work-life balance, and sustainable productivity in ways that I didn’t think of in my early career.
I remember when one young associate came to me asking for a day off while we were in a crucial development phase. My brain immediately went to “Oh no, what about the deadline?” But you know what? When he came back, his work was so much cleaner than when he was stressed out and pulling all-nighters. This generation has taught us that sustainable performance beats heroic exhaustion every single time.
Here’s where I’ll be honest, the communication gap is real. I write these long emails with all the details spelt out. These guys? They’ll send me a short message with a couple of emojis. That’s it. Took me forever to get used to it, and I’m probably still not great at their communication style.
What I initially saw as unprofessional communication, I now understand as efficiency-focused interaction. They prefer quick, iterative feedback over long-form explanations. It works, but it requires unlearning decades of formal communication habits.
Traditional Indian workplace culture has always been hierarchical. The whole respect-your-seniors thing that we grew up with? Gen Z doesn’t really do that. They’ll question everything, suggest completely different ways of doing things, and they expect you to actually listen to them even if they just graduated from college.
Sure, we’ve come up with some really cool solutions because of this, but it’s also been intense. I’ve had to figure out the difference between a kid being disrespectful and a kid genuinely trying to make things better. Sometimes when they ask “Why do we do it this way?” they’re not being difficult – they actually want to understand.
I’ve worked at the same company for over a decade, but these Gen Z developers treat job changes like we used to treat switching projects. I’ve lost count of how many talented people I’ve trained who then left within 18 months for a “better opportunity.”
Don’t get me wrong—I understand wanting to grow and explore. But from a business perspective, it’s exhausting. You invest months getting someone up to speed, they start contributing meaningfully, and then they hand in their notice because some startup offered them a slightly better package or work from home option.
The tricky part is that you can’t really blame them for it. They’re smart about their careers in ways my generation wasn’t. But it does make long-term planning a headache. I’ve started adjusting by focusing on knowledge transfer and documentation more, and trying to create growth opportunities internally. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
What I’ve learned is that you can’t just enforce the old rules. We stopped forcing everyone to be in the office from 9 to 5, and now we just make sure people are available during certain hours when we need to collaborate.
You still need accountability, obviously, but you have to deliver it in ways that actually work for all. Gen Z responds well to clear expectations communicated through their preferred channels.
Look, managing through all this change has been a learning experience. It’s not about which generation is right or wrong – it’s about figuring out how to make everyone’s strengths work together. Gen Z brings new ideas and actually cares about not burning out. Those of us who’ve been around longer bring the experience to know what might blow up in your face. After all these years in the industry, I can honestly say that learning to work with Gen Z hasn’t just changed how I manage – it’s made our whole company better at what we do.
