Podcast: Why Gen Z Is Misunderstood at Work | Leadership Coach Calle Foster Breaks It Down
The Ripple Effect with Ray
In this episode of The Ripple Effect with Ray, I joined Ray to talk about Gen Z in the workplace, the burnout Millennials are quietly running on, and what it actually takes to build a career that feels like yours instead of one you inherited.
We got into why Gen Z is so consistently misread at work, and why most of the complaints leaders bring me aren't really about Gen Z at all. They're about expectations nobody ever said out loud, now being questioned by people who are perfectly comfortable asking. Spoiler: "they don't want to work" almost always turns out to mean "they won't perform being busy," which is a completely different problem and a much easier one to fix.
I shared how leaders can skip the stereotypes (no, a boundary is not entitlement, and no, your annual review does not count as feedback) and instead build the kind of clarity that makes generational differences stop being a daily negotiation. We also got into entrepreneurship, side hustles, transferable skills, and finding purpose through your values, plus how to tell the difference between a job that's gone boring and a job that's actually over.
Throughout the conversation, I shared practical ways to bridge generational gaps with empathy, including how hitting rock bottom tends to become a turning point, how to recognize when it's genuinely time to leave, and how leadership coaching helps people build the confidence to make the move. If you're leading a multigenerational team, or you're the one staring at your calendar on a Sunday night doing the math on how much longer you can keep this up, this episode is for you.