Gen Z workers don’t want to be the boss. Can you really blame them?

OpinionWork columnistOctober 29, 2026 — 1:14pmOctober 29, 2026 — 1:14pmFor generations, there has been a well-worn path in workplaces. The unspoken rule was that everyone wanted to move up the ranks. You start in a junior role, perform it well, and soon you’d get noticed and move another notch up the career ladder.The common trajectory sees you start managing another person, then a few more, maybe even a small team until eventually, you’re responsible for a group of employees. That’s the way that careers have traditionally progressed for a long time.Gen Z workers have watched their parents and older siblings struggle with the harsh realities of managing teams, and decided that they don’t want to sign up to the same system.GettyBut something strange is happening in today’s workplaces, and fewer people seem to want to be the boss. Driven by a shift in how younger workers view their jobs, many of them are opting out of the traditional structures and have little desire to be managers. This trend is happening around the world and has even been nicknamed as “conscious unbossing”.Let’s look at some of the data. Research conducted this year by YouGov for the HR platform Deel captured the views of over 1000 Australian workers aged 18 to 29. Very few of them aspired to be the boss, with only 24 per cent saying that leading a team was a goal for the next decade, and fewer than a third were focused on progressing in their current role.Deloitte’s 2026 Gen Z and Millennial survey of over 20,000 people in 44 countries found an even more startling statistic, with only 6 per cent of younger workers saying that achieving a leadership position is their primary career goal.Moving up the food chain, with all the additional work involved, is no longer a priority with the most cited barriers being stress and burnout, excessive responsibility and concerns about work/life balance.Sure, a boss is paid slightly more to compensate for the extra workload, but it’s not a trade-off many younger workers are willing to make.This will be a big problem by 2030 when Gen Z workers will make up almost a third of the workforce across OECD countries.And really, can you blame them? Being a manager can be high stress with little reward. Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workforce showed that the group of people in organisations whose engagement levels had dropped the most in the last few years have been managers.Sure, a boss is paid slightly more to compensate for the extra workload, but it’s not a trade-off many younger workers are willing to make.In fact, lots of them have watched their parents and older siblings struggle with the harsh realities of managing teams, and decided that they don’t want to sign up to the same system. Their different approach to work can be easily misinterpreted, but it’s partly a way for them to protect themselves from the downsides of overwork.Just because they are no longer eyeing off the corner office doesn’t mean that younger workers don’t care. In fact, it often means that they care enough to not burn themselves out in the process of trying to get somewhere.Over time, that might change. The Deloitte study found 80 per cent of Gen Z are interested in managing people at some point – just not yet, and not on today’s terms.But for the short-term, our workplaces are going to have to deal with a younger generation that doesn’t want to be the boss. They’re happy to do their job, learn a little and enjoy their freedoms instead of sacrificing them in a hurry on the way to the top.Gen Z haven’t stopped climbing the career ladder because of laziness. They are standing at the bottom and looking up at all the exhausted people clinging to the middle and asking a reasonable question: what’s in it for me?And if employers want someone to run their team in five years, they need a better answer than the one they’re currently giving.Tim Duggan’s new book, Clear in Tension: How to get better at conflict, is out now from www.clearintension.com.au.Expert tips on how to save, invest and make the most of your money delivered to your inbox every Sunday. Sign up for our Real Money newsletter.Tim Duggan is an author, founder and optimist. He co-founded Junkee Media, is the Chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance and writes the monthly newsletter, OUTLET (One Useful Thing Literally Every Time).From our partners