era “global boiling” here, sending shivers down the young worker’s spine. But instead of sitting with their worries, Gen Z and millennials are trying to save the planet by quitting jobs that aren’t environmentally friendly.
Actually, new research A Deloitte study shows that about 45% of the two youngest generations of workers have already left or plan to do so due to climate change concerns.
The consulting giant surveyed more than 22,800 Gen Z and Millennials in 44 countries on most continents and found that climate change is a concern for the majority of respondents, with 62% of Gen Z and 59% of Millennials reporting they are worried about the state of the economy. planets just in the last month.
However, instead of waiting for government leaders to step in and take action, they are taking matters into their own hands by refusing to work for employers who do not make the health of the planet a priority.
More than 70% of respondents said they consider the environmental policies of potential employers when looking for a job, and for a quarter of Gen Z and millennials, this influenced whether they would take a job or not.
Meanwhile, a third of respondents said they would carefully review an organization’s sustainability practices before accepting a future job.
What environmentally conscious employees want to see from a business
Some of the environmental initiatives that respondents said they would like to see more from employers include offering more environmentally friendly products or services to customers and committing to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. .
Gen Z and millennial workers also said that subsidies in exchange for sustainable choices (such as cycling to work schemes) wouldn’t hurt, and that they were looking for green offices.
Perhaps surprisingly, the most popular thing an employer can do to attract environmentally conscious young employees is to teach them to become even better stewards of the earth: almost a third of respondents said they want sustainability training.
“Protecting the environment is a social issue, and respondents believe that business has the greatest opportunity and influence to drive change,” the report notes. “Gen Z and millennials are pushing businesses towards this through their career decisions and consumer behavior.”
Of course, not everyone is ready to leave an environmentally harmful job, but even those who are not looking at leaving are embracing their inner Greta Thunberg and demanding change for the better from their current employer.
About half of Gen Z (54%) and Millennials (48%) said they, along with their peers, are putting pressure on management to join the green generation – a steady increase from 2022, when 48% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials said the same.
Other young people have given up work because of the climate
While fears of climate change have clearly inspired many young people to make the future of work greener, it’s also having the opposite effect on others: Some Gen Zers simply don’t see the point in working when they think about the future of the planet. still in tatters.
“It’s hard to worry too much about work as we see the world crumbling in front of us,” Ayem Kpenkaan, a Gen Z software engineer turned content creator, previously said. Luck.
“Emails or even the number of TikToks seem pretty small compared to all the climate news we receive on a daily basis.”
Being old enough to understand what’s going on in the world but too young to take leadership positions in the workplace and make a difference contributes to today’s youth apathy toward work.
“It feels strange to come to work every day knowing that the looming future—or lack of future—is completely out of my control,” another Gen Z concluded.