Young workers are accused of caring only about their own discomfort. What happens when people demanding empathy dismiss the harm of shouting at them?
A rule that catches its own author
A familiar complaint goes like this: young employees dislike being yelled at but supposedly do not care about older coworkers' frustration. Someone who demands consideration while abandoning teammates to extra work certainly needs to change.
But imagine the speaker then insisting, “You should respect our feelings,” while calling a young colleague weak for objecting to shouting. The referee has blown the whistle only to discover the foul belongs to the referee. That is the boomerang.
A generation, or just a behavior?
A meta-analysis of workplace generation studies found few systematic, meaningful differences across a variety of work attitudes and behaviors.[1] It was released online in 2024 and appeared in a 2025 journal issue. It does not establish that everyone has identical empathy. It does weaken the leap from a few annoying people to an entire birth cohort.
Millennials were previously stereotyped as self-centered, unmotivated and disrespectful.[5] The villain changes while the script stays remarkably familiar. Five studies involving 3,458 US adults also found that people were more likely to see today's youth as deficient in qualities they themselves valued and believed they possessed. Idealized memories of the past contributed as well.[2]
Imagine comparing the carefully retouched scrapbook of your youth with raw security-camera footage showing every mistake made by today's new hire. Of course the past looks better. This is an illustration of research findings, not a diagnosis of anyone on social media.
Feeling uncomfortable does not make every request equally fair
A junior employee changes a deadline without telling anyone. The manager can reasonably request notice and accountability. That manager starts shouting. The employee can reasonably request a calm explanation. “Tell us when you change a deadline” and “put up with my intimidation” are very different demands.
A 2025 WHO report describes harms associated with corporal punishment of children.[3] Separately, a 2026 meta-analysis of 39 studies with 32,909 participants linked abusive leadership to poorer worker and organizational outcomes.[4] Surviving harsh treatment does not grant a transferable license to inflict it.
One standard in both directions
Ask what actually happened, who was affected, which behavior needs to change, and whether you would judge it the same way with the ages reversed. Hold young workers accountable for shirking work and older managers accountable for intimidation.
“Please consider our feelings” is a reasonable request. Just make sure the word “our” includes the people you are criticizing.
References (5)
- Ravid, Costanza & Romero (2025 journal issue, online 2024), Generational differences at work? https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2827
- Protzko & Schooler (2019), Kids these days: Why the youth of today seem lacking (five studies, N=3,458). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav5916
- WHO (2025), Corporal punishment of children: the public health impact. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/B09424
- Singh, Gupta & Sarda (2026), Cascading effect of abusive leadership on employee and organizational outcome (39 studies, N=32,909). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106312
- Myers & Sadaghiani (2010), Millennials in the Workplace. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9172-7
