We need to talk about the faces we see in the office every day.
I’m not talking about the polite nods in the hallway or the rehearsed smiles during Zoom calls. I’m talking about the moments in between, when the screen goes dark, or when they think no one is watching. If you look closely at the younger workforce, especially those born after the year 2000 (often called Gen Z), you don’t just see exhaustion; you see a profound, vibrating tension.
It is heartbreaking. As someone who observes this daily, I often feel a deep pang of pity and responsibility. These young adults are walking into a world that demands everything from them while giving them very few tools to navigate it. They are arguably the most connected generation in history, yet they are suffering from a unique, suffocating isolation that is killing them from the inside out.
The Paralysis of “Right” and “Wrong”
One of the most disturbing trends I witness is a complete paralysis of decision-making. We often mistake this for laziness or a lack of initiative, but it is actually decision fatigue combined with a fear of failure.
In the past, guidance was fairly binary: Do this, don’t do that. Today, a young person in the office is bombarded with a thousand conflicting narratives. They are struggling to decipher:
- What is right?
- What is wrong?
- Who is the villain in this story, and who is the hero?
They lack the ability to decide because the compass has been broken. We are living in an era of information overload but a deficit of wisdom. Either there is no guidance, leaving them to drift in a sea of ambiguity, or there is wrong guidance, influencers, biased algorithms, and cynical peers telling them that the system is rigged and effort is futile.
This leaves them in a state of constant anxiety. They are terrified of making a move because they don’t trust their own judgment. They look for a mentor, a “North Star,” but often find only managers who are too busy to care or leaders who are equally lost.
The Trust Deficit and the Mask of Happiness
Perhaps the most painful aspect of this generation’s struggle is their inability to share their pain.
You see them laughing in the breakroom. You see the carefully curated Instagram stories where their lives look vibrant and full. But this is often a defense mechanism, a “glitch” in their emotional processing. They laugh on the outside because they are crying on the inside.
Why don’t they speak up? Because they are paralyzed by a dilemma: Whom can I believe?
Trust has been eroded. They have seen institutions fail, leaders lie, and privacy violated. As a result, they bottle everything up. They don’t realize that the simple act of sharing, of being vulnerable with a trusted mentor or friend, is the bedrock of mental strength. They view vulnerability as a weakness, a chink in the armor that someone will exploit.
So, they carry this heavy, invisible backpack of trauma and confusion every single day. They suffer in silence, convinced that they are the only ones feeling this way, not realizing that the person sitting next to them is drowning in the exact same water.
The Heavy Hand of Unfulfilled Parental Dreams
We cannot discuss the state of this generation without addressing the elephant in the room: Parenting.
It pains me to say this, but a significant portion of this generation’s anxiety is inherited. Too many parents today are not raising children; they are raising “second chances” for themselves.
I see so many young people who are not pursuing their own dreams, but are shackled to the unfulfilled ambitions of their parents.
- The father who failed to become an engineer forces his son into coding.
- The mother who wanted to be a doctor pushes her daughter into medicine.
These parents use their children as “Goal Achievers.” The child ceases to be an individual human being with unique desires and talents; they become a project. A trophy.
When a parent interferes in a child’s dream to force their own agenda, they aren’t just changing a career path; they are breaking a spirit. The child grows up feeling that their love is conditional, based only on performance and obedience. This pressure creates a deep-seated resentment and a feeling of being an imposter in one’s own life. They are walking a path they never chose, carrying a map drawn by someone else.
The Poison of Comparison and “Showcasing”
To make matters worse, we have thrown these kids into a digital arena of constant “showcasing.”
The pressure isn’t just to succeed; it is to appear successful. In the race to showcase themselves as “better” than their peers, they lose their own essence. They become brands rather than people.
This is where the concept of pseudo-partiality haunts them. Whether it’s favoritism at home (siblings being pitted against each other) or at the office (managers playing favorites), this generation is hyper-aware of inequality. They feel constantly judged, measured, and found wanting.
This creates a visceral, physical reaction. You can see the irritation in their body language. The suffocation is literal, they feel like they cannot breathe. They are dying a little bit each day, their true selves eroding under the friction of pretending to be someone they are not. And the tragedy is, as you noted, no one notices. We just see the metrics, the KPIs, and the deliverables. We don’t see the dying soul behind the screen.
The Collapse of the “Village”
There is an African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The tragedy of the post-2000 generation is that the village has collapsed.
- No Proper Parenting: As discussed, parenting has shifted from nurturing to managing.
- No Proper Friends: Friendships have become transactional or superficial, based on social media clout rather than deep connection.
- No Proper Teachers: The education system has become an assembly line, prioritizing rote memorization over character building or critical thinking.
- No Proper Organizations: Companies are often too focused on quarterly results to give young employees the one thing they need most: Time.
Organizations today rarely give young people the freedom to fail, to explore, and to gain experience organically. We expect them to be “plug-and-play” perfect from day one. When they stumble, we label them “entitled” or “soft,” rather than recognizing they are unsupported.
A Call to Action: From Pity to Opportunity
So, where do we go from here?
To those of us looking at these faces, to the managers, the seniors, the older siblings, and the parents, I ask you to shift your perspective.
It is easy to degrade this generation. It is easy to mock their sensitivity or their confusion. But that is the lazy path. If you truly feel the pity and pain for them that I do, then we must become the guidance they lack.
We must stop judging and start mentoring.
- Create Psychological Safety: We need to build environments where they can say “I don’t know” or “I’m scared” without fear of retribution. We need to teach them that sharing pain is not weakness, it is the first step to resilience.
- Stop the Comparison Game: Parents, stop comparing your children to their cousins. Managers, stop pitting employees against one another in hunger games. Celebrate their individual essence.
- Give Them Time: Allow them the grace to grow. Experience cannot be downloaded; it must be lived. Give them the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them without the world collapsing.
- Listen to Understand, Not to Reply: When they do try to share, don’t immediately jump in with “guidance.” Just listen. Validate their pain. Sometimes, knowing they aren’t crazy is the only guidance they need.
These young people are not broken; they are burdened. They have immense potential, creativity, and a desire to do good. But they are suffocating under the weight of a world that demands perfection while offering no direction.
Let us not be another source of pressure. Let us be the ones who finally open the door, let some air in, and say, “It’s okay. You have time. You are enough.”
Let them live their lives to the fullest, not the life we want for them, but the life they were meant to live.