Business owner sparks massive generational debate after leaving a young worker in tears: ‘Harden up’

A business owner has called on older managers to treat their Gen Z staff better after seeing two young employees burst into tears on the job.

Sunshine Coast local Rachel Lynch twice witnessed older bosses berating young workers for minor mistakes.

One cafe owner made a worker cry after shouting at her for forgetting an order, while elsewhere a manager left a worker in tears because they had messed up the order.

Ms. Lynch shared her experiences with TikTok on May 24, he claimed that older bosses didn’t seem to work well with Gen Z Aussies.

She asked her followers if the incidents were just a “Sunny Coast thing” or a “generational thing.”

Many believed that Gen Z was too soft and needed to toughen up, while others argued that older managers needed to be more patient with their staff.

Sunshine Coast entrepreneur Rachel Lynch shared a video about the generational problem faced by older managers and young Gen Z workers

In the first incident, Ms Lynch went to a cafe and was served by a young girl, who took her order for a ham and cheese baguette on May 24.

While waiting 15 minutes for her food, Ms Lynch said she heard the young worker tell other customers she had forgotten their order.

“She goes in and tells her boss that she already forgot the order she brought out,” Ms. Lynch said.

‘Then the door closes, as if that will help. It’s an old Queenslander building, we can hear everything.

‘Then he starts shouting at her saying, ‘You can’t just keep forgetting orders, you can’t do this.’ He screams, she is clearly panicking, she starts to cry.’

Ms Lynch said the manager was not overly aggressive and was right to feel frustrated, but felt the confrontation was unnecessary.

She added that the boss’s response left the employee crying and left the issue unresolved.

In another incident, which happened a few months ago, Ms Lynch said she saw a “young child” crying and on the verge of a panic attack because she had messed up the order.

Ms. Lynch said the manager, who she thought was between the “old millenials and boomer,” was “quite vocal in their outrage.”

“It wasn’t in an aggressive way where people had to intervene… but it was loud enough that everyone in the restaurant could hear it,” Ms Lynch said.

Ms Lynch, who runs Dog and Gun Coffee, says older managers need to learn how to better support “more fragile” Gen Z workers.

She described the generation gap as an “intense relationship” in which both parties deal with criticism differently.

“It’s like this intense relationship between older managers and entrepreneurs and their younger employees. You hire young staff because you don’t want to pay a lot, I understand that, business is tough,” Ms Lynch said.

‘But you have to learn to work with younger people, especially with different generations.

‘Gen Z is softer, more vulnerable and wants to collaborate more. You can’t just shout at them, that won’t help them.’

Ms. Lynch explained that she had twice witnessed an older manager yelling at their much younger employee. She added that boomers need to learn not to yell, as this won’t solve the problems and won’t work for “more fragile” Gen Z workers.

Ms Lynch said the environment boomers experienced when they were young and at work wouldn’t necessarily work for Gen Z Aussies starting their careers.

She noted that employees handle criticism differently and that yelling at Generation Z workers could leave them “heartbroken.”

“If a boomer yelled at a boomer, they pulled up their socks and got to it and said, ‘I’ll show them, I’ll work as hard as I’ve ever worked,’” Ms. Lynch said.

The video sparked a fierce debate among social media users, with many claiming that Generation Z workers were “entitled” and needed to take tougher action.

“I’m an older millennial manager with a lot of Gen Z staff – it’s a terribly entitled generation, with no work ethic or common sense,” one person wrote.

“Gen Z feels unjustly entitled and gets angry when people call them out on it,” a second person noted.

A third added: “The young generation should take a teaspoon of cement and let it harden.”

Others claimed that older managers should never yell at their staff, even though they learned to do so when they were younger.

‘They’re both wrong. bIt is not the practice to remember everything and you should never yell at employees,” one person noted.

‘It’s the employer’s job to give their staff the tools to do the job correctly, literally give her a pen and a notepad. Yelling at the staff is completely unprofessional/unacceptable,” a second person wrote.

‘I remember being young and also lacking resilience and crying at work over silly things. I guess it just takes time to build trust! Not necessarily for the gens,” said a third person.

A fourth added: “I agree with what you said. That managers shouldn’t shout at people, but that you shouldn’t give in to the younger people either. There was always another way to get your point across.”