Generational, gender gaps on workplace issues appear

A Generation Z* man slouches into the office in jeans and a T-shirt, iced matcha latte in one hand and a smartphone in the other. His Baby Boomer boss has been at her desk for hours in a suit with a mug of hot coffee in one hand and a watch, which she just glanced at, on her wrist.
Older managers griping about younger direct reports (and vice versa) is as time-worn pastime.

Below, we look at the differences and similarities between, and within, the four “reference point” generations (Gen Zers, Millennials, Generation Xers and Boomers) who often need to find some common ground to collaborate and co-operate at work in 2025.

1. Mental health is health. Back when Boomers were just starting out the idea of telling their boss they were taking a sick day due to stress was pretty unthinkable.

Times have changed.

Gen Zers, and to some extent Millennials, have come of age in a time when self-care and mental health are often openly talked about everywhere from in the office to on social media.

Our latest World Mental Health Day polling bears out this generational divide with both Gen Z women (55% on average across 31 countries) and men (54%) the most likely cohorts to say they’ve felt stressed to the point they couldn’t go to work for a period of time at least once during the past year, with Millennial women (50%) and men (48%) not far behind.

2. Leaning out of DEI efforts. And it isn’t only attitudes about mental health that have changed drastically since Boomers started entering the workforce in the sixties.

Many women now work outside the home and are increasingly leading companies and even countries.

Yet there’s still significant progress to be made. A mere 10% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are women even though women are about half of the global population. And women still only earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn for work of equal value, according to the United Nations.

Despite this, our latest International Women’s Day survey finds men across the generations are more likely than their female peers to agree that “we have gone so far in promoting women's equality that we are discriminating against men.”

And younger males, many of whom have grown up amid a sea of manosphere podcasts and tradwife influencers, are most likely hold this view (Gen Z men, 57%; Millennial men, 56%) while Boomer women (29%) are the least likely to think the women’s movement means men are now the ones being discriminated against.

Gen Z men (28%) are also the most likely cohort to agree “a man who stays home to look after his children is less of a man,” with Gen Z women (19%) less likely to hold this view. How this divergence on childcare responsibilities could show up as more Gen Zers step off school campuses and start to build careers and families remains to be seen but points to a larger pattern.

This is part of a much wider phenomenon we’ve noticed over the past couple of years. Across a range of social issues, Gen Z men and women are pulling apart, with young men leaning into traditional values and young women leaning more progressive.

- Emilie Rochester, Content Manager for the Ipsos Knowledge Centre

3. Working amid the ‘war on woke.’ The resistance to equality efforts in recent years goes beyond women’s equality.

Our recent Pride Month polling finds slightly less than two in five (38% on average across 26 countries) support employers having programs/policies that explicitly support/celebrate LGBT+ employees, with Gen Z women (53%) the most supportive and their young male peers (29%) the least supportive.

Meanwhile, amid U.S. President Donald Trump declaring a “war on woke” and rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) government initiatives older people in both Europe and America are more likely than younger cohorts to support scrapping corporate DEI and environmental, social and governance (ESG) programs.

4. Too long in the tooth? The ultimate victory of Trump last year was due, in part, to heated discussions about whether Joe Biden (born in 1942 and thus a member of the Silent Generation) was too old to run and whether he was healthy enough.

It turned out many thought Biden wasn’t up to the job despite only being four years older than Trump.

Biden dropped out and two Boomers on either end of that generation spectrum (Trump born in 1946 and Kamala Harris born in 1964) duked it out.

While it may seem like Boomers still run the world and the boardrooms the average age of a Fortune 500 CEO is 57, a.k.a. firmly elder Gen Xers.

Ageism is undoubtedly alive and well in politics, the corporate world and society-at-large but the Ipsos Attitudes to Ageing 2025 report finds almost two in five (38% on average across 32 countries) think no age is too old to perform the role of CEO/leader of a large company. Gen Z (43%) and Millennial (41%) women are the most likely to hold this view, with Millennial men (34%) the least likely to agree.

Three in ten people across the 32 countries in our survey think there’s no age at which someone is too old to be the leader of their country. But a slim majority [54% on average globally] do think there’s a point when age means they can no longer perform the role adequately. For 16 countries in our survey, the average cut off age chosen by its citizens would rule out their country’s current leader.

- Emilie Rochester, Content Manager for the Ipsos Knowledge Centre

5.  The robots are coming … to steal our jobs? As debates about a range of DEI issues rage on a new topic has moved to the forefront lately: artificial intelligence (AI).

There have been a flurry of reports in the last year or so warning of a “white-collar bloodbath” due to AI replacing jobs, in particular entry-level positions.

This has struck a nerve with those at the start of their careers. 

Close to half of Gen Z (47%) men and women (43%) think it’s likely that AI will replace their current job in the next five years, while Boomer men (20%) and women (26%) who are mostly at, or near, the end of their careers are the least concerned.

And more immediate impacts, such as the trickle-down effect of Trump’s global trade war, appears to have Gen Z men the most stressed that they, or someone in their family or someone else they know personally, will lose their job by the end of the year as a result of economic conditions (58% are worried), while Boomer women (41%) are the least likely to be stressed about this.

These are stressful times for many employees.

The work world is becoming more complex and as our polling shows stereotypes about how people feel about a range of topics are often not quite right. Younger people, as our latest Generations report notes, are not a monolith; neither are older people.

While we can’t ensure Boomer bosses and Gen Zer underlings will see eye-to-eye on everything our polling can hopefully help everyone from seasoned CEOs to summer interns understand, and perhaps, empathize with each other now and in the future.

Check out the Ipsos Generations Report 2025 for more interesting insights into people across ages and stages.

Melissa Dunne is a senior data journalist with Ipsos and is based in Canada.

*Generation Z (born between 1996-2012), Millennials (born between 1980-1995), Generation X (born between 1966-1979), Baby Boomers (born between 1945-1965) and Silent Generation (born between 1925-1944).