I was recently with a group of friends and the conversation veered to the topic of a particular someone who had quit their job because their boss had asked them to take their work home. For the employee, it was a breach of boundary and intrusion into their personal space that disturbed their mental peace. At first, the reaction of the employee seemed odd, perhaps even a little extreme. But when my friend mentioned that the employee was a young person — a “Gen Z” — it made sense. Such reactions from Gen Z at their workplaces do not seem ‘odd’ these days and are even expected. In fact, my friend repeatedly stressed the employee’s generational identity, as if it alone explained the incident. In another similar episode, which became viral on social media, a young employee was informed about the cancellation of her leave when she was at the airport. She didn’t come back. Instead, she recorded a video message saying she would deal with the consequences after returning from holiday. A major Indian media outlet framed the incident as a “rebellious Gen-Z” phenomenon and how this generation is “publicly challenging traditional workplace norms”. This trend comes after another phenomenon called “quiet quitting” where the young employees do not literally quit their jobs but instead do the bare minimum to stay employed. They don’t believe in going above and beyond at their workplace. Hustle culture is not for them. The phenomenon has been covered by various media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and HuffPost, among others. Now, the trend seems to have progressed to taking risks and giving resignations as such stories of Gen-Z employees resigning on the spot are becoming common. But how many of these Gen-Z workers are actually resigning remains unknown.So, who is a Gen Z? Most of us have heard this term and the connotations it carries irrespective of the context. The term evokes an image of a person who is educated, socially and culturally liberal, sartorially chic, English-speaking, urban, fluent in a new peculiar vocabulary, and above all financially well off. Yet this last trait, if it can be called one at all, is rarely mentioned in the media. In fact, almost every other trait depends on it, yet is always implied silently and never spelled out.According to the Cambridge dictionary, Gen Z or Generation Z refers to people who were born in the late 1990s and the 2000s – up to about 2010. Some other definitions consider individuals born between 1997 and 2012 as members of Gen Z too. They succeed Generation Y (the “millennials”) and precede Generation Alpha. This is the generation that grew up in the 2000s and 2010s. Hence, big picture wise, it is a value-neutral term classifying groups of people based on their birth years, not a description of shared character traits. Yet in terms of shared experiences, they do seem to have some commonalities.The one commonality that all members of this generation share is that they were all born during a specific time period that saw certain historical and technological changes, such as the rise of the internet, the consequent democratisation of information, the rise in the usage of social media, and the arrival of streaming services such as Netflix and Prime among others. Therefore, generally, they are perceived as being technologically savvy, well-read, OTT-watching and opinionated. However, this perception overlooks the fact that those historical and technological changes did not affect all members of Generation Z equally. Not all of them have had equal access to the internet and relevant devices and apps.Even when they have access to the internet, education, and even the same work opportunities, they don’t have the same freedom of choice which, in a capitalist age, is largely the product of one’s socio-economic class. The Gen-Z youngsters who wear their resignation letters on their sleeves are not from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and those who are do not have the freedom to ‘resign’ on a whim. But the current media discourse celebrates the former, and leaves the latter to suffer in silence. India has a Gen Z population of over 300 million and people earning Rs. 25,000 a month fall within the top 10% of wage earners in India. How many of them would be ready to resign over the rejection of their leave application or upon being asked to respond to emails after office hours? Only those who come from financially well-off families. The rest are likely to adjust and persist simply because they don’t have a choice. Not only do they have to pay their own bills but many are also the sole breadwinners of their family. But the media headlines, YouTube thumbnails, and social media posts cast the glorifying light only on the former and push the latter into the shadows. Moreover, they frame the stories of spontaneous resignation as a typical Gen-Z trait when it is clearly a reflection of inherited economic advantage.I have a friend who interned for at least three months at a media house without any pay. He was told that if he worked well, he would be hired on a salary of Rs 15,000 per month. That of course didn’t happen. After that internship, he was hired by another company for another internship, not full-time employment. If he were to fit into the category of ‘Gen Z’ as dictated by popular discourse, then he should have immediately left both internships. But he didn’t simply because he had no other options. No family connections. No one to make a call to editors. His experience is not an exception. It mirrors the reality of countless young people for whom resignation is not a matter of principle but luxury.This distorted representation of Gen Z is not limited to India but is part of a broader transnational narrative that mistakes class privilege for a generational trait. Recently, a young man from Pakistan wrote an article titled “It’s Over” about how the new generation in Pakistan is not buying patriotism and whatever the older generation is trying to sell. If the younger lot can’t fight against the power, they are quietly leaving the country.The writer emphasised that there is a big disconnect between Gen Z and the current regime. The former wants faster internet, cheaper smartphones, the latter wants firewalls and higher taxes on smartphones. There is no common ground. Since the economy is in dire straits, Gen Z finds solace in books, social media, and coffee shops. The boomers in power will soon realise that no one is listening to them because the Gen Z have their headphones on and their Spotify paid for.At first, the article seems catchy, interesting, and even progressive. But a closer look reveals that it’s not written by an ordinary Gen Z but someone from a privileged background. The piece went viral on social media and was widely read as confirmation that Gen Z has it all figured out. But those who shared it didn’t even notice or probably chose to ignore that the writer does not even live in Pakistan. He is doing PhD in the USA, has worked in the US Department of Justice, and both his parents are well-known names in the TV industry of Pakistan.The article ultimately exposes how narratives shaped by the privileged class often remain disconnected from the everyday realities of young Pakistanis. At a time when Gen Z has the highest unemployment rate in the country, most cannot find solace in coffee shops nor can their Spotify be paid for. The writer can choose to leave Pakistan to study and work abroad but that is not a reflection of him being Gen Z or having higher morals. It is rather a reflection of access to resources required to make such choices. But for the 26 million out-of-school children, such choices are not a matter of ethics or ambitions, they are simply beyond their reach.It’s commendable that there is so much buzz around this generation in the media. There is almost a celebration that Gen Z is radically different, more ethical, and has it all figured out. But the truth is Gen Z doesn’t have it all figured out. Yes, they are different from the previous generation just like the previous generation was different from the one before it. No one had it all figured out then. No one has it today.Moreover, Gen Z is not a monolith. It’s an entire generation and it is as diverse as one could imagine. Individuals within this generation have different experiences and different needs shaped largely by their socioeconomic realities. Treating Gen Z as a single, ‘successful’ story may be convenient but it is intellectually lazy and socially misleading. Understanding Gen Z requires less celebration and more attention to the unequal realities within it, and to the structures that produce them.Mohd Akran has degrees in journalism and politics. He works as an assistant research analyst in New Delhi and has a keen interest in cinema, culture, and the politics of representation and narratives in media.