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Sebastian Leon Martinez had pounded the pavement for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani from frigid 23-degree cold snaps in January to the 100-degree day in June when the young democratic socialist stunned the political establishment by winning the primary for the Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n
That night, Martinez, a 20-year-old NYU student, found himself \u201csweaty, laughing, incredibly tired\u201d at Mamdani\u2019s victory party in Queens. It was a \u201cmonumental\u201d moment, Martinez told me a week later. \u201cA lot of people around me were crying and laughing,\u201d he recalled. \u201cTalking about how we\u2019ve changed the political system, not only in New York City, but probably for the entire Democratic Party in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as the 33-year-old candidate\u2019s supporters cheered Mamdani\u2019s win, business titans from Wall Street to Silicon Valley slid into panic mode at the thought of a socialist running New York City. Hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb warned of a \u201chot commie summer\u201d in a post on X. Fellow billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman pledged to bankroll any New York City mayoral candidate capable of defeating Mamdani.<\/p>\n
Is Gen Z rejecting capitalism outright, some wondered, as their millennial counterparts tried to do with the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011? Could Mamdani\u2019s win spark a full embrace of socialism by the next generation, fulfilling dire predictions about the imminent demise of \u201clate capitalism\u201d?<\/p>\n
In a word: no. That\u2019s what I heard in a series of conversations with members of Gen Z and those who study them in the business and political spheres. Most scoffed at the notion that young people are rejecting capitalism on a large scale, or planning any kind of a revolution. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not seeing young people go live on communes,\u201d said Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at Syracuse University. \u201cThey\u2019re working at banks, they\u2019re starting gig economies, they\u2019re working in high tech. If that\u2019s not capitalism, I\u2019m not clear what would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a message for political and business leaders to glean from the youth movement buoying Mamdani, it\u2019s perhaps a simpler one: Stop bullshitting us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Gen Z is asking for is honesty,\u201d explained Ziad Ahmed, the 26-year-old head of United Talent Agency\u2019s Gen Z\u2013focused marketing advisory practice, Next Gen. \u201cIf the world is on fire, tell me the world is on fire. Don\u2019t tell me that actually, you might like the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
I heard over and over that young people are deeply \u201cdiscontented\u201d or \u201cdisillusioned\u201d with the status quo. Saad Amer, a New York\u2013based climate activist and founder of the sustainability consultancy Justice Environment, said the next generation has been told a \u201cfable\u201d of how to succeed in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Gen Z is asking for is honesty. If the world is on fire, tell me the world is on fire. Don\u2019t tell me that actually, you might like the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ziad Ahmed, Head of Next Gen at United Talent Agency<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people are sold the story of, \u2018Go to school, get good grades, go to college, and then you\u2019ll get a great job, and you\u2019ll own a home, and you\u2019ll have a family,\u2019\u201d Amer said. \u201cI look around at my peers, and that\u2019s not true for any single one of them.\u201d Instead, he said, he sees people \u201cstuck in careers that they find unfulfilling\u2014and that are also having disastrous impacts on their mental health and the planet at large. It\u2019s clear that what we\u2019re being told isn\u2019t true.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just liberal Gen Zers who feel this way. Rachel Janfaza, the 27-year-old founder of youth political culture newsletter The Up and Up, regularly holds listening sessions with young voters across the country. She has seen similar frustrations on the Republican side of the aisle, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve certainly heard young people on the right who are very anti-billionaire and antiestablishment talk in the same way that we hear young people on the left,\u201d she said. \u201cThis type of rhetoric exists on both sides. And I think there are a lot of similarities in why Trump resonates with young people and why perhaps Mamdani resonated with young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Janfaza boils it down to one key issue: economic anxiety. And it\u2019s not just in their heads. The average age of first-time U.S. homebuyers hit a record high last year at 38. In the country\u2019s 30 largest metros, more than half of Gen Z renters are rent-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent, Zillow found. And nearly a quarter of millennials and Gen Zers without children do not plan to become parents, primarily owing to financial stress, according to a recent report from MassMutual.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no wonder, then, that instead of career politicians, Gen Zers are embracing outsider candidates who speak bluntly to this economic anxiety\u2014a strength of Mamdani\u2019s, and arguably Trump\u2019s too. They\u2019re done with dated rhetoric, PR talking points, and leaders \u201csiloing themselves in boardrooms\u201d instead of meeting Gen Zers where they are, Ahmed told me.<\/p>\n
Business leaders, take note. Members of Gen Z aren\u2019t just craving real talk\u2014and action\u2014from politicians; they\u2019re also demanding it of their CEOs. Younger workers want the same things previous generations wanted: fair pay, rewarding work, mentorship, job security, a clear and fair path to advancement\u2014and they\u2019re not going to be content with kombucha-filled fridges or other office perks. This is a generation that has grown up with school shootings so frequent they\u2019ve become normalized, with massive student debt, and in the shadow of a looming climate crisis. Of course they are demanding change\u2014both from their politicians and their employers.<\/p>\n
Charlene Li, an author who advises companies on digital transformation, told me that the two key value for Gen Z workers are honesty and fairness. Both require transparency: Leaders need to clearly state how success is measured and offer concrete opportunities and financial rewards to employees who meet these measures, she says.<\/p>\n
Bleak outlook<\/p>\n
Gen Z can\u2019t take for granted the life milestones older generations expected to hit.<\/p>\n
38<\/p>\n
The record-high average age of first-time U.S. homebuyers in 2024<\/p>\n
23% <\/p>\n
Percentage of childless Millennials and Gen Zers who don\u2019t plan to become parents, primarily for financial reasons
Sources: National Association of Realtors; MassMutual<\/p>\n
The word \u201cpurpose\u201d is frequently used by consultancies and business advisors to describe what Gen Z truly wants in a workplace. But what does that look like in practice? At the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit in May, Ahmed told me that workers should understand the \u201cwhy\u201d behind every business decision. Managers must clearly articulate their reasoning\u2014to both their workers and customers, he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it has to be as lofty as changing the world, because Gen Z also has a huge bullshit filter, and doesn\u2019t want you to say that you stand for everything if you don\u2019t,\u201d Ahmed said. \u201cAuthenticity is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
A good starting point would be a more straightforward discussion of diversity and equity, Li says. Instead of relying upon box-checking or acronyms such as DEI, she advises business leaders to take a hard look at the demographics of who is getting promotions and raises, and to think critically about company\u2014and C-suite\u2014makeup: \u201cThat\u2019s what people are looking for, not just Gen Z,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking for some authenticity between what you have on your walls and on your websites and how you actually show up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Business leaders also need to listen to younger workers\u2014their complaints, thoughts, and opinions about the business and the world. That doesn\u2019t mean you need to hold a town hall tomorrow on the merits of Marxism, but it does require a certain level of respect and thoughtfulness, even for views that leaders disagree with.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Gen Z, politics are very personal,\u201d Li said. \u201cWork is going to be deeply personal to them.
This is not something where they want to go in and just check off the list. So will you be ready to take that energy and bottle it and direct it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s win seems to have brought to the surface generational tensions and anxieties that had been simmering long before he became a political celebrity.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Spiers, a progressive digital strategist and journalist, said political and business leaders tend to conflate younger generations\u2019 criticism of economic systems with political extremism. \u201cThey sort of treat capitalism like it\u2019s a sacred cow that can never be spoken of in anything less than glowing terms,\u201d Spiers said. But the precarities that young people face are real, she said: \u201cThey\u2019ve grown up in an economic environment where a lot of those myths have sort of fallen apart in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the disillusionment of young people who see corporate hierarchies as fundamentally unfair will take more than just better workplace communication; young people are also demanding real action to improve their economic prospects, both from politicians and from the business world.<\/p>\n
Amer, who advises Fortune 500 C-suite executives on climate impact, said he has been \u201cseeing the fear\u201d in business leaders\u2019 eyes when talking about how to work with and engage a young workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese corporations do have a role that they should be playing, and I think they are actively trying to figure out the role,\u201d he said. \u201cBut to the younger generation, the role seems obvious: Do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article appears in the August\/September 2025 issue of Fortune with the headline \u201cGen Z\u2019s wake-up call to corporate America.\u201d<\/p>\n
#billionaires #CEOs #panicking #Zohran #Mamdani #wrong #Gen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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