1 minute readGeneration Z is stressed, more so as a result of the two-year pandemic than other age demographic segments in the U.S.
Right, nothing remotely indicates that homebuilding and related careers may be sparking as part of Gen Z solutions for stress. The questions homebuilding thought and practice leaders should pry at and act on go beyond the pat assumption that young people don’t want to work hard, and beyond the squishy soft assertions that young people want some idealized experience of purpose.
If you look at that Indeed.com list, what jumps out the most in the case of almost 100% of those occupations is the fullness of agency – i.e. “I’m my own boss,” or “my efforts cause these positive consequences,” or “I personally matter in X way.”
Agency, efficacy, personal impact, self-determination, and a sense of mattering in the scheme of things.
These characteristics of career choices – each and all of which are highly achievable and fundamental in the building and construction and real estate occupations – can be bulwarks of how construction and real estate business leaders can respond in meaningful ways as solutions to generational stress.
Want to step up as a solution for that generational anxiety and insecurity and feeling of helplessness for 13 to 24 year-olds? Give more of them the opportunity to say these words as he, she, or they look at a family arriving to take ownership of a new home in a new community.
“My name is ____ . I built this.”
Those seven words hold the future of homebuilding as we will know it.
