Gen Z Firings: Early Career Turbulence, Not Generational Flaw
- Paige DeSorbo and Hannah Berner argue Gen Z firing rates reflect age, not generational decline—early twenties failure is universal.
- The viral "initiative costs extra" response highlights Gen Z's refusal to perform unpaid ambition.
- What millennials call entitlement, Gen Z calls scope creep; the workplace vocabulary evolves, but the twenty-something learning curve remains constant.
Getting fired isn't a generational curse. It's the tax on being twenty-three.
Paige DeSorbo pushed back on viral reports claiming Gen Z faces "alarming" firing rates because they're uniquely unmanageable. On Giggly Squad, she argued what looks like generational failure is actually the predictable turbulence of early adulthood.
Messing up first and second jobs is standard operating procedure when you're learning professional norms from scratch.
The distinction matters. Millennials watching Gen Z enter the workforce see entitlement; Gen Z sees boundary-setting. When commenters claimed young workers "don't take initiative," the response went viral: "Initiative costs extra. Like, you're not paying me."
That line captures the friction. Gen Z treats unpaid ambition as scope creep; their bosses treat clock-watching as disengagement. DeSorbo—who admits she was fired in her early twenties, as did co-host Hannah Berner—suggests both sides are misreading the situation.
Age, not attitude, explains the gap. Early-career mistakes are universal. The vocabulary changes—"job hopping," "quiet quitting," refusing to work unpaid overtime—but the experience remains constant.
Today's critics were yesterday's firees.
Paige DeSorbo, Giggly Squad:
- I don't think it's necessarily Gen Z.
- I think it's being that age.
- Anyone that age, like in your early and mid20s, like it's very easy to mess up at your first job, second job.