Many CWU students and other job seekers have said they are struggling to find work, causing them to broaden their prospects by searching in nearby towns up to an hour or two away.
A statistical analysis collected by Natasa Milojevic, a former contributor to cake.com and P.H.D. graduate in human communication and collaboration, looks at Gen Z work culture and how it might be affecting this challenging job market.
Milojevic procured an array of data, bringing awareness to this issue nationally by collecting responses between 2020 and 2025 amongst Gen Z workers. According to their findings, workers born between 1997 and 2012 are prioritizing their passions over the traditional 9-to-5 grind that previous worker generations have adapted to.
In addition, Milojevic noted in their research that 92% of Gen Z would like to discuss mental health in the workplace, along with solutions to handle these challenges. Some advocate for more mental health days or specific spaces for workers to decompress throughout the day.
A Fred Meyer employee in Ellensburg, Hunter Ely, spoke about how challenging it is to find an entry-level position that provides a livable wage while still being able to have a life outside of his work. “I would rather not slave away for these poor wages,” Ely said.
Gabriel Rogers, who lives in Ellensburg, is struggling to find work locally because the town’s population currently outnumbers available jobs. “With the limited job market, it is hard to find a passion-driven field to get into,” Rogers said.
Rogers also stated that they have tried to find a 9-to-5 in Ellensburg, but the struggle at work has affected their mental health.
A cook with Holmes Dining at CWU, Edgar Perez-Chavez, said he appreciates the students he works with, both past and present, pointing out the plethora of issues the older generations tend to ignore or have unnecessarily adapted to. Mental health, he said, is one of the issues that is rarely discussed.
“[It’s a] struggle that everyone deals with, yet is rarely confronted in the workplace,” Perez-Chavez said. He added that student dining employees can now take mental health days when they are needed.
“Sometimes you just need a mental break because working, especially in a kitchen, can be mentally taxing,” Perez-Chavez said. He noted that even if there isn’t a dedicated space for workers to decompress, employers could give workers a break to step outside and take a deep breath or to scream in their car if it has been an extremely difficult day.
Both Ely and Rogers also agreed that mental health awareness is crucial in the workplace. They claimed that managers should discuss and care about mental well-being to maintain a healthy and cohesive environment.