Generation Z learning, employment, and development motivation crisis: influence of COVID-19 pandemic

The article deals with the issues of motivation and development of Generation Z representatives. This article considers the relationship, analyses similarities and differences between the representatives of those modern-day social movements and trends such as downshifting, NEET, YOLO, and hikikomori. The au thors analyse the influence of each movement in demotivation of young employees to work: a conscious rejection of a career in downshifting; rejection of both work and training in NEET; abandonment of intensive and well-paid job in economically unstable projects to free personal time in YOLO; and finally, rejection also of social life, a total voluntary withdrawal from life of young hikikomori people. Issues of work motivation and value orientation of contemporary youth in Russia and the world, trends in social responsibility, and crisis phenomena in the labour market are discussed. The authors analyse the behaviour of the able-bodied, socially, and economically active population worldwide under the influence of a common extraordinary external factor - the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering this analysis, the authors identify a paradoxical discrepancy: with skyrocketing unemployment and job shortages, and mass closures of numerous small businesses, there is no increase in competition, but a decrease in the interest and motivation of employees belonging to Generation Z in stable employment and development in a particular profession. At the same time, the paper aims to forecast the situation in the labour market and to identify opportunities for overcoming the current crisis and the strategic prospects for motivating and developing employees of the new generation. The paper focuses on the issues of work motivation as well as responsible behaviour of employees and on the phenomena of crisis in the training of young people. All the above-described phenomena are also analysed through the prism of «Generation Theory» to determine the vector of value management in modern companies.