Explaining the “Gen Z Stare” Phenomenon
If you’ve interacted with someone born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, there’s a chance you’ve been on the receiving end of what the internet calls the “Gen Z stare.” The viral expression looks like a mixture of boredom and judgment, yet it’s not always easy to figure out what it really means.
From a niche joke on TikTok in 2024, the concept has now grown into a cultural and heavily debated point across the country. The more you look at it, the more the whole thing says less about a generation being “aloof” and more about the world they’ve grown up in. But as always, older generations are quick to point fingers at the unfamiliar.
A Look That Stuck
@7newsaustraliaThe so-called ‘Gen Z stare’ has divided the internet – and even generations – with people arguing that it has become a real problem in the workplace. #genzstare #stare #genz #workplace #debate #internet #7NEWS♬ original sound – 7NEWS Australia
Videos that popularized the term showed young people meeting everyday situations with wide eyes and no words, which left older coworkers, managers, or customers puzzled. TikTok skits exaggerated the moment, like baristas holding a blank gaze at customers fumbling with a card reader.
To many Zoomers, the look was simply a way of saying, “Did you really just do that?” For people outside Gen Z, though, the expression raised different interpretations.
Work, Values, and the Silent Protest
The conversation about the stare picked up momentum in professional settings. Managers began linking it to the wider trend of young employees rejecting hustle culture and “quiet quitting.”
Researchers at NYU Stern’s Initiative on Purpose and Flourishing, led by Suzy Welch, have been studying generational differences in workplace values. Using a tool called The Values Bridge, they surveyed more than 30,000 people since May 2025 and found a striking pattern: Gen Z consistently ranks “Achievement”—the drive to be seen as successful—much lower than other generations. On average, it lands at 11th out of 15 core values, with 65% of Gen Z respondents saying achievement already takes up too much space in their lives.
That shift explains a lot about the expression managers keep running into. When older bosses view constant striving as the default, a blank face at being told to push harder feels like a refusal. For many young workers, though, the stare is less defiance and more of a boundary. Values like self-expression and balance are rated far higher, with up to 85% of Gen Z respondents putting them in their top five priorities.
Growing Up Online And In Lockdown
Image via Getty Images/da-kuk
Beyond workplace values, cultural context shaped this behavior too. Gen Z is the first generation to come of age entirely in the digital era. Phones, social media, and AirPods were part of their lives before they hit middle school. Conversations often took place through screens, and silence was normal.
It’s not strange for that template to carry into real-world exchanges. Then came the pandemic in 2020. Most Zoomers between the ages of 8 and 23 at the time spent critical months in isolation, stripped of daily external face-to-face interactions.
Psychologists argue that this disruption slowed the natural development of small talk. So when they returned to in-person work or service jobs, a long pause or wordless look didn’t always signal rudeness because it was simply their learned default.
Misread Signals
Experts caution against jumping to conclusions about what the stare means. Older generations tend to assume that eye contact and verbal cues are the universal signs of attentiveness, but for Gen Z, that’s not always the case. Some interpret the stare as active listening, not dismissal. Others use it to signal they won’t pretend to be cheerful in the face of frustrating behavior.
It doesn’t help that customer service roles are often first jobs for young people. A blank look can occur when they don’t yet know the “script” for workplace politeness, or when they’re unwilling to fake enthusiasm. In that way, the stare reflects a gap in training and generational expectations rather than a moral failing.
It’s also worth asking how much of this is simply internet exaggeration. Generational “quirks” becoming memes isn’t new. Millennials were teased for the “pause” in their videos, Gen X was accused of being cynical, and Boomers were labeled out of touch. Each cycle produces jokes that stick around. The “Gen Z stare” may partly just be a modern version of this tradition.
Reading Between The Lines
Image via iStockphoto/KatarzynaBialasiewicz
The real challenge lies in the disconnect between perception and intention. Employers, teachers, and even customers might project their own expectations onto a simple facial expression. This creates a generational standoff due to mismatched definitions of respect and engagement.
So is the Gen Z stare rude, or is it just misunderstood? Probably both, depending on the situation. But what’s clear is that the surrounding conversation reveals as much about older generations as it does about Zoomers themselves. The stare reflects frustrations, anxieties, and shifting priorities across age groups. And maybe that’s why it has struck such a nerve.