‘Hello?’ Gen Z’s silence on the phone baffles older workers

Gen Z is quietly redefining phone etiquette, leaving generational gaps at the dial tone

LOOK, OVER HERE at London Inc. HQ, we’re trying not to dump on Gen Z too much for their workplace habits. For one thing, they get enough of that from everybody else. For another, in the not-too-distant future they’ll be calling the shots, and we want to stay on their good side. (They’ve already made me feel self-conscious about wearing ankle socks.)

Click here to view this article in the London Inc. Worklife newsletter

But sometimes, reports of odd Gen Z behaviour surface and we are forced to ask questions, like, do gen Z know how to answer the phone?

Apparently not universally ― at least according to one viral post from a recruiter. “I’m a recruiter, so I do a ton of phone interviews, and something I’ve noticed about Gen Z specifically is that a lot of them answer the phone and don’t say anything,” wrote the recruiter on X. “Like, I can hear their breathing and the background noise, but they wait for you to say hello first.” 

Story Continues Below

 

Let’s at least assume the post is truly from a recruiter. What on earth is going on here? The Financial Times’ Pilita Clark was as gobsmacked as us, and looked into it. Turns out there’s some truth to this. “A remarkable 40 per cent of British people between 18 and 24 think it is acceptable to answer a phone call without any form of greeting,” Clark wrote, citing a YouGov poll.

Surely not here in Canada, you’re thinking. Wrong again. “It’s very common,” said Mary Jane Copps, a Canadian communications consultant at The Phone Lady.

The reason, she says, comes down to robocalls. “Rather than start the conversation and then discover it is a recorded message or scam, they wait to hear who or what is calling them before they respond.” (Digital communications experts say that from a strategic level, this checks out. Saying hello and engaging with a spam call flags you as a potential mark. “By saying hello, you’re confirming that your number is active, which can land you on even more robocall lists,” wrote Charlotte Hilton Andersen.)

Okay, so that’s fine ― when it’s a robocall. It is probably much less fine when we are talking about real people on the other end of the phone. Like a recruiter, or a job you applied for or a job you interviewed for. Will anyone go to bat for this behaviour?

Actually, yes. “What you’re observing is less a lack of etiquette and more a shift in how Gen Z navigates power, privacy and presence in real time,” said Career Nomad CEO Patrice Williams-Lindo. “The pause is a form of boundary setting, not rudeness.” A stretch, perhaps, but a defence nonetheless.

Story Continues Below

 

But nothing is as constant as change, as the saying goes, and whether you like this new trend or not, it’s an evolution we’re going to have to live with. “What we are witnessing is an evolution of social norms, and the ones that bristle against it are the ones that are having the hardest time adjusting,” said Williams-Lindo. “A cheery or corporate ‘hello’ can come across as disingenuous or emotionally performative. Gen Zers value emotional clarity over politeness. They want authenticity, not artifice.”

All that said, it’s still a little strange. To a millennial over the age of 30, the idea of waiting for the other person to start a call that I answered is as cringe-worthy as ankle socks. This author must regrettably side with the olds on this one.

“A young person who knows such simple truths [to answer the phone] can stand out from the ruck in ways that would have seemed inconceivable just a short while ago,” Clark concludes. “It is such an easy way to excel. Grab it while it lasts.”