Told to Greet Loudly, MZ Part-Timer Says "Embarrassed"... Employer Finds It 'Incomprehensible'

Conflicting Opinions Among Netizens on Author's Complaint
Increasing Generation Fearful of Phone Calls and Competitions with Others

A self-employed person recently shared a story about struggling with part-time workers, sparking mixed reactions from netizens.

On the 18th, an online community called 'Because It's Painful, I'm the Boss' posted a thread titled 'Are part-time workers like this these days?' The author, A, who runs a restaurant, said, "A customer dropped their chopsticks, so I told the part-timer to bring some chopsticks, but the part-timer replied, 'I think they already finished eating,' so I fired them." He continued, "After that, I hired another part-timer, but when I told them to empty the trash bin at the end of their shift, they said, 'It's not full yet,' and I was frustrated."

A self-employed person recently shared a story about being troubled by a part-time worker, sparking mixed reactions from netizens. On the 18th, an online community called 'Apeunikka Sajangida' posted an article titled "Are part-time workers like this these days?"

He added, "When I told them to speak louder when greeting customers, they said, 'I'm shy...' and for a whole month, they greeted quietly by themselves with 'Welcome~' and just passed by the customers," and asked, "Are kids these days really like this?" He also lamented, "If the part-timer just served well and greeted properly, it would be fine, but it’s frustrating. I thought it would be harder to hire minors, so I only hired adults, but I have to explain everything from start to finish, and they don’t do things as instructed."

Netizens responded to A’s story with comments like, "There are many like that these days," "They probably grew up just going to academies," "It feels like they’re serving their masters, not working part-time," and "They really have no work ethic." On the other hand, some commented, "Adults probably had many things they didn’t like about young people when they were young too," "Why fire them so quickly? You should teach and encourage them," "When you get older, you don’t like the way younger generations do things," and "This isn’t a generational problem but just a person-to-person issue."

Meanwhile, it has been found that many young people suffer from a fear of talking on the phone, known as 'call phobia.' According to a survey conducted by the part-time job portal 'Alba Heaven' targeting 765 MZ generation respondents about communication styles, 40.8% reported experiencing symptoms of call phobia. Compared to the results from the past three years, the response rates were 30%, 35.7%, and now 40.8%, showing an increasing trend.

The most preferred communication method was 'text communication,' such as texting or messaging apps. The percentage of respondents who preferred text communication steadily increased from 59.3% in 2022 to 69.9% in 2023, and 73.9% in 2024. Conversely, the proportion of those who preferred 'phone communication' declined from 19.9% to 14.3%, and then to 11.4%. Among Z generation respondents suffering from call phobia, the biggest difficulty with phone calls was "having to respond immediately without time to organize thoughts" (66.3%, multiple answers allowed). Other reasons included worry about not being able to express themselves properly (62.2%) and feeling more comfortable with non-face-to-face communication like texting or messaging (46.5%).

Specific symptoms experienced during phone calls included "high tension and anxiety before answering the phone" (68.3%, multiple answers allowed) as the most significant, followed by delaying or avoiding answering calls (54.2%), worrying a lot about what to say or what was said during the call (48.7%), and physical symptoms such as a rapid heartbeat or cold sweat during calls (23.4%).