Coffee in hand, emojis in mails: The many ways Gen Z rage-baits millennial recruiters

The iced latte debate is the latest addition to the ever-growing list of things Gen Z does at work that has millennials scratching their heads.

Picture this: It’s the day of your job interview. You leave for your almost-future workplace, but before you get there, you decide to stop by Blue Tokai (or your go-to coffee shop), grab yourself a tall glass of iced latte (I personally like to imagine an iced Americano), and head to the interview. As you sit through the interview, you still have your caffeine fix in hand, taking a sip or two in between.

For some Gen Z jobseekers, though, showing up to an interview with an iced coffee in hand hardly qualifies as a workplace faux pas. It’s just coffee - what’s the big deal? But put the same scene in front of a millennial or Gen X recruiter, and you might hear: “Since when was this okay in an interview?”

And just like that, we have another Gen Z–millennial workplace culture clash to add to the ever-growing list.

By now, it’s hardly news that these two generations often see work differently. From countless surveys to the endless debates playing out online and in offices, the contrasts have been well documented: millennials are more closely associated with the hustle, grind and “go the extra mile” mindset, while Gen Z prioritises peace of mind.

How did iced coffee become a part of this debate?

It all started after Caitlin Wehniainen, president of a Florida-based recruitment agency, shared a TikTok video about a rather specific interview no-no: showing up with an iced coffee in hand. It's what her Gen Z job candidates are doing, she said.

Drawing from her experience training young candidates, Wehniainen said the seemingly harmless coffee run could actually make a candidate come across as too casual, almost as if the interview was just another errand squeezed into their day.

The video quickly went viral. What was meant to be a quick tip for Gen Z jobseekers has snowballed into a full-blown generational debate, with people either agreeing that an interview calls for a certain level of formality or questioning why an iced coffee should matter at all.

So, can a cup of coffee really wreck your job interview? Should you take it into your next interview or leave it behind? Well, the internet has had plenty to say, but there’s still no definite answer. And we’re not here to give you one either.

What we are here to do is spill some tea (not coffee) on the many ways Gen Z can, mostly unknowingly, leave their recruiters rage-baited. Because the iced latte? That’s just the tip of what’s brewing.

Gen Z has a whole toolkit of workplace antics that can leave older recruiters somewhere between “Good for them” and “Are you serious?” And to be clear, “rage-baiting” here doesn’t necessarily mean Gen Z is wrong; it simply means they’re playing by a rulebook that wasn’t part of the previous generation’s syllabus.

For starters, there’s the message: “Can we reschedule?” - sent five minutes before the interview.

“Such messages sometimes come with a very casual reason,” a 36-year-old HR professional working with an airline told India Today.

“At first, it felt unusually direct, but it has made me realise that clearer expectations are becoming a natural part of the workplace,” he added.

Over time, he has also realised that some younger candidates are simply more comfortable communicating their constraints rather than forcing themselves through a process that isn’t working for them.

"Candidates rescheduling interviews by text with a one-line reason, no over-explaining. It first read as casual, but I realised it's just a healthier relationship with boundaries than my own generation had," Suvarna Mishra, HR Director, Pluxee India, said, echoing similar thoughts.

Then comes the dressing-up bit.

The suit-and-tie era isn't exactly having its biggest moment.

Sneakers, oversized T-shirts, coloured hair, piercings and, of course, the now-infamous iced coffee are making their way into interview rooms.

“A tie is certainly not a measure of competence, and employers need to recognise that. However, being neat and dressing appropriately for the setting still communicates effort. There is a difference between dropping an outdated dress code and treating an interview as an entirely casual interaction,” said Vineet Chaturvedi, Founder and CEO of ISSC.

Sachin Malhotra, Global HR and GCC leader associated with Cielo Talent, has also seen jobseekers walk in wearing sneakers and Birkenstock pairs for job interviews. In the 18 years of his career, this a rather new observation.

He recalled one candidate who turned up for a final-round interview in sneakers and a hoodie. His initial reaction wasn't exactly positive. Then the candidate answered the toughest question of the day with more clarity than anyone wearing a suit. It was a reminder, he says, that sometimes the biggest thing out of place in an interview room isn't the outfit. It's the judgement attached to it.

“I understand that you can dress casually if you’re interviewing at a marketing agency or a start-up. But I’ve had candidates who didn’t dress formally even for bank job interviews. You can’t completely disregard the workplace’s expectations around professional appearance and hygiene,” shares a 43-year-old HR consultant based in Pune.

Emojis in mails

From re-reading an email ten times to spot even the tiniest error to relying on grammar checks and asking ChatGPT to decode the tone of our words, a lot has changed in corporate communication. But one baffling addition, according to some millennial and Gen X recruiters, is that emojis have entered the chat, quite literally.

“Once I received a salary negotiation text from a candidate with a wilted flower emoji. I won’t lie, I had no idea what it meant at first. I ended up Googling it to figure out what the flower was even supposed to convey,” said a recruiting officer at a med-tech company.

Bizarre, right? Well, there’s more.

Ghosting, abrupt exits

Turns out, ghosting isn’t just a dating phenomenon anymore. Recruiters say they are also seeing candidates disappear at various stages of the hiring process.

“Candidates disappear after confirming interviews, stop responding after accepting offers, or simply don't show up on their joining date. Earlier, we believed in closing the loop. Even if we decided not to join, we'd call or email HR because you never knew when your paths would cross again. Burning bridges simply wasn't an option. Today, that professional courtesy seems to be fading, and I think that's something every candidate, regardless of generation, can improve upon,” Astha Anand, Senior HR Manager, Brand Talk, told us.

Chaturvedi, meanwhile, has even seen employees leave their laptops with HR on payday and never return to work. In some cases, they didn't even follow up on their relieving letters.

The 'bold' questions

Then there are the questions that would once have been considered almost too bold to ask before getting the job.

Like asking about a company’s expectations around replying to work messages after 7 pm, before they have even been hired. For an earlier generation of job seekers, with their more cautious bas ye naukri mil jaaye mindset, such a question might have felt like risking the job altogether. But some Gen Z jobseekers seem less interested in playing by those unspoken rules.

Rekha, Founder and CHRO, HR Angle Consulting, shares one such instance:

“A candidate once asked me in the very first round, before we had even discussed the role fully, ‘What’s your expectation on replying to messages/emails after 7 pm?’ Honestly, I rolled my eyes internally because my generation wouldn’t have dared ask that until the offer letter was signed, and most of us would have never asked at all.”

“But the more I thought about it, I understood she wasn’t signalling low commitment. She was just vibe-checking us, the same way we were assessing her. Gen Z is simply saying out loud what millennials quietly resented. For them, boundaries aren’t a lack of ambition. They are basic expectations, and companies that don’t respect them will keep losing good talent.”

Interviewing the interviewer is another common Gen Z move during job interviews. Questions about company culture, manager style, growth, flexibility and working hours are no longer necessarily saved for the final round. They want to know what they’re signing up for before they sign up, turning the interview into a two-way vibe check rather than a one-sided grilling.

But that’s just the beginning. The real rage-baiting - errr, workplace shake-up - begins once Gen Z actually joins.

- Ends