If you’ve ever walked up to a cashier or front desk and been met with a silent stare, you’ve been a victim of the “Gen Z gaze.”
Talk about the Gen Z gaze has been taking over X, with older generations complaining about how kids these days handle customer service jobs.
In one post with over 1.7 million views, user @pbprot said that they are “so sick of the new style of customer service where people just stare at you when you walk up to the counter/service desk.”
“The car service guy saying ‘good morning, I’ll be with you in a minute’ immediately made me start thinking ‘wow, THIS is how you run a business,’” they shared.
The following day, @Nordman__ shared a similar sentiment, writing that “There is a new phenomenon that when you walk into a food place or coffee shop, etc, they just stare at you and don’t say anything first.”
In response, a user dubbed that stare “the Gen Z gaze.”
While it might not seem like a big deal to initiate conversation as a customer, many shared that being on the receiving end of the silence has caused confusion and isn’t what is expected from customer-facing roles.
The initial poster, @pbprot, noted in a follow-up post that they don’t expect any special treatment, but “how am I supposed to know I’m talking to the right person, or that the person is ready for the interaction and not working on something else, if I’m greeted with a blank stare?”
Another person shared a time they went to a restaurant and were met with “The Stare from a hostess (and what really even is their job other than to greet you?).” When they asked for a table for two, the hostess wordlessly led them into the dining room.
“Now — is she showing me to my table? Checking for availability? Quitting on the spot?” the person questioned.
“Why do more and more workers just hit you with the fluoride stare like it’s unnatural that a customer would walk into a place of business,” another pointed out.
“At doctors’ and dentists’, front desk people act like they have no idea why you’re there and give a dazed stare like they don’t know what a doctor or dentist is,” someone else shared.
“You walk up to a counter or desk and feel like you need to apologize,” one noted.
Naturally, many service workers who are guilty of the Gen Z gaze defended themselves and reminded the internet that they their jobs suck.
“No disrespect, but if you had to deal with the insane amount of absolutely f–king braindead people you’ve ever met in your life for 8 hours a day 5 days a week you would do this and people have been doing this since jobs as a concept were invented,” one person wrote on X.
However, many rejected the notion that just because the job isn’t great doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be greeting customers.
“I remember the first time a friend told me she didn’t think customers were ‘owed’ friendliness. Just a mind-boggling mindset,” one person shared, “And it’s so insidious, I really don’t think people realize they’re infected with it. Work is so much better for everyone if you’re making an effort!”
“It’s just mass entitlement. Everyone is suddenly entitled to everything and they’re mad that they have to work those jobs and can’t have everything handed to them,” another said.
“I had a lady ask to hug me because I was so nice, and she said it made her so relieved to not deal with negativity for once. I was just being normal!” a fellow customer service worker shared. “The quality of service is so pathetically low now. It pisses me off so much since I’ve done these jobs and know there’s no excuse.”
“They’re extremely coddled people who think they have nothing to lose because they don’t like their job,” the user who coined “Gen Z gaze” added.
This phenomenon could also be linked to the decline of social and verbal skills in Gen Z after the COVID-19 pandemic.
A 2024 survey from Preply, an online language learning platform, found that “reduced [in-person] interactions have particularly affected Gen Z, as many were in education during the pandemic.”
“As a consequence of the virtual world, they have missed out on crucial opportunities to both develop and practice their communication skills,” Preply said in a press release.
“This lack of exposure affects their ability to read social cues, engage in spontaneous conversations, and build interpersonal relationships,” Christine Byrne, a public relations executive at Looq AI, told Forbes at the time.
One X user added to this argument, also blaming the increase in use of modern technology.
“In general, Gen Z culture doesn’t have a norm for greeting/acknowledging people they don’t already know. Their custom is headphones/eyes down until engagement is required,” @lauren_wilford wrote.
“I think this comes from a combination of screen-habituation (chronically staring at something that never ‘looks back’ at you), social anxiety from lack of practice in the public square, and a new norm around not ‘bothering people’ (inserting yourself into anyone’s social space).”
