Gen Z ‘twice’ as likely to call in sick to go to concert than millennials, study reveals

Study appears to suggest that the younger generation is more into music than their predecessors

Gen-Zers are twice as likely as millennials to take a sick day from work in order to go to a concert, a new study has found.

The research conducted by YouGov and Viagogo surveyed 2,000 adults from across the UK.

From this pool, eight per cent of millennials said they would fake a sick day to go to a gig, while 17 per cent of Gen Z responders said they’d do the same.

Millennials are those born between 1981 and 1996, while Generation Z were born between 1997 and 2012.

The study seemed to suggest that the younger generation is more into music than their predecessors, with 43 per cent of Gen Z participants saying they would give up alcohol for six months for the chance to be front row at their favourite artist’s gig.

This was higher than the overall average of 28 per cent of UK adults who said they’d do the same.

Less surprisingly, the study found that Gen-Zers are 10 per cent more likely than millennials to share content from live events on social media.

Woman dancing in the crowd at music festival (Getty Images)

The news comes after Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon said Gen-Zers are coming into the workplace without the ability to “debate things” or “disagree”.

Blaming social media, Mahon told the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge on Wednesday (20 September)‌: “What we are seeing with young people who come into the workplace, Gen Z, particularly post-pandemic and with this concentration of short-form content, is that they haven’t got the skills to debate things.

‌“They haven’t got the skills to discuss things, they haven’t got the skills to disagree.”

Research commissioned by Channel 4 showed that people in Britain watch an average of five hours of video per day, rather than live television.

According to this research, short-form video – typically content of around a minute or less – constitutes 45 per cent of viewing for those aged 16 to 34, compared to 25 per cent of viewing for older people.

Generation Z are regarded as being a very tech-savvy generation, having been born during a time of fast-paced digital growth.

In August 2018, a report of United Nations data conducted by Bloomberg found that millennials may become outnumbered by Generation Z in the near future.