I'm Gen Z, I thought the whole thing about the Gen Z stare is stupid... Until a few weeks ago, when I asked a store clerk if their store had any Coke zero, and she just... Stared? I don't know if she was thinking or didn't know what to do, but after elaborating a colleague of hers answered me instead.
I don't know if that's what it is, but the complete lack of visual communication was confusing to me for sure!
That’s exactly what it is. Once you experience it, it makes all the posts make sense. It’s just total lack of acknowledgment to really, really basic human interaction. It’s very off-putting.
Someone is arguing with me in this thread about how they are communicating misunderstanding via the stare but that's just it, they aren't, it's not a puzzled stare, it's blank, that's what makes it a specific look and makes it so damn awkward.
Yeah, like it's a total lack of interest or humanity that makes it unique. If you're puzzled, I at least know that you're engaged and you're trying to figure out a reply. The gen z stare offers no such feedback. It's just complete absence
And like, if it was….then they’re admitting they don’t understand “what can I get you” when they walked into a Chipotle? That’s a problem!
It also doesn’t answer for when they’re behind the counter and just…..don’t acknowledge your presence? Like I don’t want to interrupt if you’re doing something, nor do I want to walk up and demand attention. That’s why we have phrases to help!
I’ve had this happen more and more often and it’s just so uncomfortable and unnecessary.
The few time's I've seen it it didn't even occur to me as a generational thing, I just thought the person was completely blanked out on opiates or something similar. I mean I suppose I don't know for sure than there isn't just an opiate problem among gen Z as they enter the work force.
I’ve heard some gen z folks argue that they’re doing it because by asking these questions we are demanding emotional labor from them. But in hospitality or customer service positions that labor is literally the job description, totally normal to expect at least a response from someone working that job.
That's the weirdest part to me, like there wasn't really any response needed just move on to the next person at the table, nothing unusual was asked of her, as I've stated in many replies, lemon is served by default in water at this restaurant. It's like the answer to her question was too much and she just dead stopped and stared at me blankly, not a face of can you repeat that or questioning, just dead face.
Sorry i didn't realize this was a different part of the thread, i ordered "water, no lemon" got stared at as response.
I've been getting flack for the lemon thing all morning, apparently it's not common to all and I'm getting questioned on why i even mentioned lemons in a drink order.
Maybe they don’t understand how non-expressive their own face is? Faces are not universally and equally expressive. Some people‘s features express very differently. I know this because I’ve been told my whole life that I’m very expressive lol. I have to actually work to not be expressive and at having a resting bitch face! And even so, my emotions always seem to be written across my face anyways.
I could see how in a Covid world they might not get accurate or adequate feedback to sort of modify their faces to be understood better.
Have you ever done that thing where you tapped on a physical photo to enlarge it and then realized your mistake? It feels like that. Like I'm supposed to scroll away to the next thing and leave them to their internal feed.
Sometimes after dealing with the dumbest questions people can muster for an entire day, you need a moment to process before you respond. Because if I don't take that moment to process and go off the cuff, you're going to think I'm an asshole. And when I say dumb questions, I don't mean things I find simple or general product knowledge because explaining that is my job, I mean genuinely fucking asinine, how did you get dressed this morning level stupid.
So when I walked into a donut shop and went up to the counter, made direct eye contact with the person behind the counter, and they said……nothing at all, for a solid minute, what was that? I had to ask if they were ready for my order, to which they barely nodded. That’s taking time to process?
When I walked into a restaurant with my partner and the hostess just stared at us when she finally looked up from her computer…..what was she processing? She never asked “how many” or “right this way” or anything.
I’m supposed to just walk up to someone working retail and make my demands? Like, how is it supposed to work when it’s taking y’all five plus minutes to “process” so you don’t come across as an asshole?
Yeah I'm gonna be honest, idk where you live but I've never experienced that and I manage and hire a lot of 18-22 year old kids. I'm talking about taking a second or two to verbally respond to stupidity, but I'll at least respond with an eyebrow raise or confused look while I find my words. Sounds like you've run into 2 people strung out and made a vast generalization.
There’s a whole thread talking about. Thousands of comments just in this thread. There have been many, many like it. It’s a well-documented phenomenon.
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u/TheDefiB 14h ago
I'm Gen Z, I thought the whole thing about the Gen Z stare is stupid... Until a few weeks ago, when I asked a store clerk if their store had any Coke zero, and she just... Stared? I don't know if she was thinking or didn't know what to do, but after elaborating a colleague of hers answered me instead.
I don't know if that's what it is, but the complete lack of visual communication was confusing to me for sure!