Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw’s comments spark generation debate

Members of Gen Z need to be praised three times a week, while Millennials need praise three times a year and Gen X-ers only need praise once a year, according to Australia’s top cop.

Australia’s top cop has stirred up the generation wars, declaring that members of Gen Z need to be “praised three times a week”.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said this compared to Millennials who needed praise only “three times a year” and Gen X-ers like him who only needed it “once a year”.

Speaking to the Senate Estimates Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee about workforce development, Commissioner Kershaw also reflected on the growing use of emojis by both older and younger people.

“I saw some emojis that Gen Z use that are actually offensive but my generation is sending these emojis,” he said.

Reece Kershaw has stirred the generation wars. Picture: Gary Ramage

“The world is changing is what I am saying. Like a happy face can mean the opposite in Gen Z land.”

Generation X describes those born from 1965 to 1980, Millennials from 1981 to 1996 and Generation Z from 1997 to 2010.

Social researcher Mark McCrindle said he wasn’t ­surprised by the neediness of Gen Z as they had grown up with positive encouragement where “every child gets a turn at being player of the week”.

“There are understandable reasons for this because anxiety and mental health challenges are very prevalent for this generation,” he said.

Mr McCrindle said the workplace was the key social prism that most young people passed through each week.

“So it’s the place of social interaction, purpose and belonging, and therefore they’re expecting more positive feedback, support and guidance than the previous generations had,” he said.

Mr McCrindle said there was a problem if people provide motivation but no substance, support but no foundation, and encouragement but no guidelines.

“We end up with an options generation with lots of opportunities but no resilience and independence,” he said.

Melbourne psychologist Deirdre Brandner agreed the need for praise among younger people reflected the “degree of vulnerability of some individuals’ sense of themselves”.

“We are inadvertently setting up a misconception that young people deserve to be happy all the time and that things will be okay all the time which means they can’t always cope when times are tough,” she said.

“Patting on the back if it’s not warranted doesn’t acknowledge that there are still things that need to be learnt.”

Psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said there was a “great sense of entitlement among young people in 2023 compared to past years”.

“Young people today expect a hell of a lot more than when we were growing up when it was more about tough love,” he said. Dr Carr-Gregg said young people needed praise to help them build positive brain pathways, but that there was no need for excessive praise for doing the right thing.