‘I was the only one left’: Why is Covid so much harder on Gen Z

A bottle shop worker has revealed the extent the Omicron wave had on young people at work, with people off work for days.

A bottle shop manager has revealed the impact the Omicron wave had on young people, with all his staff off work for days at a time.

It’s a no-brainer that Covid hasn’t been good for anyone.

In terms of physical health, young people have been considered somewhat lucky — with no pre-existing conditions the data showed they had a better recovery rate. That’s all well and good, but when it comes to mental health, all signs point to younger generations suffering the most.

Throughout lockdown, the industries that suffered the most — like retail and hospitality — are typically staffed with younger, casual workers. There’s no chance of working from home when your job is to pour coffee, so that’s a loss of income disproportionately affecting younger generations — the very same who are already at an economic disadvantage.

Even now that lockdowns appear to be a thing of the past, the latest Omicron wave has left many casual workers stuck at home, or left manning the ship.

‘I am vaccinated, but even still, to have avoided Covid working in customer service — I’m pretty lucky’.

As part of our newsChat project with the Judith Nielson Institute — which supports and celebrates quality journalism and storytelling around the world — we asked Aussie Gen Zers from all walks of life how they feel about the world they live in.

newsChat’s panellist, Angus Young, lives in Bathurst. While his uni classes could go online, he recalls being the last person standing at the bottle shop he works at.

“I work in retail. At one point a few weeks ago all my staff were isolating, so I was the only one left in the shop for a few days,” Angus recalled.

“I am vaccinated, but even still, to have avoided Covid working in customer service — I’m pretty lucky”.

As far as his experience with customers went during this time, he was lucky to be away from the bigger cities.

“The customers were really good about it. It was a good way to ask people to wear masks. They were usually pretty happy to once I explained I was the last staff member left.”

Despite already having a lower wellbeing at work than other age groups, Gen Z are often left baring the brunt of Covid affects.

“It was pretty intense, but at the end of the day, it was out of my hands. I’m just glad that everyone was OK in the end,” he said.

Considering Gen Z already had the lowest levels of wellbeing in the workforce — in fact, the wellbeing of people aged 15 and 24 in the workforce is a full 18 per cent lower than the average employed person — being left to pick up the pieces of a poorly handled pandemic is particularly hard to take.