Finally. A reason for Generation Y to feel smug about their work ethic.

For years, employers have been ragging on Generation Y for their supposedly lousy work ethic.

But it seems Gen Y are finally off the hook, because a new study suggests Generation Z — those born in the 1990s and now entering the workforce for the very first time — are absolute shockers when it comes to attitudes at work.

The UK survey, conducted by the LifeSkills programme jointly with the publisher Pearson, found that 43 per cent of employers were worried about young recruits using their mobile phone while at work or taking too long on breaks, while 41 per cent believed young people lacked time management and punctuality skills, The Daily Mail reports.

The newspaper reports that the study of 500 small and medium-sized businesses found 61 per cent of employers said entry-level workers had poor “self-management and resilience”, while 50 per cent said they’d noticed a lack of problem-solving skills.

While those figures may seem shockingly high to some, they were no surprise to the managers we asked — who regaled us with entry-level employee horror stories ranging from bared midriffs in a corporate workplace to unexplained no-shows.

While we’re sure there are a lot of Gen Z-ers who don’t fit this stereotype, here are a few of examples of what definitely, absolutely, positively not to do at work (and if you know anyone born in the ’90s, you might want to pass it on):

Turning up late… or not turning up at all.

“We had an intern who didn’t turn up one day and texted at 4pm to literally say: ‘soz, doesn’t look like I’ll make it because UNI’,” one manager told us, adding: “I had another employee who not only turned up whenever she felt like it, but once fell asleep at her desk.”

A stylist told us she had a 20-year-old assistant who would “just cancel all the bloody time. for no good reason. Half an hour before she was supposed to be assisting someone on a shoot.”

One of the worst offences we heard? The employee who quit his corporate law job – without actually telling anyone.

“He just stopped showing up,” the employer told us. “And despite many emails and text messages, I never heard from him again.”

Telling your boss you want their job – but you don’t want to work for it.

“I had a 19-year-old tell me in an interview that she wasn’t interested in a job with ‘assistant’ in the title and wouldn’t have applied if she’d realised,” one human resources manager told us. “Her previous experience was being a waitress and working at Just Jeans.”

Another employer — who used to recruit entry-level writers at her magazine — told us: “I once said to a graduate, ‘What job would you like to have, which department interests you?’

“In all seriousness she replied, ‘Your job — you know, in like, a year or something’…. My job at the time had taken me 10 years to earn!”

One former manager at said impatience was all too common amongst his younger workers.

“Loads of them had so much ‘tude,” he said. “No sense they had to pay their dues. They just felt like they should have gotten a promotion yesterday.”

Misjudging the officewear vibe.

“I had an intern who used to constantly expose her midriff,” one manager told us.

But if that sounds far too informal to be appropriate, it’s only marginally worse than severely overdressing.

“We had a new girl who would turn up to work every day in a ball gown,” one book publisher said. “Like a full on Josh Goot, going-to-the-Logies ballgown.

“It was bizarre.”

Doing technology wrong.

An accountant told us that some junior employees at her firm seemed oblivious to the fact their social media posts were visible to the wider world.

“We had to let one junior go after she tweeted about how annoying we all were at work and how bored she was,” one accountant told us.

Another faux pas? Using phones to visibly text and call friends during work hours.

“I started asking one assistant to do an admin task for me and she said ‘hold on, I have to finish sending my text message’,” an analyst weighed in. “She was young — I’m guessing she was Gen Z.”

Finally, we bring you this gem, as told to us by a campaigns manager at a not-for-profit.

“Our grad texted late at night to say she wouldn’t be coming in the following day… because her boyfriend had a cold, and she wanted to make sure he was okay.”

Can we get a facepalm?