Michelle Obama: Gen Z need bad bosses to be successful

Wednesday, 3 June 2026

Michelle Obama stated that Gen Z must learn to endure 'bad bosses' and 'boring assistant jobs,' arguing that overcoming these workplace challenges is essential for developing resilience.

She criticised parents who try to 'curate their kids’ experiences,' arguing instead that young people need to be left to 'figure things out'.

The former first lady warned that a culture of 'instant gratification' holds young people back.

Michelle Obama has said Gen Z needs to learn to endure bad bosses and boring jobs.

The former US first lady warned that a culture of instant gratification was holding back the next generation from developing the resilience needed to become leaders.

According to The Times, she told a live podcast recording in east London: “That’s what I want young people to understand: that every experience, the bad boss, the boring assistant job, the job you thought that you weren’t appreciated, the one that didn’t give you the assignment you wanted when you wanted it – all of that is learning to be resilient.

“One thing that’s important is to learn how to do something you don’t like to do and be good at it.”

The 62-year-old was flanked by Craig Robinson, her brother, who is a basketball executive, during an event at SXSW London, which saw the pair in conversation for their IMO podcast reflecting on their upbringing, education and parenting.

The wife of former US president Barack encouraged the next generation to embrace setbacks as “character building”.

Appearing on stage at The Truman Brewery in Shoreditch, she said: “I think a lot of young people want to do what they want to do, or what they are good at. But you have got to earn that, carrying some bags and having some tough times and having people treat you unfairly.

“Not giving you the raise when you think you deserve it, there’s character building that gets you ready down the line before being your own manager, being your own leader.”

Last week, official figures revealed more than one million young people in the UK were not in education, employment or training – the highest level in more than 12 years.

The rise has been spurred by a sharp fall in entry-level job opportunities, with the number of mid- and lower-skilled jobs in the economy falling by around 1.6 million during the past 20 years.

(There has been similar reporting in New Zealand.)

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that vacancies in hospitality have halved in the last four years alone.

Mrs Obama said she had encouraged her own daughters, Malia and Sasha, and would “encourage a lot of young people” to hold off on work and instead do “a gap year or two”.

The former first lady said she had been forced to fend for herself growing up.

“Everybody is trying to curate their kids’ experiences, and ours were just not,” she said, adding: “Our parents did not feel like our lives were theirs to manage or to make better or worse… We were required to figure things out and go to them for counsel, but not for intervention.

“So you leave home having practised those skills, and you start thinking at a very young age, ‘There isn’t anything I can’t figure out’.”

‘I want to help people’

Mrs Obama said pivoting from working as an Ivy League-educated lawyer to the “grit and scrum” of city work had led her to discover that she was motivated by “helping people”.

“That is what got me up every day, feeling really excited, and nobody taught me that or teaches young people that in college,” she said.

After leaving the White House, Mrs Obama wrote a memoir, Becoming, which has sold more than 17 million copies.

She also founded a production company, Higher Ground, with her husband, which won an Academy Award in 2019 for the documentary American Factory.

Last November, she launched a glossy new coffee-table book, The Look, about her wardrobe.

Addressing her latest role as a podcast host, she said: “I feel like I have a responsibility having had opportunities, exposure and to have sat at every powerful table there is.

“I have seen it all, every table I’ve been at and I feel like it’s my job to come down from the mountain and be like, ‘This is the mood’.

“There’s so many people like me, like you, women, minorities, folks who aren’t supposed to be at these tables, because they are sitting around thinking that they’re imposters… I’ve never heard a white man talk about impostor syndrome. I haven’t met one.”