The career ladder reimagined

By Rukhsana Pervez

For decades, career progression followed a conventional storyline: start at the lowest rung, build tenure, climb the ladder one promotion at a time and — eventually — earn the title. Gen Z and millennial professionals, however, no longer follow this script and have since redefined work advancement.

In the Philippines, the labor market helps give this a rationale. The younger Gen Z workforce is experiencing a drop in employment due to the surge of new labor force entrants. Beyond this, last year was also marked by over 600,000 job displacements through retrenchment, business closures and automation — a wave that the Department of Labor and Employment links to accelerating AI adoption.

If Gen Zs face the risk of being displaced by technology, millennials confront a different challenge: preparing for their transition into leadership roles and preserving their organizational knowledge as experienced and more senior workers are expected to retire and step out of their positions by 2030.

This, on top of financial pressures, rising costs of living and geopolitical instability have pushed both generations to reconsider their ambitions, investing first in skills, stability, and well-being before committing to roles or paths that feel unsustainable. It’s a deliberate restructuring of priorities, with workers navigating volatility by building a personal safety net first before making a climb in the career ladder.

According to Deloitte’s 2026 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, the most striking shift for these generations is how they define progress. In the last 15 years, they have revolutionized work and leadership culture in tangible ways — normalizing flexible, hybrid work, advancing conversations on mental health and elevating purpose and values to visible factors in career decisions.

Underpinning these changes is financial pressure, the central force shaping how these generations think about work, stability and the future of work. In the Philippines, the second topmost concern of Gen Zs and millennials is the cost of living. Over half — 60 percent of Gen Zs and 53 percent of millennials — say they are financially insecure and are living paycheck to paycheck. This financial situation has pushed 64 percent of both segments to delay major life decisions such as marriage, starting a family or business, or furthering education.

This same caution carries into how they approach leadership. Eighty-five percent of Gen Zs and 74 percent of millennials in the Philippines are interested in pursuing senior leadership roles at some point in their careers. However, only a small percentage of these demographics, two percent for both, name reaching an executive role as their primary career goal. For them, career progression looks like moving forward manageably and realistically: achieving financial independence, maintaining a good work-life balance and achieving job stability and security.

This measured approach to career growth extends to how they view continuous learning and adaptability as deliberate career strategy and not just shaped by conditions. They are actively redefining their careers through sustained education, building their own version of career security rather than waiting for an employer or an economy to provide it.

While the economic uncertainty has slowed some life choices, it has also accelerated others. Gen Zs and millennials are adapting to rapid workplace evolution by investing in skills and new tools that future-proof their careers. In the Philippines, these segments are zeroing in on capabilities that combine human judgement with technical fluency: public speaking, communication skills, digital literacy and AI fluency.

Redefining growth for the next generation of talent

For organizations and business leaders, it is critical to recognize that retention and engagement strategies built around the older generation’s ladder of success are increasingly becoming divergent to what today’s younger talent wants. For these labor segments, financial stability is a crucial and legitimate driver of career decisions and part of that shift. Support and progress facilities should then be widened, with options for competitive pay and benefits, location flexibility and hybrid work considered alongside traditional promotions.

Leadership development also needs recalibration. If most of Gen Zs and millennials express desire to lead eventually but don’t consider it as their current top priority, then employers need to rethink high potential development initiatives, career pathways and leadership roles for them. The future leader cannot be perceived as one who consistently trades off personal needs in order to absorb the endless demands of the organization.

Ultimately, companies will need to treat continuous learning as a necessity, not an add-on. As the acceleration of AI adoption reshapes key competencies and operating models, organizations that reskill and allow their employees to build their AI fluency and combine them with their human judgement will be best positioned to build a workforce able to adapt and evolve to work transitions.

Gen Z and millennial professionals in the Philippines aren’t abandoning ambition but are rather rethinking it. They are building financial and professional resilience first so that when they decide to climb, they’re doing so on their own terms and at a pace that reflects the realities they’re navigating. For business leaders, bridging the gap with this generation will mean relinquishing the ladder as the sole model of success and building career paths flexible enough to hold all the different faces progress now takes.

Rukhsana Pervez is the human capital leader at Deloitte Philippines, a member firm of the Deloitte network.