Gen Z employee ignites a FURIOUS debate after telling their new boss they couldn’t attend an 8AM meeting because they ‘had a workout class’ – prompting outrage from older workers… so, who do YOU think is right?

A Gen Z worker has sparked a furious debate after telling his boss he couldn’t go to a meeting at 8am because he had a ‘workout class’.

TikTok users have turned the heat on the podcast’s hosts DemotedNatalie Marie and Ross Pomerantz, after sharing their response to an email they received from a listener claiming their Gen Z employer refused to attend an 8 a.m. meeting because it conflicted with their ‘workout class’ .

The hosts’ response to the email sparked a fiery conversation as people on the Internet argued about work-life balance.

And a Gen Z TikTok creator added fuel to the fire when he put himself in the employee’s shoes and wondered if his refusal to attend meetings outside of work hours was something he was reprimanded for.

The debate started when a now-deleted clip of the podcast hosts discussing the topic went viral.

In the video, Natalie reads an email she received from a listener.

In the email, the listener asked whether their “new Gen Z” should be “allowed” to refuse to show up at an early morning meeting because they had an exercise class.

Natalie then chimed in with her own response. She said, “You just started this job. I don’t care what your training class is. An 8-hour training class is also too late. Train at six, maybe seven.”

Meanwhile, Ross noted that the employee’s response made him “angry.”

He said: ‘My visceral reaction was: are you kidding me? My hand is shaking, and it’s not because of the caffeine.’

Both podcast hosts noted that while mental health is important, “personal time” should not interfere with work.

“To monopolize your schedule for things that I consider personal time, that’s going to be a ‘no’ for me,” Ross said.

He added, “You’re going to have to give up some things.”

Natalie said: ‘You really shouldn’t do that when you’re just starting your career, I’m sorry.’

However, their responses angered many people, including a TikTok creator named Alexandre Evidente who made a reaction video on the podcast putting himself in the Gen Z employee’s shoes and portraying a possible response.

In his viral video, which has been viewed more than 32.1 million times to date, he claimed that his workday started at 9am and that he was only given a day’s notice before wondering if an employer would give him reimburse him for his lesson or pay him for an extra hour.

He said, ‘Okay, let’s say I skip the gym. Two things. When can I expect you to reimburse me for my lesson? And two, are you going to pay me from 8am to 9am? Or at least let me leave at 4pm, Natalie. If your answer to both questions is ‘no’, then no discussion is necessary.”

Viewers then flooded the comments section of his video, praising him for his response.

One person said: ‘Yes, don’t normalize working after hours. If you give in, there will be a second and third time.’

Someone else added: “You are 100 percent right. This response was perfect.”

“It amazes me that people can’t understand that if I don’t get paid I won’t work,” said another user.

‘Definitely a generational problem, but not younger, it’s older. Jobs need to get over the idea that they own their employees,” a fourth person wrote.

“I think this is great because we millennials are used to sacrificing so much for a job. We didn’t know such borders existed,” read one comment.

Another chimed in: “The lesson I learned the hard way is that jobs want you to die for them but you get nothing in return so my job isn’t my priority, my life is.”

Natalie then revealed that she had no connection with Alexandre and that she made the decision to delete the video because she was receiving “malicious comments.”

“First of all, we decided to delete the video, so it’s no longer there. We got a lot of heat, and rightly so. It got nasty in the comments. We decided to remove it,” she said.

She then explained that the meeting the email writer was referring to was one that took place every quarter and that the Gen Z employee – who received a salary – was aware of when he was hired.

‘To be clear, if you don’t get paid to work before 9am, you don’t have to work before 9am, don’t tolerate that at all. This is for a salaried employee, once a quarter,” she says.

Work-life balance has become increasingly important since the COVID-19 pandemic allowed more employees to work from home.

According to a 2023 study by The Musethe need for work-life balance seems to vary from generation to generation.

Forty-five percent of respondents in the survey noted that “working harder than your peers and making personal sacrifices to achieve work goals are necessary to advance in your career.”

‘A little less’ Gen Z and millennials, however, agreed.