Please do the needful, but make it an emoji

The new management trainee—let us call him Mr Y—had replied to her carefully formatted three-paragraph email, complete with subject line, salutation, “please do the needful”, warm regards and full signature block, with exactly four characters: “Done ” No greeting. No sign-off. Not even a “noted with thanks”.

Ms X forwarded it to HR, asking whether it constituted insubordination. HR, staffed largely by 26-year-olds, replied with a thumbs-up emoji.

Welcome to the great generational handshake taking place in Indian offices, where emails begin with “Hey!” and bosses are slowly discovering that this does not herald the collapse of civilisation. It may even represent progress.

The trouble is that office etiquette has never merely been about information. It is also a coded system of deference. Older managers read brevity as disrespect; younger employees read ceremony as wasted time. One side thinks it is being efficient, the other thinks it is being dismissed. Both may be right, which is where HR enters with a webinar on respectful digital office communication.

For once you get past the emojis, what Gen Z wants from work is remarkably sensible. Deloitte’s 2026 global survey of more than 22,500 young workers found that 96% of Gen Z respondents consider a sense of purpose important to job satisfaction; about four in ten have rejected an employer or assignment that conflicted with their values. Imagine having the nerve. Most of us took whatever the campus placement cell offered and called it destiny.

Nor are they allergic to ambition, whatever the WhatsApp uncle forwards may claim. Only 6% name “becoming a leader” as their primary career goal, but 76% want a senior leadership role eventually. They have merely watched their seniors answer emails at their cousin’s wedding and concluded that burnout is not a personality trait.

They want the corner office; they just do not want the cardiac stress test traditionally bundled with it. That is not necessarily entitlement. It may be wisdom acquired without first having to visit a cardiologist.

The learning flows both ways. Mr Y’s generation arrived at work already comfortable with AI, and many companies have embraced “reverse mentoring”: the trainee teaches the vice-president how to prompt a chatbot; the vice-president teaches the trainee never to put in writing anything he would not want read aloud at a board meeting.

Ms X can now produce the first draft of a report in 20 minutes. Mr Y has learnt that “kindly revert at the earliest” is not a suggestion but a way of life—and that a two-minute telephone call can occasionally achieve what 40 WhatsApp messages cannot.

Gen Z has also done offices a service by making mental health discussable. The generation willing to say “I’m not okay” has made it slightly easier for the generation trained to say “all well, boss” to admit otherwise. That is no small contribution in a workplace culture where stress was traditionally treated with more work.

What do young employees ask for in return? Flexibility, fairness, manageable workloads and meaningful relationships at work. Loyalty, it turns out, may not be dead. It simply wants better working conditions and the occasional work-from-home Friday.

Last week, Ms X sent Mr Y an email that read, in full: “Great work on the deck ”

He replied: “Thank you so much, Ma’am. I truly appreciate your guidance. Warm regards, Y”

Ms X wondered whether he was being sarcastic. Mr Y worried that the thumbs-up meant she was angry. Both spent half an hour discussing the exchange with colleagues.

Both are still confused. Both are learning. Somewhere between “Respected Ma’am” and “Done ” lies the future of the Indian workplace: less formal, more efficient—and with entirely new ways of understanding one another.