The viral debate over bringing iced coffee to job interviews has reignited the generational divide over professionalism, with recruiters saying the drink looks too casual and younger workers questioning the fuss.
According to a column by Tayo Bero in the Guardian, the controversy began after the president of a recruiting firm shared a TikTok saying the drink “looks a little too casual” to hiring managers. Thousands of responses flooded TikTok and Twitter/X, with one comment noting: “It’s an iced coffee, not a bomb!”
Generational and cultural chasms
Bero writes that these discussions highlight the deep chasms that exist generationally and culturally when it comes to notions of professionalism and how people are supposed to show up in public life. She questions what is so distracting or unprofessional about an iced coffee, pointing out that a warm coffee in a travel mug or a bottle of water would likely not draw the same criticism.
She argues that rules of professionalism are rooted in racist constructs, from Eurocentric dress and hair codes to the weaponization of “what’s appropriate to say at work” to suppress dissenting discourse and discourage non-conformity. These norms, she says, are mostly code for whiteness and are regularly weaponized against racialized, disabled, poor, young or otherwise minoritized people.
Workplace as arbiter of existence
The column notes that workplaces function as enforcement agents of white supremacy, with oppressive dress codes limiting religious expression and hair discrimination pushing Black women to alter their natural hair textures. Bero points to Tuskegee University, a historically Black institution, which recently announced a new dress code prohibiting students from wearing bonnets and durags in class or any official campus spaces.
In an email to the student body, Tuskegee president Dr Mark Anthony Brown said the new rules were intended to “prepare [students] with a solid foundation for the workforce.” He added: “Employers are less forgiving and too often presentation may overrule stellar preparation.”
Bero concludes that society spends too much time policing irrelevant things like iced coffees, while gen Z faces a punishing job market amid the steadily rising cost of living. As long as people remain beholden to professionalism culture, she writes, the generational culture wars will continue while young people bear the cost.
