Emails are over. Just ask Gen Z.

The age of email as a primary mode of workplace communication may be drawing to a close. Gen Z isn't mad about it.

• The workplace continues to shift its communication styles post-pandemic. 
• This comes as many younger workers say the "formality" of the workplace doesn't gel with their values.
• A new study from email competitor Slack found that workers are reading fewer emails.

Gen Z doesn't love email, which could be why you may soon be hearing fewer and fewer pings in your inbox.

Nobody's tolling the death knell for email just yet. But as Gen Zers continue to join the workforce, their tech preferences are having an outsize influence on how workers communicate with each other.

Zoomers are already proving themselves to be different from other generations when it comes to their workplace habits. They're making office language less formal and prioritizing self-care and happiness over chasing success.

Many are even reshaping the idea of the traditional "career ladder" by turning their backs on being managers and say they would rather earn more at their current level or wait longer to go for senior roles.

Over the past few years, it has become apparent that there is another aspect of office culture that Gen Zers appear to be pushing back against: emails.

A 2020 survey of nearly 1,000 workers done by consulting firm Creative Strategies on work tool usage found that while people over 30 cited email as their most used tool, it ranked in fourth place for people under 30. Among those under 30, Google Docs and Zoom far outpaced email.

A more recent survey of 8,000 workers conducted by email competitior Slack and OnePoll in August further underlined the ways that email is failing in the workplace. Those surveyed cited frustrations over emails not being answered, being addressed by the wrong name, and having to answer the same questions repeatedly as among the reasons they disliked email as a work tool.

"Email is all your stressors in one area, which makes the burnout thing so much harder," then-24-year-old Adam Simmons told The New York Times in 2021. "You look at your email and have work stuff, which is the priority, and then rent's due from your landlord and then Netflix bills. And I think that's a really negative way to live your life."

Gen Z's disdain for email has been noticed by business leaders. At Davos in January, Thierry Delaporte, the CEO of IT firm Wipros told the attendees he thinks his employees "don't even check one email per month," the Telegraph reported. Instead, he said he uses LinkedIn and Instagram to reach employees.

Farhad Divecha, owner of the London digital marketing agency Accuracast, told the Guardian he "rarely" relies on email for communication with his employees, and instead uses Microsoft Teams or WhatsApp.

"I might send an email with details, but over the past three to five years I've learned that email's just not good enough if you want something done quickly," he said.

The popularity of Teams and Slack skyrocketed during the pandemic as working from home left many people searching for a faster, more convenient way to communicate. In some cases, companies are eschewing Slack in favor of platforms like Discord, which is popular among the gaming community.

Gen Z welcomes the end of email

In recent years, many Gen Zers have been rebelling against formal work culture by using snarky email sign-offs with their colleagues, and dressing more casually at the office.

But it seems that many managers are struggling to come to terms with younger workers' preferences. Nearly three-quarters of managers and business leaders have said Gen Z is the "most challenging generation" to work with, according to a ResumeBuilder.com survey published in April.

The reputation may come as a result of Gen Z's propensity to call out workplace norms that many other workers have let slide. Many young workers are questioning why they have to work five days a week, and why they have to spend time commuting to and from the office every day participating in "soul-sucking" corporate culture.

Business Insider's Tim Paradis has even suggested that Gen Z is forcing a workplace reckoning by asking whether the old ways of working still make sense today.

Getting rid of emails is perhaps yet another small step in Gen Z's long-term strategy to permanently change office culture.