Tanya Hennessy: 'The brilliance of Hacks on Stan is how it captures intergenerational relationships.'

I'm calling it, the best show on TV right now, isn't The White Lotus or Adolescence - it's HACKS on Stan.

If you haven't watched it, YOU MUST WATCH IT IMMEDIATELY.

There is a reason it's been nominated for 48 Emmys, with only three seasons.

Personally, I have watched it a problematic amount of times- it's my comfort watch now. I have tried to figure out why it is so good, and I have it down to two things.

1.Female comedians are everything / the comedy writing is genius.

2.Intergenerational push and pull.

The theme of being a huge stand-up comedian/late night TV host in LA/Vegas, wearing long kaftans and having a staff of four isn't super relatable, the working relationship between a Boomer and a Gen Z is. Deborah Vance (think Joan Rivers) played by Jean Smart is a boomer comedian who needs a new writer to freshen up her stand-up, so she's forced to hire a super-woke, over-opinionated Gen Z called Ava (Chappel Roan, if she did stand up) played by Hannah Einbinder.

Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) in Hacks. Source: Stan

The difference in what each find funny, what we each think is feminist, and what we each find offensive - is painfully relevant. Anyone who's worked in an intergenerational office knows this well. Working with anyone outside your generation feels like you're at family Christmas lunch. Except you can't throw a box of Cheezels and a can of Pasito at your boomer boss for saying something 'of their generation' (so casual racism or light misogyny).

As a millennial, it's interesting because we can understand where both generations are coming from. We are the bridging generation. We know pre-social media life, VHS tapes, dial-up internet, and landlines, but we also know how to use technology and social media innately. Whereas the generational gap between Gen Z and boomers is huge. Seriously, Gen Z doesn't even know what a CD-ROM is and boomers have no idea what rizz is.

Watching Gen Z in the workplace makes me majorly feel excited. It is amazing to see how they see work and, in fact, it makes me wildly jealous.

Remember when everyone used to call millennials 'entitled' and 'lazy' and we were like… 'nah brah, were all anxious and addicted to work'. Now, millennials are calling Gen Z 'entitled and lazy'.

However, we get a chance to rewrite history, because instead of limiting our thinking, we should tap in and learn from Gen Z. They have got a lot right, especially when it comes to the workplace.

Tanya Hennessy. Image: Supplied.

Here are some examples.

• Gen Z doesn't people please as much in the workplace and they have firm boundaries. They don't need everyone to like them, they don't engage in as much of the small talk/lunchtime chit chats because they recognise that work is a way to be paid, and they have lives outside of it. They see work as work. They believe that work-life balance should be more skewed in the "life" way and jobs are just a means to an end.

To a millennial this is OUTGRAGEOUS. Unlike us millennials answering emails at 1am on a Saturday night in a bar toilet. But work-life balance? Imagine that. I spent most of my 20s and early 30s missing life events like weddings, baby showers, and birthdays all because work came first.

Once, I asked my boss for a Tuesday off for a friend's funeral and I was told flatly 'no'. I still think about how devastating that was, and how little power I felt I had.

• Gen Z has an innate knowledge of their worth and what they bring to the workplace, combined with the confidence to say what they want. They don't feel like their employers "own" them. They have flipped the script on feeling like you're 'in debt' to your employer.

• They don't feel guilty if they clock out at 5pm or work on weekends. Iconic.

• They will just quit if they don't like it. Ooft. I FUCKING WISH my millennial brain worked like this. Gen Z teach me your ways. I don't know about you, but when I was a full-time employee, I genuinely felt like I couldn't leave. I was in fear/ fight or flight mode for most of my tenure.

• A lot of workplaces expect employees to go 'above and beyond' without compensating them for their time and effort. They try to guilt people into doing extra work by justifying it as them being a 'team player' or saying 'this is a family'. Then if you don't go above and beyond you won't be considered for promotions. Gen Z will call this out and won't stand for it. Oft. Yes!

• They're impatient, which means meetings with Gen Z are effective and efficient/ can be done over an email or quick chat. Millennials made the meme of the century with "this meeting could have been an email" – and Gen Z are finally making this happen. Thank you, Gen Z.

Quite literally, everything I have ever wanted in the workplace has been enacted by Gen Z.

Maybe millennials will be the first generation to celebrate them instead of judging them.The brand-new season of Hacks premieres April 11, only on Stan. Every episode of seasons 1-3 is now streaming, only on Stan.