Reece Kershaw's comments on Gen Z praise at Senate estimates poked the bear

From independent senator Lidia Thorpe storming out after a clash with Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy to Liberal senator Sarah Henderson's oily, disingenuous dressing-down of a department secretary - Jim Betts - for not wearing a tie as she relentlessly grilled him over whether or not there was a dress code.

"I'm not being rude, I'm just interested," Henderson said about 47,000 times.

We get it, Sarah. There is no dress code.

But it was Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw who really stirred things up this week by prodding the bear of the generational differences between workers and whether younger people these days are more entitled.

While Commissioner Kershaw was speaking to the Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs at a point about the AFP workforce, he did inject a little extra sparkle of detail.

"Just as an aside, if I can just drop this in, I think this is interesting, we learnt, too, that Gen Z, the younger generation, need three times a week praise from their supervisors," Commissioner Kershaw told the committee.

"The next generation [Y] only need three times a year and my generation [X] only need once a year."

Cue the social media meltdown and thundering columns and pieces to camera as the commissioner was variously praised or vilified for suggesting younger people need a metaphorical pat on the head more often than their older colleagues.

But that wasn't the end of it.

The AFP then issued a statement on Friday morning suggesting these were not the beliefs of the commissioner himself.

"Reports that AFP Commissioner believes different generations require different level of praise are incorrect. The commissioner was referring to information recently presented to a policing forum," the terse statement read.

AFP media said the source of the information was "a policing forum by [social researcher] Michael McQueen".

When we contacted Mr McQueen, he said he was quoting from research.

"Unfortunately, I am in back to back meetings all afternoon so won't be able to chat today," Mr McQueen emailed.

"However, here is the research I was quoting from Gallup at the event the AFP Commissioner attended earlier this week. www.gallup.com/workplace/396470/bridge-generational-gap-recognition.aspx

"Some of the data he shared at Senate estimates was slightly different from what I had presented and what this study showed but he may have had another source for those comments I'm not aware of?"

McQueen was referencing an article by Emily Lorenz in which she said a study by Gallup and Workhuman "found that younger employees are more likely to say they want frequent recognition than older employees".

"For instance, Generation Z employees and younger millennials (born 1989 or after) are 73 per cent more likely to say they want recognition at least a few times a month compared with baby boomers (born 1946-1964)," Lorenz wrote.

"In contrast, Generation X (born 1965-1979) and baby-boomer employees are substantially more likely to say they never want recognition, compared with Gen Z and millennials."

So, whether he believes it or not, Commissioner Kershaw - in his mid-50s and just a Generation Xer - was putting it out there that young people appear needier than their older counterparts.

Just another slice of the Senate estimates sideshow.