Research background and purpose:
Current students are Generation Z, in their adolescence and after experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. All these factors determine their, sometimes specific, behaviour, which is becoming an increasingly common problem for academic teachers. The aim of the study based on primary sources is to identify problems in students’ behaviour that cause difficulties encountered by academic teachers in the teaching area and the relationship between the perceived frequency of these problems and the extent to which they generate difficulties during classes and affect the teacher's psychological comfort.

Design/methodology/approach:
A pilot study was conducted using a direct survey among a deliberately selected sample of academic teachers working at one of the public universities in Poland.

Findings:
It was found that the more frequently respondents experience problems related to the personal culture, their engagement in classes and the scope of problems related to the lack of students' skills necessary to perform classes, the more these problems make teachers’ job difficult and reduce their psychological comfort. It was shown that, in particular using the mobile phone for purposes unrelated to classes, the lack of sufficient knowledge of students that should be obtained at the secondary school level, and difficulties in performing tasks with a higher level of abstraction are behaviours that occur very often, significantly hinder work with students, and greatly reduce the psychological comfort of an academic teacher during the implementation of didactic classes.

Value added and limitations:
Recommendations have been formulated that may make it easier for academic teachers to conduct classes and improve their psychological comfort. Furthermore, these suggestions should help students cope with some of the problems they encounter during their studies, such as lack of sufficient knowledge from high school knowledge, ignorance of the rules of conduct during classes, and (perhaps) a reduction in the need to live on social media in favour of real life. The research was conducted among academic teachers at one public university in Poland, but its implementation at other domestic universities, including private ones, as well as at foreign universities, might yield different results.