To think that gen Z is completely disengaged in service industry

I work with many 18-30 year olds (I'm only just a little above that myself)

They might be distracted by phones at times but they work hard and are incredibly conscientious towards customers. There are plenty of positive reviews about them online, the negative reviews are either about people who were being assholes and didn't like being told they were assholes or one pretty accurate one about a much older member of staff

I can't remember being too keen to "go the extra mile" for £3 an hour when I worked in a pub at 17, 30 years ago, either. Do my job, be pleasant and good enough, get paid and a few tips and go home. I don't do that much more in my well paid job now. I work to live and don't expect anything more of anyone else.

YANBU… I work in retail, have done for the last 20 years, there is barely any work ethic anymore. The youngsters we get coming through my shop just don’t care, go on thier phone in front of customers despite repeatedly being told they are not allowed to, call in sick left right and centre, don’t turn up to shifts. We have a pretty high turnover due to it being a uni town, out of the roughly 2000 people in the last 4 years about 10 have been any good.

Don’t take the job, then.

If you do a job for a wage, do it properly or don’t do it at all.

That should be the basic starting point.

I’ve had spectacularly crappy service from older staff and very good from younger folk so don’t think it necessarily follows. But also agree that younger staff are left untrained and unsupported so not surprising they aren’t particularly engaged sometimes.

I've always had great service from younger people, no worse than any other age group, certainly. Perhaps they sense your hostility and prejudice.

Not at all the case here - South Wales. In the last week, I've interacted with young workers on trains, in bars, supermarket, corner shop - all lovely, sociable and professional.

I bet if you go back a decade or two on mumsnet you'll find people complaining about young workers in shops, and we can't blame gen Z for that.

Sure, you'll get shops that are poorly managed, disengaged workers, the odd hungover or miserable teenager. That's always happened, though.

I disagree. Most younger people I come across in shops and cafes are generally energetic, polite and doing their jobs to the best of their ability. It's often the older ones who are too busy talking nonsense to the customers on the supermarket tills to be efficient or struggle with the technology. Give me a 17 year old over a 57 year old on my till any day.

And its not just young people looking at their phones. I'm the older end of Gen X and I'm on my phone during work hours, you just can't see me doing it because I'm not stacking shelves or making coffees.

I haven't noticed this at all. I was just talking about gen z servers after going out for a meal and drinks this weekend, but in a completely different way.

I couldn't believe how attentive they were, the really seemed to care about doing a good job (when I was young and working in hospitality I was usually too hungover to care about what my customers wanted).

One guy knelt down next to the table to sincerely apologise for not having the drink I'd ordered as if he were delivering serious bad news, and another apologised profusely for our very short wait.

A student working in the bar we went to spent ages making a cocktail we asked for. It wasn't on the menu and she'd never heard of it, but said if we didn't mind waiting, she was sure she could find a tutorial on her phone.

I did have the slowest ever server when I went for coffee last week, but he said he was new and just seemed reeeeaaallly keen to get each step meticulously right.

every generation thinks this, that the newest gen are lazy or whatever. in reality every generation has a mix of shitty workers, good workers, unenthusiastic, mega go getters etc. I work with gen z a lot, it’s as much a mix as with any other.

I agree, OP. And the worst thing is that they genuinely don't care. There seems to be a lot of ambivalence and lack of care or ambition, and zero going an extra mile from what I can see.

It seems you are confusing experienced with inexperienced rather than disengagement

I had a retail job at 17 which I loved & was good at. I knew all the stock etc & my pay was higher than it would be now.

Put me back on a shop floor earning less than what I did as a teenager with little prospects & you can bet my work ethic has left me!

They do. It’s rare to see any staff with phones, often they have small devices which are work related though.

Untrained staff have less knowledge than someone who’s been doing it for decades. Shocker.

Why don't shops say no phones on the shop floor?

Does a work ethic get you anywhere though? Just so some customer you'll probably never see again will feel all warm and fuzzy? Or the business paying you minimum wage will make a bigger profit?

I blame the parents though!

I see that so much on MN, it's minimum wage so why should they bother. Well because we all have to start somewhere and we give everything our best

The issue is they aren't going anywhere, wages are crap.

''@legoplaybook · Today 22:23

Minimum effort for minimum wage?''

I think ultimately that's the reason.

So many retail jobs come with low wages, little training or opportunities to progress.

Working for a faceless big chain to make shareholders richer is hardly going to motivate young people...

Because some people have pride in themselves and what they do and have a work ethic?

Funnily enough I had a recent experience in Clarks. Staff on phone, chatting, not being proactive when I brought my small child into the child's section and started looking at shoes...answered don't know to everything, also measured her feet wrong and sold me a pair of wide fit shoes.

I know there's popcorn gifs and people saying what's the point, but I also just think it's so incredibly lame for young people to be on their phones all day at work. Urgh. I actually was pleased to see a couple of people working at the ticket gates at Charing Cross the other day reading a newspaper!!

It's really not

My experience too @SequinsandSoleros, we should stop generalising and being so bloody mean, them kids are alright. We have - at last - got a cohort of apprentices at my place and they’ve shook the cobwebs and taken a load off us.