To find managing gen z a massive headache

[Managinggenzoclock]

I’m a millennial and I manage a team of people. Some of them are gen z. It may be individual personalities but these are the things winding me up.. please excuse this rant. Is it just me? I manage people from late teens to early 60s. The younger group are by far the hardest work.

• Very interested in career progression and pay (not a bad thing but see below)
• at the same time not being willing to ever (I’m not talking often) work more hours or support a colleague
• not willing to recognise that anyone knows more than them, even those with decades more experience
• resisting hierarchical management structures
• making lots of mistakes (including repeated over and over) but not have the humility of inexperience/ youth which would make this much less annoying
• trying to patronisingly ‘educate’ people on contentious issues in inappropriate ways.

I think maybe I’m being too nice.

THIS

Gen X is forgotten and gets to lay into others because Gen X is pretty much top of the tree now and can call the shots. There are few boomers left in paid employment to lord over Gen X.

My Gen Z contract worker had a strange way of proving a point with me (not realising he was sabotaging himself), loving working shirking from home and made the same mistakes over and over. But he has inherited the Gen X messy world and been dealt a worse hand generally so I will excuse him.

There are few boomers left in paid employment

Really? The youngest of them still have another decade before they reach state pension age.

Maybe they are interested in pay because they would like to be able to move out of their parents house....that takes a substantial pay packet these days!

And here's one boomer still working at 69.

I get some of this, but I also get the distinct impression that you think staff should

• work late/extra hours unpaid to ingratiate themselves with managers
• ignore common sense and accord to managers who think they know it all (they often don't) which leads on to
• "resisting hierarchical management structures" - oh my my. Which roughly translates as "my way or the highway"

I agree and their inability to muck in and get their hands dirty is at least part of the reason for the current economic mess. Our productivity levels are shot which means our income is insufficient to sustain our economy.

I’m on the cusp between GenX and Millennial - one of them Oregon Trailers. I currently manage a GenZ and another millennial. I have managed Boomers through to GenZ in the past (and a couple of Alphas as well).

I enjoy managing the Gen Z’ers I’ve worked with. On balance, I’ve found the Z’ers I’ve managed to be much better at setting and maintaining boundaries at work, and hold their expectations of what they consider reasonable workloads to be just as important as mine. They are FAR better at prioritising their mental health.

However, yes, I find that their innate expectation to have their views taken on board just as much as someone with decades of experience to be irritating. Like sometimes, you just need to shut up and listen.

But I sometimes think that’s my problem - I was brought up to shut up and listen, experience trumps naive enthusiasm, always strive to do better, be better, don’t rest on your laurels and no-one is indispensable so you’d better make yourself as needed as possible…and I know a lot of people my age who are similar. Lots of imposter syndrome going around in our group.

Hopefully the Z’ers don’t have this desire to please quite so much and have more of a sense of their own value. So while I might roll my eyes sometimes (camera off, natch!), especially when they’re being a tad sanctimonious or overbearing or they log off at 5pm because it’s 5pm even though there is a one-off thing that we could really use them for…I actually really enjoy working with them and managing them.

Meanwhile, I’m about to log on at 9.20pm on a Friday night to just progress that work that (a senior Gen X-er) just sent me back 😂

I worked with an utterly wonderful woman who is in her mid 70s now. She retired in her early 60s, having worked her way up from leaving school at 15 or 16 to a very good senior job in higher education professional services. Got bored with retirement quite quickly, got a part-time admin job, and worked for another 10 years or so. Flexible, hard-working, willing to turn her hand to anything, boundless common sense, excellent communication skills, tact, judgement, everything. She's one of the very few things I miss about work!

What do you mean by that? Can you give a specific workplace scenario?

I think gen z are mostly quite interesting to work with (I'm a millennial).

I don't believe you should have to work extra hours to get a promotion, that's toxic hustle culture that needs to die in my opinion. (Yes, of course if it's a life and death situation that's different). You should earn a promotion by doing your job well and efficiently and being a contributing team member. This doesn't always happen in reality, but it should.

I do agree that there's a tendancy for younger colleagues to be self absorbed. They find it tricky to work as a team and often think everything is about them. They demand special treatment. They're all very good at talking up being inclusive etc. but the irony is that they're often so absorbed in their own needs that they frequently completely diregard the needs of others.

But then again I also like that young people in the workplace now have confidence to speak up for what they believe in, rather than shying away and doing whatever they're told. Which is what our generation was conditioned to do.

Agree.

Free yourself from outdated work attitudes OP 😀

Sorry, just me getting my dates and labels wrong. A 69 year old ideally should not be in employment but I can see why they would.

Brad Pitt is a Boomer. George Clooney is a Boomer. Still working, not unsurprisingly.

I love you slig! You are my sort of person! 😃

I know it's great! We were the original gender benders, punks and all sorts!

It was the Boomers who were punks, not Gen X.

They need the money I suppose, times are hard

Oh, bore off.

For that matter, the "Silent Generation" (the Boomer's parents) said the same thing about the Boomers. Being a Boomer, I know this first hand.

You first!

Why do you have to label yourselves? Gen Z Gen X millennials! Some people on here are just rude no matter what their age, sometimes it’s better to say nothing.

I see a lot of parents being judged whatever they do. Why didn’t their parents raise better parents, eh?

Currently dealing with one who accepted a job in my team (a promotion) was in the job 2 weeks and decided she hated it and has demanded a better one. Despite being offered 2 other roles on my team has refused as ‘not her dream job’ and has gone off sick with stress and citing management’s lack of care to deal with her needs. When asked ‘what would you actually like to do’ has never given an answer.

just despair at the entitlement.

in contrast, have others that will go out of their way to take on extra, move out of their comfort zone and bring ideas to me.

Its a mixed bag - like any generation!

I don't think that there is something special about Gen Z that doesn't describe all young people through time. However, what may be true is that they are under unusual pressure in many many ways, but are currently in for what many jobs is an 'employees' market', so may be less afraid to show their stress by being a bit stroppy at work than people at times of higher unemployment.

so may be less afraid to show their stress by being a bit stroppy at work

What does this even mean, being a “bit stroppy” at work doesn’t mean they’re mentally unwell. That could be you judging someone insisting on eg doing their 9-5 with no unpaid overtime as being “stressed”. Having boundaries at work doesn’t mean you’re stroppy or stressed