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.

All young people through all time did not spend their formative years with social media, or getting constant dopamine hits - or with intentional self-esteem-building schooling.

Many of the Boomers, Silent Generation, and those before them were routinely caned, belted, and otherwise harshly "disciplined" at school and/or home; whereas younger generations were given congratulatory certificates for participating in an activity, etc, and teachers are now mercifully hands off. That's quite a difference.

Most recent generations also did not experience a pandemic right at the time of emerging into the adult world.

And, while it's perfectly true that schooling tended to be harsher in the past, it also tended to be less universally crucial. Those who hated or couldn't cope with school had more options to leave formal education early.

It's true that if you go back far enough, life was more disastrous for many: world wars, rampant poverty, disease, huge infant and childhood mortality. There were disastrous effects even on survivors.

I don't think that the 'dopamine hits' of social media are so unique. Before that, people were obsessed with the awful effects on the young of video games. Before that, television. Before that, comics and the cinema. Before that, too many parties. There's always been something.

@Speedweed 100% spot on
A massive contributing factor i believe started in the schools following the "you can't touch me" attitude and rewarding them at every turn. No losers, you all get an award. A culture of being told to constantly "ASK" questions. So much so that when they finally get into employment they are totally unable to think for themselves, easier to ask questions than to work anything out or think for themselves, resulting in them becoming a total pain in the ars@ to train.

There's always been something.

Well, yes, but each of those broad generations "somethings" have been uniquely different.

@Ridelikethewindypops A culture of being told to constantly "ASK" questions. So much so that when they finally get into employment they are totally unable to think for themselves, easier to ask questions than to work anything out or think for themselves, resulting in them becoming a total pain in the ars@ to train.

God, yes. Thanks for reminding me. Rather than give me the final work product to review at once, I was killed by a thousand and one questions to get to the final work product, each in a standalone email (like he was sending texts), so that by the time he'd got to the final question, you'd forgotten what you had asked him to do to begin with. Suspect it was a lack of confidence or a delaying tactic, knowing that his boss was too busy to reply right away. Could just be my Gen Z though. Lack of critical thought or problem solving.

I thought we were just hiring the wrong people…

1. argumentative - omg … and will not let something drop ever, experts on everything they know nothing about
2. lack of resilience - check
3. lack of ownership - check… number of times I get something back half finished and they expect me to read through and finish it for them
4. Preaching - check, banging on about privilege etc as if no one in our generation ever had to actually work for what we have

I work in an industry where we go to clients' offices to work. I can't get any of my gen zs to turn up at client site. They all work from home almost all the time or occasionally from our own organisation's office usually on a Friday when there is an event laid on. One of them asked "Can you explain the benefit of working on client site please?" Another told a colleague"I just don't know how to relate to a group of people because the last time I had to do that was in secondary school."

It's actually very sad but it's also really difficult to manage because I get feedback from the client that they don't think my team is delivering good value because they don't know who these people are.

Any tips for getting gen z into the office, especially in front of clients?

How about " No office....no job!"

Hmm then companies need to stop including “ask lots of questions” in their grad induction - they were doing that back when I started out and still are. If it’s too annoying for the people training them then they need to know that actually it’s not acceptable, or at least how to ask in a way that isn’t annoying.

@ElfinsMum I would honestly just show them the client feedback. Maybe send clients a survey about how they feel about your team being onsite vs remote and then show your staff the results. Explain that client satisfaction is the whole ballgame - if you lose clients, there's no money for pay rises and jobs have to go. Is going to client sites in their job descriptions/has it always been a requirement of the role? If so I'd call a team meeting and say you've noticed the reluctance but that this is non-negotiable and you expect them all to turn up from now on. Put it in writing to the team and then if they persist, it becomes a performance management process. When you recruit, make it crystal clear that turning up to client sites is a non-negotiable part of the role - have it written in to the JD.

At the same time though I'd have an open conversation with them about why they're reluctant and acknowledge their concerns (more travelling expenses? Anxiety about meeting people?). Maybe there will be a common concern you can 'give' a bit on, eg lay on a bit of in-house training about networking and show them how making contacts now will be invaluable in their careers later - there will be LinkedIn training courses you can use and lots of research you can share. Basically, use the carrot as well as the stick.

I don't see why not, if it's what they want to do. In some cases, unfortunately, it's a necessity for financial reasons even when the employee doesn't want to be working. I'm glad it's now the employee's decision. I knew an academic who lived for his job and carried on working until his mid-70s, when his wife put her foot down and insisted he should retire. He was very on the ball, in excellent health, worked long hours (by choice) and had a long track record of technological innovation in the course he ran. I do wonder how he got on in retirement.

Downside of being able to do so much remotely, I suppose. Back in the 80s I spent several years in and out of client offices when I was auditing small businesses, spending 1 or 2 or occasionally 3 weeks sitting in a corner of the accounts department, or a spare office, ploughing through sales invoices, petty cash receipts etc etc. It was often a slog to get there, long hours because of the commute, but fascinating. I learned a lot about life and people during that time.

Common sense is the key here. Way back in the 1970s I remember a school assembly where the person on the dais (probably the Head in that case, or a senior teacher) told us to question everything and take nothing for granted. Even in my mid-teens I could see she didn't mean that literally or we'd have got nothing done in lessons.

Also, a key thing to grasp is to try to work it out for yourself first, and only ask someone else if you really can't.

inductions sessions at many companies are currently giving grads training in how to get dressed appropriately for work. Apparently you can’t rely on common sense there. So don’t tell people that a sign that they are doing the right thing is to ask lots of questions, and “no question is stupid” or whatever, if actually what is required is for them to ask only the right questions. If what they are being told when they start is in fact really annoying for the people who work with them, then that needs to change.

If what is required is “we encourage you to work it out for yourself and only ask if you can’t” then that needs to be the message from the outset. I don’t know why everybody’s time should be wasted giving out a message that isn’t clear.

I asked far too many questions at work as a youngster because I was terrified of getting it wrong and causing problems or getting into trouble. I'm sure I wasn't alone.

I improved with experience.

Agreed. Fortunately I have never had anything to do with graduate training, and am now retired, so out of all this now!

This is what I was replying to, but on reflection I'm really not sure why this should need to spelled out at graduate level. I used to help out in my son's primary school class back in the 90s and that was the message then.

I’m one of the ones who gets asked to help them a million times a day at this time of year (we are all in the office most of the time). I’m ok with it, our work is complex and technical. They are all intelligent, hard working and keen to learn and have come back from induction sessions with the right attitude. Clearly the recruitment process at my firm is doing its job.

Maybe it’s that gen Z is simply awful and haven’t been raised or educated properly (shall we blame their parents?), or maybe recruitment and induction practices these days suggest that giving everyone the same basic messages that set expectations at the outset leads to better outcomes, who knows?

I'm honestly bewildered that team leaders think a new recruit asking questions is a bad thing! What sorts of questions are they asking that you think they shouldn't ask? (This is a genuine question. Although it might also be an annoying one... )

I wonder whether in some cases they are asking the wrong person but don’t realise it (which may well be a consequence of less time in the office). In my role, the person giving you the work will probably be quite senior and they only need to see the finished piece to review, whereas someone like me is who is less senior is designated with answering the questions they have as they do the work. If this is happening then all it requires is more clarity at the outset about who to go to with which sorts of questions.

Don't mind questions at all. But I needed something from a Gen Z in the office yesterday and she actually said " Don't disturb my equilibrium". Well. That did not help. I got it out of her eventually but it needed so much reminding and cajoling.

Any tips for getting gen z into the office, especially in front of clients?

What do you mean by tips - what was the agreement when they were hired? I work for a lovely company really but even we have a policy about distance working and if someone feels they do not want to comply, they would need to find a different company to work for.

Well, as I said many, many posts above, I don't hold with labelling a whole generation and treating them as a monolith. I know there are lots of brilliant young people who are great employees and whose parents did an excellent job of bringing them up, or who are succeeding despite a tricky start in life. There have always been people with no initiative and no common sense.