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.

I manage a team from gen Z to boomer (I think… 60? Is that a boomer?). I find the older generation bloody hard work to manage - they coast, don’t put any effort in, stuck in their ways and completely resistant to change, massively negative about the company, moan all the time. Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X to some extent, all seem more willing to suggest improvements, enact change, be progressive. All the young people I know who want to progress don’t expect it, they spend their time looking to gain experience in different aspects of the job. Boomers got progressive promotions based on length of service, not talent, effort or innovation.

(I’m a millennial… in case anyone cares 😂)

You’re absolutely right. I realised that the moment I hit post. Thank you.

Nah, I’m with you OP. I’ve worked with a few Z’s and they always come in thinking they’re going to re-invente the wheel.
I’m more shocked by their general sense of ‘self’. We have a new girl and she has no qualms about pointing the finger at others in front of clients. I have no idea how or why she thinks speaking to people like the way she does is acceptable. being rude masquerades as ‘speaking my truth’. If she thinks there’s going to be any career progression with us, she can think again. No one is going to help her out when she’s managed to piss off the receptionist to the big boss.
But then we have a lovely Gen Z lad who works hard, takes advice and is a team player. We all support him 110 percent.

Generation X are the Switzerland of generations: keeping well out of the Millennial/Boomer/Gen Z wars.

OTOH we are the parents of Gen Z so all their plus points
(idealism, emotional literacy, lack of materialism, refusal to take idiotic/unfair elements of the status quo as given)
and all their flaws
(emotional fragility, inability to turn up and do the sodding work for eight hours even when you don't feel like it)
#NotAllGenZ
are basically down to us.

Ha, I’m that boomer manager but tbh I applaud the younger generations for setting and keeping their boundaries. I find the ones I work with to be bright, well-educated and keen little beans, but yes they do rather bang on about their mental health. I find them generally refreshing and I learn from them, which being a workaholic boomer, is a gift!

The next time I meet a Gen Z who bangs on about MH I am going to tell them about my " journey of self discovery" with my fibroids. Then as I become a boomer, possibly my piles.

Gen Z or younger millennials, and despite the protestations on this thread there is such a wide gap in behaviours between the older millennials and those younger.

Ok, so for me the above just means it's really not Gen X v Gen Y v Gen Z. It's clearly just an observation of v young people. So definitely talking about people in their 20s, etc would be more helpful.

People born end of 1980 (supposedly Gen X) would not be in any way a different to people born beg of 1982 (Gen Y) - they would've been in the same school year too. Not sure why it's become so popular sticking to this unhelpful labels.

All the articles I see advising employers on how to adapt to a Gen Z workforce seem awfully familiar too. Apparently, just like millennials before them, Gen Z value work-life balance, seek meaning in their work, blah, blah. Which in turn are things that I, being very late Gen X, also value. Meanwhile, the last of the Boomers I work with are retiring because they’re fed up with work-life imbalance and have things in their life that are more meaningful than work.

I think the biggest shock with a new generation must have been for those that lived through the second world war only to have their first borns become Teddy boys followed by the second and third borns becoming Hippies then Punks.

This.

I was never considered entitled, I worked hard and knew my place.

I stopped our postgrad intern scheme at my last place because of the entitlement and laziness of Gen-Z’ers. Who yes want to progress quick but entirely on their terms and begrudge any iota of hard work

Actually, I find the millennials most difficult to manage (I'm Gen X). I manage 5 millennials, all are very good at their job, but so sensitive! I've had tears and tantrums on so many occasions because they've been given feedback they don't agree with or they're annoyed as they don't feel they get sufficient praise. I manage two Gen Z's, so long as I give them clear direction one what I want them to do and allow them to work flexibly, we're all good! It may be because my kids are Gen Z that I find it easier to relate to them

Ha!! Sounds like my gen z son
I honestly did not bring him up like this, they just ARE

I'm a boomer and can confirm it was ever thus...

I'm a gen x and I have a millennial, a gen z and 2 gen alphas.

Should be interesting when they are all adults

I am the younger end of millennial and have found Gen Z employees so far to either be incredibly resourceful, go-getting, and switched on, or totally lacking in resilience and self-awareness. It must just be differing personalities like you'd get in any generation, but I think the difference with Gen Z today is the social media influence (which I am grateful we never had so young!) and an obsession with self being defined entirely through various labels. I have spent my life working myself to the bone to my detriment, and I think some of Gen Z are avoiding hard work as "self care" to their detriment. There has to be a middle ground somewhere (is that Gen X haha?). It also ties into privilege - the kids whose parents pay for everything way into their twenties can afford to prioritise self care.

I think part of the problem is that every minor blip can be excused with the ‘I’m having a mental health crisis’ line… There are genuinely many for whom this is the truth and they absolutely need support but gen z seem to think they’re entitled to feel permanently happy with everything and the moment something goes ‘wrong’ it’s a mega drama. Absolutely no one goes through life getting everything they want - they need to accept what is and isn’t possible. It goes hand in hand with telling kids they ‘can be anything they want’ - if you’re shit at science and maths nasa or the European space agency ain’t going to pick you, nor will you be able to be a dr or vet. Stop telling kids lies would be a good place to start I suppose….

Try being a boomer with a Gen Z child...

To be fair I keep up with the tech. I really have to.

I was just here to see whether anyone had quoted Socrates 🤣

Though I think the changes to UK education (from the government) are partly to blame for a genuine change in 18-25 year olds.

The idea that everyone goes to university was the beginning of the problem. Obviously this led inevitably to the introduction of fees and lifetime loans because free tertiary education can't be funded for so many. The expansion of places so that everyone who simply gets through A level can go to university somewhere creates an expectation that everyone can have a"graduate career" - and if that's not in a traditional profession (law, medical fields, teaching, perhaps accountancy, architecture etc. it leaves an awful lot of people expecting to be"managers" - but who are they going to manage?

Universities massively expanding capacity and being forced to adopt a commercial customer service model (and having to compete for bums on seats and having to hand hold and coax through students who'd previously have dropped out early on - or more likely never got in) compounds the infantalising which begins at 6th form, because of the pressure on schools to churn out high grades pupils who'd have dropped out or never gone on to A level have to be treated in a way which used to end at 16 (aside from at fee paying schools) with parents evening and parents notified of attendance, reports etc.

A system like that creates a high number of new graduate all expecting to be "high flyers" and "upper management" very quickly and disproportionately few people expecting to - well actually work!

It creates a lot of disappointment, inevitably, and a lot of anxiety about failure.

Other educational systems offer more varied options at 16 and 18 and don't create the time bomb of a population overwhelmingly groomed into expectations which for practical reasons just cannot turn into reality for most of them.

Do you not think being more sensitive and thoughtful, less violent, less racist, homophobic, sexist etc. goes hand in hand with ‘cancel culture’

People are tired of accepting nasty and toxic views and opinions that harm others. The world will be a better place when people stop thinking saying offensive shit counts as ‘debate’ and their views are equal

everyone from millennial down seems to think anyone older than them is a “boomer”. Gen X is forgotten about, probably because we’re not such pains in the arse as the rest of them

I work with a bunch of 18 - 25 year olds. And they are a delight. Kind, patient, motivated, interesting, thoughtful people.

The uni students I work with make incredible statements about what they should be entitled to and are genuinely outraged if they don't get it. But here's the thing, often they are accommodated

Recruitment background here, and IME it's that last, bolded bit where the real difference lies. The issue's always existed, but "You can't tell them that!!" (and if you do they'll totally ignore it) is rather newer, and as Uni students they'll just continue the entitlement which is too often encouraged in schools

Since those who simply wouldn't accept reasonable direction were easy enough to get rid of it never bothered me much personally, but it could be irritating all the same

I think there is definitely a different attitude to work with the younger members of the workforce - definitely. They are less likely to work hard, put in over time etc. They are very clear on taking breaks, toil, working to their hours and JDs. there's no flexibility or

I had one just take a "mental health day" without even consulting with his manager or giving any notice - he just didn't turn up for work that day. (and without any seeming cause for the mental health day,).

I heard that the City law firms are finding it a real problem. In my day (as an ex city lawyer, gen x) we worked ridiculously long hours without question or complaint. They don't do it now and it's causing some concern among the bosses. I kind of think good on them because the long hours culture is just a bit ridiculous (mind you they are being paid £100k so I don't know what they are expecting).

I think a lot of the Gen z characteristics are actually double edged.

The fact that they demand more is a good thing in itself. The fact they know they have value besides that which a profit making enterprise puts on them is a good thing.

The flip side is indeed the over emphasis on protecting “boundaries” and the lack of recognition that protecting your own boundaries might come at the expense of incursion into someone else’s boundaries.

The mental health thing is really very striking. I recently had one of my reports tell me she was “putting up boundaries” when she basically downed tools on a key part of her job on one particular client account for a week because she was feeling very “drained” by that part of the job (essentially she found it boring). That particular week I also had COVID and felt awful but couldn’t take time off because most of my whole team had called in sick and it was also the anniversary of my dad’s death.

I felt like pointing out that if I protected my “boundaries” in the same way as she had the team would have ceased to function and we would have lost the client. I sucked it up because I am much older and more senior and to a degree I am paid to put up with stuff like this but I did think that mentality was exceptionally entitled.

I don’t expect people to work through severe mental health crises but I do think a certain degree of mental resilience is a requirement of a professional job and no one gets to opt out of key parts of the job description “because mental health”.

Yep we do but that’s because millennials and Gen Y call us boomers. We are the forgotten generation which is not necessarily a bad thing.