To think Gen Z is difficult to manage at work?

[donniedarko89]

I have noticed younger people tend to be more cynical and argumentative, with less work boundaries/respect for hierarchies (which is not necessarily a bad thing, but can come across as presumption/arrogance). This makes it more difficult to manage them at work imo.

Have you noticed any similar behaviours?

I’ve not experienced that personally. But I’m able to manage people from all backgrounds and ages.

I'm in the "I admire Gen Z for taking less shit" camp. Wish I'd had half their boundaries in my early 20s.

But in terms of the OP's problem it doesn't matter whether that's true or not. She's asking from a manager's perspective. The entire fundamental challenge of good management is that you have to deploy a different approach to different individuals, and certainly to different generations.

If you're in charge of hiring people, don't hire those you feel you can't manage. Once they're hired, it's YOUR job as a manager to get the best out of them. That means meeting them where they are, to an extent. That means not writing an entire generation off as "difficult to manage".

Up your management skills!

This. Also junior/entry level wages are not great in most roles considering cost of living atm. Why would they want to overwork themselves in a minimum wage role?

Oh yes, the “anxiety” if you tell them they have done something wrong. Followed by a complaint of bullying.

*If you're in charge of hiring people, don't hire those you feel you can't manage. Once they're hired, it's YOUR job as a manager to get the best out of them. That means meeting them where they are, to an extent. That means not writing an entire generation off as "difficult to manage".

Up your management skills!*

This!

I am in academic management and my youngest members of staff are temporary university students, while my oldest is in her 70s.

Some young people aren't good team players and seem to think that the workplace owes them a favour. Exactly the same as some older members of staff.

Obviously, experience counts for something, sometimes. As does passion for what you do and a willingness to learn. The most dangerous saying in our line of work is "we've always done it this way". Etc etc.

The only members of staff I've ever had who didn't take kindly to feedback were 2 teachers in their thirties, neither of whom stayed in the profession.

I refuse to label anyone a "generation anything".

I am on the fence.

Absolutely not willing to take shit, which is a good thing.

Many seem to have a very inflated sense of ego and presume they can climb the ladder quickly without doing anything remarkable in their day to day.

Deal with MH issues regularly - perhaps the generation more likely to not be ashamed of it, but also coupled with a sprinkle of tik tok self diagnosis. Very hard to navigate in HR.

I’m envious of my gen z’er. His confidence and boundaries

I’m struggling with young male grads at the moment. Early twenties, think they know it all, and are fully prepared to interrupt me or talk over me in meetings. I am very senior to them. The level of conviction they have in what they say and think, is truly remarkable.

Both my my patience and my withering look is being exercised heavily currently.

Personally I just think Gen Z take less shit.

That's it and the older gen just don't know how to deal with it so they call it "defiance" or "rude" etc etc etc

Yeah same. I also find they all have anxiety if you dare to critique their work

I agree re lack of resilience. The need to take a mental health day or go sick if they’ve missed or are going to miss a deadline.

These comments are amusing because of the many posts on MN written by people too scared to answer to door lest they be left sobbing and shaking by an unwanted visitor or just generally struggling to cope in daily life.

Not to mention the number of those who are literal doormats who can't utter the word 'no'.

Is it because anxiety and lack of resilience isn't unique to Gen Z, or maybe because previous generations were made to repress these feelings and suck it up, and are now struggling later in life? 🧐

Ageism on mumsnet truly is something. Why is it okay to bash younger generations?

I’m Gen Z, early 20s, have “senior” in my job title. Most people in my role are 10-20 years older.

Never had any issues with my managers etc. I seek out feedback and work on it, keen to constantly improve. I would say I’ve got a very high work ethic and im keen to progress. Only have called in sick when I had a chest infection and sprained my ribs from coughing so much - not sure I’d be much help on calls when I couldn’t catch enough breath to speak. I log on from 7:30 am after I’ve walked my dogs and gone to the gym.

We've got one person in Gen-Z age bracket on our team that we provide lots of support, training and opportunity to. In exchange we get excessive "sick" days (20 days in 6 months - funnily enough you only get 20 days paid sick in a year, so there has mysteriously not been any more sick days since), a poor quality of work (despite significant training) and an attitude of "why are you disappointed... don't you know I'm doing you a favour by being here?".

They even had the cheek to ask for us to support them in professional qualifications the other day and got pissed off when we said we needed them to prove themselves first. They had just admitted that there are some days they don't manage to work the full hours we expect them to (and they're paid for)!

This team member is the extreme example, but we have noticed that we have to train this generation differently than those before them. IME people tend to take things more personally than they used to.

(And yes, for the first time in my working life (>25 years) I'm having to start formal disciplinary proceedings against this person).

I am a millenial and all gens have bad things.

If one more Gen X or Boomer on 6 figure salary asks me how to share slides into teams, I will scream. If one more Gen Z gets traumatised over deadline, I will scream😂
We all do each other's heads in.

But I am glad to see Gen Z (and quite a few millenials) breaking lots of old style rules about having to work late, extra work given as a reward for good job etc. I think it's needed.

Could have written this about new graduates in the 90s so I don’t think it’s anything to do with gen Z necessarily. They just need to understand that their university success is great but adds very little value until they’ve managed to add business knowledge and how to work with multiple stakeholders into the mix.

We have a few in our office and they're generally great. There was one who threw a strop when she was told she couldn't wear a crop-top to the office, but I wouldn't say that was a Gen-Z thing, it's a being a 22 thing. I'm a millennial and remember being told by my manager that I couldn't wear shorts with tights to the office 😂.

As a millennial, who has day to day interaction with Gen Z and boomers....

I struggle with both equally (obvs, cause millennials are THE BEST)

I note that the Gen Z lot are far more picky, and brusque in their interactions. Almost like they just assume they have a right to things (including my Gen Z brother and his friends, and the ones I work with directly and indirectly)

Boomers are more demanding, don't seem to understand why I'm not contactable at all times (I guard my time off like it's a new born baby) I had 4 emails from one person because I'd not responded to his email, every single email he sent was responded to with an OOO which made it clear when I was back. He was so rude when I did get in touch.

All generations have their problems. The main one in Gen Z is the mental health TIKTOK drama etc.

I’m a boomer ..... I’m perfectly capable of sending an email properly however…

Which generation do people think invented personal computers and the world wide web, and were the first to use computers in the workplace? Alan Sugar, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Tim Berners-Lee are/were all boomers. There were computers in my workplace in the mid-70s.

I’m a millennial and I manage a team of Gen Z

100% agree with a lot of these comments, especially those around resilience!

They ALL suffer from anxiety and regularly need mental health days…. Definitely not to do with work environment or workload. We all worked from home anyway pre pandemic and have always promoted flexible working, etc.

I recognise this type of male grad from MY generation, when I was in my early 20s. That was 15 years ago.

It's not really a generational thing, it's a male thing, but also a class thing (have certainly seen expensively educated young women do this too).

I unfortunately agree. I hired 3 and each one were an absolute whirlwind. And left within 10 months. They caused heartache to many colleagues. It was a shock.

They had no idea how to remain calm in a stressful situation. They couldn't ride the highs and lows of business / clients and deadlines.

One told a lovely client to fuck off after he requested some minor changes to some work. It was hideous.

They're just less likely to put up with shit and have a better concept of boundaries and unrealistic expectations. How many threads are on here with multiple posters saying that they're stressed out at work or having to deal with dick head managers? This generation is just better at dealing with that bollocks from the beginning instead of confirming to the "put up or shut up" mentality that's been so deeply ingrained into the generations before them

I work in retail and we have 4 gen z employees. One is fantastic the other 3 have to be constantly pulled up re: timekeeping and attendance. They just don't seem to get it.
We have a man about 35 (don't know what gen that makes him) don't much care to be honest anyway he is reliably at least 10 minutes late every shift sometimes more and he was disciplined for it but when asked to sign the minutes he wanted to add to the sheet that he disagreed with the disciplinary as in his eyes it didn't matter. It didn't matter that the person he was relieving had to stay behind to cover his absence.
He is now on a PMP s ok we'll see how that goes.

I find they get pissed every night.

Every generation has its problems! And it depends on sector, part of the country, size of company, length of service...

While yes, as a manager it's time consuming navigating anxiety etc, I'd much rather a person who was able to recognise its anxiety, than someone who would swear blind that they were fine and that simple expectations such as 'turn up on time' 'maybe don't go sick every Friday for 2 months' 'when you work an inbox and everyone else is doing 5 an hour, I kind of expect you to do more than 2 a day' were unreasonable....