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?

@Womencanlift

This is really interesting!

There was a thread a couple of years ago asking if you were a teen when 9/11 happened and if you think it shaped you, which was really interesting.

Yes I agree it’s a class thing!

I quite like the take no shit attitude sometimes, but when you have a deadline and it is your job to do the task, saying “Yeah, not going to happen today, I’m off to meet my mates and then go clubbing” isn’t going to endear you to the people who are going to pick up the shit.

Indeed!

Being outwardly resilient led quite a few people I know from my generation and older ones to burn out, both in the workplace and at university. I'd have described a number of people as resilient hard workers right up til they weren't and it all came crashing down.

I include myself in that - I was terrified of appearing weak or admitting I wasn't coping and it all went off the rails a bit, and could've been a lot worse than it was.

I really, really admire Gen Z's normalisation of vulnerability - the ability to admit that they're anxious or they need a mental health day and then to ringfence that for medium- and long-term benefit. They might take an inconvenient sick day here or there but they'll hopefully not burn out in their 30s or 40s.

DH s a lecturer - he thinks it very class based - m/c background very confident verging on arrogant and prone to complaining about slightest thing he even has colleagues who had some complain to hire ups they don't want to learn certain subjects/techniques needed for the sector they'll get employed in.

I did too at that age and apparently I'm a boomer !

Not at all. They are much less willing to do unpaid overtime or check emails outside of work which I fully support. I have more of an issue with the boomers who hate being managed by someone younger than them and who constantly ask me how to change a word document into a pdf.

However equally I have worked with boomers, millennials etc who were perfectly fine and great at their jobs. It is the person. Also it has always been popular to criticise the younger generations.

The fact is things will change over generations and all of the anxiety and mental health problems at work are from millenials up who can't say no and end up stressed and unwell.

One gen z person in the team at work is a total bully who puts others down to make herself look better. I don’t think it’s because she’s gen z though, just generally nasty.

Gen Z this and Gen Z that. But if I start generalising the older generation I’ll get told I’m ageist. Okay😅

Literally! MN is soooo bad for this. When I’ve called it out on other threads they try to backtrack and say it’s not what they meant, but you just know they’d be the first to label you ageist it any generalisation about older generations are made!

The attitude to mental health on this thread is disgusting.

Gen Z takes less shit, and there's an older generation that's cruised through management and struggles when they have to step-up. Part of it is 'management inflation' that means charge hands are called supervisors, and supervisors are called managers. It's created a tier of nominally management that don't have either the skills or authority to manage. I suspect Gen Z are quicker to see weakness in this.

Depends on the sector. Those who work in "non-jobs", marketing, admin, executive something-or-other, tend to have confidence which in no way matches any value they have as a company asset.

Those who work in qualified fields, think medicine, coding, engineering and the like, seem to have a much better work ethic.

I like our gen z trainees. They are genuine and want to learn. Nice people.

You have to pile on the reassurance for a couple of them if you have anything critical to say, lack of confidence on their part, but I think previous generations would have felt their anxiety but not let you know about it.

Lockdowns had a big impact on them.

Managers have short memories about how their generation were like when starting work. I don't think much has changed.

Suspect many younger people have realised that all the 'trickle down' economics is total bs, and that 'working to live' is more important than 'living to work'. Sensible, frankly.

I didn’t link it to being Gen Z, just young male entitlement. It does my head in. They think what they’re saying is revolutionary and as a mere woman in her 30s I have clearly never settled upon such an excellent idea, and that I must bow down and listen to them immediately.

I don’t, obviously. I ‘call out’ the behaviour for what it is: entitled rudeness. Once I’ve done that I offer them the floor to share more of their groundbreaking ideas, which is always very awkward for everyone. Except me, I rather enjoy sitting back and watching them intently as their regret becomes more apparent.

Yes this is my experience. And not grateful for having a job. Having graduated and job hunted not long after 2008 crash, i feel always eternally grateful to have a job, as it was so hard to get one. Not the case now

'non-jobs'

It’s ridiculous tbh. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and start a thread on Boomers and see how that goes down👍

That's what I argue every time someone older does "hpw do you do x? I am just not on with that technology"😂
Like word to pdf basics ...

"Non jobs" is pretty damn rude

But also your post is incorrect. I can assure you that Gen Z's qualified in engineering and architecture are a bloody nightmare!

The Gen Z I manage are mostly hard work. They often phone in sick and then complain when I follow the company sick policy (clearly explained in their contract should they read it), turn up late and expect to be able to stay on to make time up (doesn't work like that), and just generally have a shitty attitude towards work and customers.

That said one of them is the hardest worker I've ever come across, she's got a work ethic that will make sure she goes far in life and I have no doubt after she graduates she's going to do well because she knows she's got to work for it.

Whilst knowling their value is good and not taking shit on things like harrassment at work is good, completely under-mining senior staff in a slightly aggressive way based not on knowledge, not on experience but on something someone their own age has has told them (someone with equally less knowledge and experience) that they now repeat as a mantra that they don't fully understand and yet won't engage in discussion about, is not good at all.

Also on some other things insisting on hearing every last detail of their boss's reasoning behind a decision - instead of thinking: manager wants that done, my job to get it done (unless completely unreasonable or unsafe or way out of my job description).

Sometimes you don't have time to explain. Like setting up at trade fair, due to open very soon, decision made in my head based on pervious experience and on a heath and safety issue to with stability of the stand set up - gen z (first time at fair) arguing the toss over it, till almost too late to fix issue. End up fixing it myself, gen z sulking because they were not listened to (everyone since birth has listen to their every utterance like it is worth gold) and also because I had to pull rank to get it done in time.

That's not knowing your value - it is arrogantly failing to recognise 1) the value in someone else (their experience and knowledge) and 2) that like it or not the work place has a hierarchy and sometimes you have to lump it when told to do something reasonable that you don't agree with.

These issues are realtively new to the work place and getting worse.

I don't like to generalise too much but personally I have a lot of optimism and belief in our current generation of young people.

I think they have had a lot to deal with, and on the whole are emerging as a pretty well-rounded and sensible generation of young people, compared to the 2 preceding generations (one of which is mine so I am not blowing my own trumpet here!)

What I notice about the young Gen Z-ers I work with is how much more focussed and mature they are about their career. They all have the most incredible LinkedIn profiles showing all the amazing things they have done and are involved with, they are very proactive and there is a sense they really do fight to develop themselves and to find opportunities to do so.

When I was their age I was still like a stroppy adolescent, resentful deep down that I should even be required to work at all and taking all the many opportunities that came my way almost totally for granted.

They all seem to be much more emotionally literate than I was at that age, too.

One thing I do notice is that they can sometimes struggle to find the right tone with clients and with senior people internally. A "professional-approachable" tone can slide into "chatty" a bit too easily for some of them. As a senior person I do find it a bit jarring to be addressed on my first interaction with a young colleague as "Hey Bumpya how're you" as if there is no difference between us in the hierarchy.

I still prefer "Dear/Hi Bumpya, we have not met but by way of introduction I am {x} a junior in {y} team and I wanted to ask if you could give me your view on {z}"