To think that gen Z is completely disengaged in service industry

[Hocuspoc]

...and to just stop hoping I will get any value for my money.
No offense, generalisation is never good, but just this last week:

• Clarks, shopping for toddler shoes, usually there is this older lady there who knows exactly what are the bestsellers, what works for little ones depending on age size etc... anyway - nowhere to be found, the floor is cover by two youngsters. Neither approached to help, on their phones, I had to chase the girl around to notice us (empty shop) so I can get DS foot measured. She measured him 2 sizes up (took us some time to establish that) but long story short - every answer is 'I don't know' and shrugs. Started explaining school shoes - I reminded her he is 2. Didn't know what is discounted, what is in stock, one can only dream of some initiative like trying a similar style to confirm a size and than order...

Anyway - completely clueless, borderline rude and no indication that she cares or sees herself working there longer than a month.

Then, the other day... Entering a train station, my usual platform closed, I asked the young bloke operating the gates about it - he was literally shocked he is being asked anything, looked like I woke him up from daydreaming. Also glancing at his phone.

I will stop here, but same everywhere. No cutlery pre-set or brought with your food, rolling eyes for asking for a coffee in a proper mug because it is to stay in, I can go on forever.

Just rudeness everywhere, no professionalism, no taking pride in your work, just abysmal...

YABVU, but I think you know that.

FFS people. HOW MANY TIMES? ‘GenZ are all gormless shirkers’ is on Tuesdays nights. Sunday nights is for ‘people who work from home should be shackled to their rolling chairs’.

Honestly. This place, no bloody standards any more.

3 under 30s in my workplace, 28yr old, great, hardworking, 26yr old, hardworking, great, the 22 yr old, lazy, does bare minimum, usually poor hygiene as well and only does a couple of shifts a week as its 'too much'

Where the hell are you living op? I have mixed service generally from all aged groups but what you're describing is bizarre.

When is anti-Boomer night? I get muddled (because I am old and senile, natch).

I do know that every day is anti-immigrant day, though.

It’s week-on, week-off for that one. I think.

It's a management problem.though, not the staff. I have gen Z staff. One pulled his phone out on the shop floor, I had a quiet word that he wasn't to do it and that was that. I have another I've had to teach how to correctly wipe down the kitchen worktops. Not rocket science, just clean up the tea spillages! She can be argumentative too, I'm monitoring as to whether I keep her because she shouldn't be answering back to her boss. I'm all for stocking up for yourself, but everything is met with "it wasn't me" when it clearly was.

On the flip side I have a 17 year old who I am giving as many life skills as possible to and as a result he's got himself an excellent weekend job, earning £12.50 an hour. Parents are doing their children a real disservice and as such, these kids won't get far in life.

Boomers is weekdays, they’re too busy clogging up the supermarkets at weekends.

Boomer immigrants is bank holidays only.

😂

Tbh - I am happy to hear that perhaps it's just my bad luck recently (or that it's just Clarks 😅).

As I said, I am aware generalisation is not OK, but I just seem to have this long string of bad experiences with younger employees in service industry.
Let's put it like this - lovely staff I've encountered at any age, and yes absolutely many are amazing young people.
But if I do get a shi**y experience and feel like I shouldn't have bothered to come - it is regularly by a gen Z.
So maybe I didn't do well with the title of the thread.

Also, yes, the working conditions/wage is crap but many struggle and many jobs are difficult - yet some people (luckily) take pride in their job.

They are hungry for getting on. We are lazy and entitled.

😂

Half the problem is young folk being distracted by phones.
The other half is there’s no managers in shops, cafes etc…

I’ve been a young retail worker. I was trained by the owner.
In businesses big & small (worked in John Lewis in the 90s)

I was & am interested in people. Some are a pain in the hole.
But, mostly you would learn or gain something from interacting.

I stayed in hotel recently, lots of staff but totally disorganised.
No manager there (to kick their arses!). It makes a difference.

Pride in themselves? Doing a good days work and knowing you did? I worked plenty of shit jobs which were not going anywhere. But I gave a fuck.

Yeah, it is a generalisation, but I think an accurate one.

I was chatting to a fellow on an airplane the other day who works as a supervisor in a trade where it's pretty important to know your stuff, be on time, be very safety and security aware, and so on. He told me that he's never had so much trouble with young workers as now, with not showing up, being too tired to work, being on phones, and posting inappropriate stuff about work on social media/having phones in secure areas where they shouldn't be.

My son has a coworker who hides in the toilet to be on his phone and has been spoken about it more than once.

There is a real problem with this, it does affect older people as well, I've had to deal with it with my own workers, but they do seem to at least understand that it's inappropriate.

The younger people also seem to believe that they should be allowed to do things in whatever way they find comfortable. I had one who was too afraid to make phone calls, even though I coached him through what to say, which was very standardized. And they were calls people were happy to get! He figured I was just being mean to make him do it.

I agree, but I think most of it comes down to a lack of training. I find cafes and restaurants are the worst, unless you go to a top end one

You will get flamed but I know exactly what you mean. There is a level of total cluelessness and lack of initiative in a lot of them (obviously not all) that is unbelievable. To the point it makes me think, have they never been out themselves to even just know the very basics of customer service? Such as greeting people?

Ditto.
I see that so much on MN, it's minimum wage so why should they bother. Well because we all have to start somewhere and we give everything our best. It's no wonder kids have that attitude if that's how their parents are raising them.

Also - this is not just an issue with shit jobs. The kids doing the trades jobs I was speaking about were making much better money than me, and I'm not likely to really go up in salary at this point in my life apart from CoL stuff..

It is a shame Brexit put paid to those young people being able to freely come to the UK to work and our young people to work in other EU countries. Hopefully Labour's new agreement with the EU will reverse that.

Not in my experience - at Next and Tesco and Maccys there have been many Gen Z-ers who have been brilliant - super smiley, helpful and a credit to their bosses, their parents, themselves.
So I cannot and will not stereotype/tar a whole generation with a brush.
There are some young workers I struggle with but there are just as many self-starters out there with great things ahead of them. Same as any young person I teach.

I agree! I think the younger lot are way more confident and useful then I was in hospitality/ retail.

I imagine if their bosses can't be bothered paying them enough to live on then they can't really be bothered giving them their full energy.

In an ideal world of course all customer service would be perfect, but you pay people shit wages to work on shit conditions then in all likelihood they're gonna offer a shit service.

Also everywhere is criminally understaffed (gotta make the cuts so the bosses can keep their bonuses) so they're probably doing the work of 2 or 3 people so yeah I can't blame them for not fawning over you as soon as you walk in

I think it’s hardly surprising that the older employee would be more knowledgeable about the product, really.

I’d say Gen Z are just openly more demoralised. But across the board I find customer service very poor in the UK, I don’t think it’s unique to young employees at all.

I think that is actually a lot of it.

I suspect it reflects schools that now spoon feed to a shocking degree, and lack of need to have real interactions. So they have no experience.