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...

I've always had great service from younger people, no worse than any other age group, certainly. Perhaps they sense your hostility and prejudice.

I’ve had spectacularly crappy service from older staff and very good from younger folk so don’t think it necessarily follows. But also agree that younger staff are left untrained and unsupported so not surprising they aren’t particularly engaged sometimes.

Don’t take the job, then.

If you do a job for a wage, do it properly or don’t do it at all.

That should be the basic starting point.

YANBU… I work in retail, have done for the last 20 years, there is barely any work ethic anymore. The youngsters we get coming through my shop just don’t care, go on thier phone in front of customers despite repeatedly being told they are not allowed to, call in sick left right and centre, don’t turn up to shifts. We have a pretty high turnover due to it being a uni town, out of the roughly 2000 people in the last 4 years about 10 have been any good.

I can't remember being too keen to "go the extra mile" for £3 an hour when I worked in a pub at 17, 30 years ago, either. Do my job, be pleasant and good enough, get paid and a few tips and go home. I don't do that much more in my well paid job now. I work to live and don't expect anything more of anyone else.

I work with many 18-30 year olds (I'm only just a little above that myself)

They might be distracted by phones at times but they work hard and are incredibly conscientious towards customers. There are plenty of positive reviews about them online, the negative reviews are either about people who were being assholes and didn't like being told they were assholes or one pretty accurate one about a much older member of staff

I went into town the other day and the service was really low quality, across the board. Vast department stores with few staff on the floor who were not busy and avoidant. Nothing in DDs size, told to order online. Queued in a Costa at 3pm to be told they were shutting early due to staff shortages. So depressing. Went into Curry's to ask about televisions and was told they didn't know and had I tried Google?! Wasn't worth the trip in or the parking fee.

Work ethic isn't the same as it was, across the board. I do think it's more prevalent amongst younger adults, but we have a real problem in this country

@Hocuspoc I don’t think it has to do with you being difficult or not (I didn’t say that at all in my comment neither), I just think young employees are just openly less invested nowadays as their attitude is also less formal.

My SIL is a manager in hospitality and has employees, including shift managers and so on, show up in hoodies and leggings… she’s not even much older than them, she just keeps saying “would it kill them to at least put on a nice top?” but apparently it’s so difficult to hire that she has to shut up and let it be.

Yep.

People on here can have whatever views they like about whether this should be important or not, but it is important and it doesn't matter whether you like that or not.

Honestly? Yeah having happy customers and me being a positive influence in their day does give me warm fuzzies, and equally when I received friendly service that also gives me warm fuzzies too. A "hi, how are you?" goes a long way. Tell me, how are you left after a positive experience vs. a negative one? I like that saying "you catch more bees with honey". Work ethic gets you everywhere, it opens doors you didn't even know existed 🙂

This is it, the pre 2020s labour market doesn't exist any more.

I’d completely disagree - I had several interactions over the past two days with Gen Z workers, all good, two in particular very positive and helpful - the lad at B&Q and the girl at Tesco. I’d have a think about the vibes you’re giving out.

I think it’s the proliferation of this kind of attitude that’s the problem.

I was hugely in favour of minimum wage at the time it came in, but you hear this or similar so much. “Minimum effort for minimum wage”, “why should they be bothered when they are only earning minimum wage” etc.

I just ran it through an inflation calculator to check, and my first “Saturday job” (actually after school on a Wednesday) was the equivalent to about £1.50 per hour today. I took it because it would give me experience and a reference for a better paying Saturday job, and so I knew I needed to do a good job to be able to get the next one.

I guess the other difference was training and management. We used to be trained in customer service, and very quickly given a talking to if we didn’t get it right.

I am also regularly shocked that people are allowed their phones with them on the shop floor.

I work in a management role, leading a reasonably large team. I find the younger members of the team to be a mixed bag - like pretty much every generation. Some are really hardworking and conscientious; with others, it’s like pulling teeth. I used to be assistant manager at a Nero’s twenty-five years ago and it was EXACTLY the same. No smartphones but some of my team were brilliantly hardworking, others would refuse to unclog a sink because their nails or would call in sick because their boyfriend of two weeks had dumped them and they couldn’t face it. Nothing changes - you just got older and less willing to accept crappy service.

It’s basically that quote that’s often misattributed to Socrates: "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." (while we don’t know exactly where it came from - potentially an amalgamation of Plato and Aristophanes, or neither, it was certainly around more than 100 years ago in 1907).

This just goes to show that we all get to the point where we assume the latest generation are generally feckless, entitled and lacking in any real gumption.

Tbh if that's your attitude you'll always be a loser in life 🤷🏻‍♀️ most people don't remain in retail jobs, well maybe the people like that do, but most don't

Agree with OP. DSD is looking for a job. I use the term loosely as every option we present her with is met with an eye roll and look of disgust, then followed with “I’d end up punching the customers for being so annoying”. When told she has to be professional, she laughed and said she’d do no such thing and that customers shouldn’t be so stupid and find things themselves. We despair…

And why will anyone employ them in better jobs if they CBA in anything.

It’s a very mixed picture here- rudest bloke I’ve ever been served by is around 70 and in Waitrose!! Needs to get back to his gardening and daily Mail reading -

Or just do what you need to to get paid.

This. We've demotivated the younger generation. Half of first time buyers now get help from their parents. They're living for something else.

Which is the job you’ve been employed to do. If you don’t want to serve customers, don’t work in customer service.

If you can’t do an easy job well, why would anyone employ you to do anything more challenging?

And have some self respect.

That could well be an M&S culture thing. A friend of mine has worked there for years & it sounds toxic.

I must set a reminder for the next generation-x-is-the-best-generation-and-generation-xers-are-the-coolest-people-ever nostalgia fest.
I actually love those

There’s a reason the phrase ‘pay peanuts, get monkeys’ exists. Virtually no one is doing a minimum wage job as a career and it’s very hard to be motivated and enthusiastic when you essentially feel you are being fucked by the strap-on of capitalism whilst you do all the hard work for some bloke at the top who does sod all and earns 10 x as much as you.

What jobs paid a premium for working weekends in the last 25-30 years? None of my jobs ever did and I worked from about '98, mainly in retail. I did get extra for bank holidays I think but not much.

Also barely anyone in Gen Z is working for a mortgage. People don't generally do this until they are mid twenties or older. Google suggests in 2000-2004 the average FTB was 29. I don't necessarily think that's right (I bought my first house at 21 in the halcyon but scary days of 100%+ mortgages) but certainly 18-25 year olds have generally not been buying property for decades.

I think a lot of people phone it in for their first jobs but this has noticeably degenerated in recent years, largely I think because of mobile phones. Surely employers don't allow phones in 'public' areas but that seems to be widely ignored. What do they think they are being paid for?! The amount of pubs or restaurants you go into and have to loudly say 'excuse me' to get attention is shocking.