Managing Gen Z

[Amy8]

I’m an experienced senior manager who took some time out to work as a consultant – partly to avoid exactly these kinds of situations!

Something happened last week that’s made me question my management style, which I’ve always thought was fair. The CEO asked me (quite urgently) to get something done. I was in a meeting, so I asked a junior team member to help out. It would’ve been easier to just do it myself, but I genuinely needed the support.

He replied that he needed to check with his line manager first because it wasn’t in his work plan (I manage his manager), and then added that he was logging off shortly for a long weekend which had been pre-agreed.

I stayed polite on Teams and explained that sometimes we have to be reactive to senior requests — but honestly, inside I was thinking, just do it! At his age, I’d have just cracked on.

It’s not the first time I’ve had this kind of pushback — others in the team (same age group) have also been quite firm about working from home and not wanting to come in when asked.

I’m genuinely wondering: is this just how the workplace is now — a generational shift and new boundaries — or is it a bit of a disregard for authority and should I be adapting better ?

I am a senior director in my organisation and I wouldn’t expect a more junior member of staff to delay planned time off to complete a task I had given them last minute. And I would also actually respect them for wanting to check in with their manager despite you being more senior as it shows a commitment to their team rather than just being willing to drop current projects because someone further up the hierarchy asked them to.

If he had planned time off and was going away, of course I wouldn’t expect him to delay to do this. Fair enough if he didn’t have any pre-arranged plans but he did. I guess as he is young, he doesn’t realise that requests from seniors trump other plans, so fair enough he said he had to speak to his line manager. I think you’re being unfair here.

There’s definitely a difference in how the generations approach work. Many of my peers (millennials) have mentioned this! Fifteen years ago when we started working, we wouldn’t have questioned a request like this from a manager and if it meant staying late/working unpaid overtime, so be it. I’m not sure if it was healthy but it was definitely the norm!

That being said, if he’d pre-agreed a long weekend then I don’t think he was unreasonable to say “sorry I can help you out but I only have until X and then I’m afraid I need to leave”. I think that’s fair enough especially if he’s relatively junior.

Not wanting to help until he’d cleared it with his line manager (who you manage!!) is just silly though. Perhaps he’s just very green and needs someone to explain to him how the hierarchy works, I’d raise it with his line manager and ask them to explain to him.

Perhaps the best way to deal with this would be for you to ask the in between manager to get one of the team (including this staff member, but presumably there are others) to do the thing? Then they can have a proper conversation about who is available and who's best suited to the task?

As for whether it was reasonable to ask him to delay his long weekend, that would depend on whether it was a 'need to go to the airport now' situation or just a preference to finish early? Also other considerations about who in the team normally steps up and if anyone is owed TOIL or similar.

It could be that this particular person should really have stayed and done the thing, or it could equally have been he was genuinely unavailable and always been expected to step up, and it would have been more reasonable for someone else to do it this time?

Good on Gen Z if they’re putting boundaries in place. Look at the number of people who burnt themselves out at work in previous generations - those levels of stress didn’t do us any good, did they?

I disagree. If our HOD asked me to do something I would run it past my line manager as a matter of courtesy.

I won't see 60 again.

Interesting! Perhaps it’s different between different industries then.

I’d certainly send my line manager a quick message to let them know that I’d had to deprioritise X to work on Y, but I wouldn’t wait for their permission.

Exactly @RampantIvy If a HoD asked me to do something, my first thought would be 'have they run this by my line manager' usually because a lot of HoDs are less up to speed than they should be about how the job gets done day to day.

People are done with prioritising jobs that reward other people for their efforts. Good on them. I recently told my manager that I'm done with overnights unless I get a day off in leiu. My evenings are important to me, I'm done with management thinking they can help themselves to them. I've got my days off in leiu, wish I'd put my foot down years ago.

My manager had to speak to our recent grad intake, they wanted to constantly work from home and often called in sick, especially after work social events they’d attended (where management and HR were in attendance). The millennials onwards were really surprised by their attitude. To give them credit they did step up but they had to be told.

Why didn't you go to their line manager and ask them ?

If you're not his immediate 'boss' and he has tasks sets by a different 'boss' under you, then YABVU to start commanding he do things. You were asked to complete the task not him, gone are the days of senior staff taking credit for the work of junior staff. He was correct.

But there's a difference between questionable sick leave and expecting WFH when it's reasonable to come into the office and being exploited by your employer, working for free etc.

We are paid to do a job after all and that involves actually doing it and doing it well unless you are genuinely sick, which doesn't include being tired and hung over because you partied too hard on a work night.

If he was literally in his way to the airport in an hour then no way would I have done it in his place.

i’m not cancelling holiday for a random request from a senior person.

i’m 48. I did the whole being helpful to senior people thing and my god they’ll screw you over and you’ll never see a promotion or even a thank you.

That's not the same as what OP is describing.

It's more a case of telling her rather than asking. Also, checking deadlines and priorities. I am very much a team player, as are the people I work with, and it would give her a chance to maybe re-allocate tasks to other team members to ensure that deadlines are met.

We don't encourage silo working where I work.

His manager was on leave

Why didn't you ask his line manager to allocate it to someone in his team/him rather than jumping lower down the chain-is it because you expected him to just do it because you'd told him too but his line manager might have pushed back because you know what work he's got on? Genuine question as I'm very junior at work (not young though) but I never understand why more senior staff sometimes directly ask junior staff to do things last minute like this, it feels sneaky to me like they know they'd be told we've got higher priority work to do instead if they asked the right level of person. I would definitely have given the same response. To me it sounds like you're just palming off something you're supposed to be doing onto someone who you thought wouldn't question it. I find senior staff very clueless about what work I should be prioritising and it's likely they knew they had higher priority work they had to finish before their leave.

Well, that sounds like you found a situation to take advantage of.

It wasn’t an abroad holiday - and the task was 15 mins max , I did most of the leg work. I just needed him to access a system that I couldn’t as was in a meeting.

his manager my direct line report was also on leave . You know it was more the attitude and the lack of willingness than the actions

Asking my staff member to do a task is taking advantage how ?

It would have helped if you had mentioned this in your OP. Loads of posters will miss this drip feed.

It’s his day job and job description- it’s a system he has responsibility for

Why should he be willing to set aside his actual tasks and do part of yours? Couldn't you access the system after your meeting?

The staff member isn't directly responsible to you, and has tasks already set by his immediate boss.