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 ?

The op made the request with no consideration for his workload. The manager not being there was a drip feed when the poster didn’t get the support they wanted so I’m dubious but let’s give the benefit of the doubt, in that scenario you drop down to line management level and ask, what have you got on this afternoon? We need to do xyz urgently so what can move to Monday for that to happen. Also reassure employee you’ll email line manager to let them know the change.

In some work places the work is flexible but in others it’s harder. Doing 15 minutes of work when you’re in back to back meetings… hard to just “squeeze in”.

Many work places are now non hierarchical and far more respectful of team members’ time so maybe the op’s approach was just very different to what they were used to, or maybe they are a lazy twat - each needs different and adaptable management to get what you need from them.

Yep, ridiculous. He should have jumped up, said yes but that he had to leave at 4pm, done as much as he could and hand it back.

I applaud their boundaries! I have to indirectly manage some genZ people at work. Expenses need to be done by X date and they never are on time. I would’ve stayed late to get it done but they leave bang on 5.30pm in the days running up to the deadline then claim they’re had no time.

This person had pre-agreed plans
Then tou say 'oh I need to rush out as I have a flight to get to, but let me ask Sam if he can help'.

Well obviously.

some sectors are notorious for unreasonable requests and no work life balance and you know when you sign up for them.

my ExH worked in merchant banking and was regularly got up at 2am to sort stuff out, drove back from a family holiday for a meeting and spent most of a holiday in California in online meetings.

but usually in these sectors they pay you for it. You sell your soul but they give you the money.

i worked in education because I did all the drop offs and pick ups and ill children etc. some schools had the same attitude as with merchant banks - phoning at 10pm, please do this over the weekend - but on 10x less the pay.

i was a maths teacher - hens teeth. No fucking way am I doing this shit if you’re not paying for my soul.

Who says to "burn yourself out"?

Show willing and recognise that you might not always understand the bigger picture (which is why you take direction from senior managers)

Employment is not in abundance as the stats show and AI will hoover up the "easy" jobs.

There was no time for this so I had to do it myself

How would that take 15 minutes to respond to?! I typed that out in 30 seconds
Because the point is that he just didn't want to do it, so iys not 30 seconds. It's one minute, than two, then 5. OP was in a meeting and didn't have 5 minutes or even 2 to explain what required no explanation.

And add an extra 15 minutes to his tasks?

The 15 minutes you think it should take him might be more if he’s got to switch off from what he is currently doing / get to a point at which he could drop what he was actually doing in order to do what you asked. Add the pre-agreed leaving time, I think you are the unreasonable one here.
I have lost count of the number of times that someone has pulled the hierarchy rank on me in this type of situation and I no longer jump to this - I’ve wised up and as per PP, I won’t see 40 again so not Gen Z by any means.

I also wouldn't say this is necessarily a Gen Z thing.

This individual has a problem and needs putting straight about how the line of management works and how he should respond to a reasonable request from his senior who was under pressure and needed immediate assistance.

His refusal should be noted in his records and I think bodes very poorly for his worth to the company going forward.

Permanent contracts are far fewer in the private sector.
Two year contracts are increasingly the norm.
It is surprising how many are not renewed.

This should be a huge red flag on his file.
His manager needs to be told that his unprofessional response is on THEM.

He has clearly not been briefed on how things work.

I would want to know EXACTLY what he was doing that was so important for the final 90 minutes of the day, that was so important that he said No to you.

I would totally make a thing out of this with his manager upon their return.

Hahaha millennial here. After multiple redundancy consultations (throughout my career, mostly staying and only took redundancy once) I learned that working late and putting the hours in means nothing. I’m a number on a spread sheet! I will absolutely work hard 9-5pm, I will take my 30 minute lunch break, and I will stay late in a genuine emergency but if there’s a project deadline, that needs to be planned in to be completed in my paid work hours. I’m not a volunteer for my company. I encourage my team to do the same. If they work late, they get time back that week. (I’m a senior manager with zero staff turnover in the last 4 years since starting this role. Previously I only lost staff due to pregnancy.)

What a silly assumptive opening line.

He had a "work plan", presumably agreed with his line manager, which needed to be completed before his agreed finish time.
You took none of this into consideration.
You passed the buck and didn't care how that might affect others - including his line manager, who also had expectations of the employee.
If I was his LM, I'd be annoyed that you basically ignored my existance.
He/she is best placed to judge who is the best person to take on extra work at short notice.
Yes, you do need to look at your management style. It is definitely outdated, and was never ideal.
Lesson learned.
I'm 56 and have managed teams, of 40 plus employees, in the past.

Posters have suggested 'going the extra mile'. Why should employees be expected to do extra?

Whilst I don’t disagree with the general premise that this employee could and should have helped, I no longer see the need to ask him in the first place. The situation as I understand it from your updates was:

you’re in a meeting with the CEO

some data is required quickly to support the discussion under way

Why did you not say ‘sure let’s pull that up now’ and do it in the moment if, as you now say, you could do it yourself?

I can see myself as a HoD sitting with my director and/or CEO and doing just that. They wouldn’t have thought ‘why on earth is Scarlet doing that admin’, they would have taken the data and we’d have quickly made the required decision with all the facts now I front of us.

A good manager needs to make time for quick on the spot guidance moments, and this was one of those times
No a good manager prioritise their own time and delegate when required. OP was in a meeting with an urgent need for information. Their priority was to actively participate in the meeting and provide information. Not hold the hand of a poor young lad who was asked to do a 15 minutes task and they could cope with such a straight forward request.

Managers have many more responsibilities than just serve and accommodate the staff under them.

And as I said, if he still refused to do it after the OP had pushed back a little, he would have been unreasonable and I'd agree he was being workshy. The OP said she spoke to him on Teams, she had time for a quick pushback to his specific concerns. But instead she used that time to give a vague "sometimes we have to be reactive" instead of actually engaging with what he was saying.

He's not 'a poor young lad', he's an employee with his own tasks, who should be treated with respect.

You’re a consultant not their manager. They don’t work for you and if they have leave booked they certainly aren’t going to cancel it for you given that you get paid a lot more than they do to do it and you’ll get the credit. My response would have been “go forth and multiply” as well.

Well, what do we say about the fact that you did not read even all the posts by the OP?

If you had, you would have read that his manager was out on annual leave, so wasn't there to "recon" with OP that day. So, I very much doubt that the manager would have been annoyed because they were not called while they were on annual leave, to get permission for an employee to do the job he had been hired to do.

SMDH again

If the need was so urgent then the most efficient way of quickly getting the job done was to do it herself (which it seems she did do, with no issues). You can't fire off messages and expect that the recipient will immediately receive them and immediately be able to drop what they're doing and pivot to your task.

All those who think he was in the right with his attitude are probably the same who then post and moan about how their colleague got offered the next up job and how unfair, discriminatory it is and whatever else!

This.

Some of the responses on this thread are batshit and no wonder people are stuck in dead end jobs or get bitter seeing others being promoted and complain about "lack of procession opportunities"....

I'm a head of a department for 90 staff, 2 layers of managers under me. We're replacing basic tasks with agentic gen AI and will restructure next year.

I have two types of "doing the bare minimum" in my team - those who are waiting for redundancy and will retire as above pension access age. They've basically done their share over decades. They say this openly in skip levels, they do the basic tasks, nothing more. And they will be out of the organisation the day they can boost their retirement with redundancy payout. The second lot are some of the younger ones who are profoundly naïve to how replaceable they are.

I also absolutely have several young team members who are very switched on, pick up additional projects in the AI and automation space and realise they'll get the edge by making their skillset harder to replace by being the people who design and manage the automation etc...

My team is 60% in India, 40% in the UK. Generally speaking the India ones are the ones more likely to be prioritising making themselves relavant through this industrial revolution. Many of the UK based zoomers are seriously lacking critical thinking....

Except there were issues - I was required for my expertise in the meeting and I wasn’t able to contribute it, so decision making was affected as well as outcomes for patients - as I work in a clinical setting

TLDR whole thread. But OP, I did read all your posts - and tbf you are very rude, unreliable in your own telling of the story (at first he’s a good worker, next thing your pushing for a performance review), and you’re clearly not posting in order to reflect or learn as you claim. You just want posters to agree with you. I’m a manager too, and I wouldn’t treat staff like this or drip feed key and relevant context. Maybe go back and read your own posts as if they were another’s words, and reflect on them.