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 ?

No, I did this new technologything called READING. The OP's posts and most others.

It really isn't rocket science. Just plain old reading comprehension.

Wow this thread has really brought the pettifogging Herberts out from under their woodsheds for a spot of doctor bashing.

You have my sympathy and my respect, OP - I too think he’d already taken off for his weekend and I would absolutely look into that. He must be vaguely aware that your job is to care for patients and that puts your requests at the top of the priority list. His indifference to providing so you can do your job is poor form, and if he can’t be trusted to do his job from home then he will have to come in to the office or get another job.

I find the self righteous defence of bad behaviour very tiresome, and I bet that all those criticising you would have a different view if they or their loved ones were under your care.

I have come across this too. Saying that they are upset by attitude/ tone of e-mails/ their boss is damaging their mental health.
I was born in 1965 - if some one upset us we were just miserable silently and moaned to our friends

@Amy8 you've wasted a whole day with this. Get off the internet and go and do something that you enjoy, away from work stress.

@KTheGrey Pettifogging Herberts is my new fave insult (what does it actually mean?)

thank you- still working !

So, it was a management meeting discussing priorities and scheduling going forward, not a meeting about preventing an imminent death, with doctors standing around a patient’s bedside? Were the people in the meeting going to be late getting back to their ward rounds if the meeting overran, and why had they not brought all the relevant data with them to the meeting in the first place, so as to avoid sudden, urgent requests? Was there not fault to be attributed in more than one place? It’s really very odd you can’t believe you are having to justify yourself when you put a post on AIBU…

I misunderstood that it was work time, but if it was pre-agreed that he finish early I think that has to be honoured. He presumably ran it past someone in authority.
I do understand that you may be primed for Gen Z irritation if people refuse to come into the office when they're contractually obliged to do so, that is extremely brazen on their part.

Delaying care can be life or death

we didn’t have data to hand because a case was bought in urgently during the course of the mdt - so we needed to triage urgently

By the end of this thread you’ll end up saying he’s an imposter that was never actually hired.

So, he had his cell phone on. If you are slated to work until 4 p.m. then you need to be at a computer where you can do an emergency task if needed. WFH means work from home. Not take my cell phone on my long weekend and lie about my line manager to get out of doing my paid job.

Yeah, I'd be having him in for a serious discussion, along with his line manager, when he is back from his leave.

That scenario is not ok.

I think it's fairly typical of a lot of Gen Zs though.

Pettifogging is when people are very hung up on pointless bureaucracy and jobsworthing - Herbert is just an all purpose word for twit - I googled and it started out in London for any bloke but became more derogatory over time.

In a medical establishment, hospital, clinic etc., the CEO is almost always also a doctor. Just like the OP.

Not the point of the thread but if accessing this data urgently is literally a matter of life or death then you need more people who have access to and are trained to use it.

Uummmmm...she works in the NHS. She's a doctor and it was a medical emergency.

Next!

So don’t put in the hard work them as you won’t get anywhere? That’s a fantastic attitude to have.
You have to actually work hard and have the ability to move into a senior position, maybe you or the ones you “know” don’t. I know plenty who have … myself included.
I’m wise to never affording a house so I’ll do the minimum at work … ok 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣
I think it is you that may be out of touch!

I hadn't picked up on the medical bit. Might change my view slightly

It truly is just mind-boggling.

I saw a FB reel once with a bunch of dumb things people said and after each one came the phrase; "They walk among us.". Now, I understand.

I just thought of consultant in it's every day meaning ie not medical

Honestly it’s no wonder the NHS is on its knees when it’s set up like this. Sounds like an absolute shitshow.

You are clearly involved in decisions made using this data so you should have access to it. You should be able to have access to it immediately and it shouldn’t take delegation and 15 minutes to get it.

If the password wasn’t saved where it should have been saved, then his line manager and maybe even you should explain why - why aren’t things done, checked and reviewed? I have to do this in my private role for basic documentation and audit trails.

What if this member of staff and his line manager were both on annual leave? Or if one was away and the other had to leave for an emergency? Or if both were in a meeting?

Do people really think Gen Z is self directed? I don't find that at all, quite the opposite.

So, it was the sort of meeting that happens every couple of weeks, say, where decisions are made on things like scheduling surgery for patients that require teams of doctors from several disciplines and based at different regional hospitals, to be available in the same place, at the same time, for complex and time critical procedures (eg for head and neck cancers), where delaying a decision until the next meeting could have serious adverse consequences on the patients’ outcomes? Was the admin person aware you were in a meeting of that sort, assuming that’s the sort of meeting you are talking about?

Bet most of these replies are by snowflake Gen Z's which is why they are all so defensive!

You did nothing wrong, he should have acted like an adult in the workplace and got on with it.