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 ?

Interesting take - but I suppose it’s hard to shift attitudes towards work. I think he should have done better

We used to call it being a jobsworth but now it’s probably labelled self-care.

a jobs worth was someone who using and upholding petty rules to give them authority, this situation isn't about petty rules?

I'm shocked by a lot of the responses on this thread. I'm a millennial and wouldn't have hesitated to jump on this task, unless I had a plane or specific train to catch, or had to pick up DC. I'm in an industry where we have university leavers on specific training programmes and the inflexibility and rigid boundaries surprise me often. It was a 15 minute admin task, not a request to work all evening!

? You go to their line manager if it's going to take a chunk of time. That team will have it's own commitments and timescales to meet Even if you know what these are it's good manners. As far as the team member is concerned, if you'd done all that then all you needed to have said that you'd cleared with their Op M/LM.

I take it that you work in a very hierarchical organisation?

PS if they've booked the time off already then tough

He wasn't lazy or disobedient, unless we're going by the standards of last century?

I agree with this. If my managers manager made a simple 15 min request id do it and not bat an eyelid.

I'd have been furious OP. If you are given an instruction by someone higher than your manager then you do it. End of.

It's showing no respect for the business as a whole.

I won't make that assumption. He let OP down (I doubt she'd have credited his work when presenting it to the CEO) but she was asked to do it herself by her senior. If he could have stayed it would be good if he did, but I won't assume he had that flexibility given he'd taken the effort to discuss his finishing time with his manager.

Except it's not, as quite a few real life responses have indicated here.

Good for him. You're out of touch

is that your attitude that is hard to shift?

which part should this employee have done better?
he was polite and surely right to include his manager in the loop
nothing disrespectful about having requested to finish early - make plans and then not want you to change that last minute - was it a matter of life and death if he didn't stay? could he just pick up on Monday?

@FedUpFeminist I would always prioritise my seniors but we don't know if the worker has had an experience where their manager didn't like that. I have worked in teams before where the manager didn't like her manager directly talking to juinors and wanted to know/be included in everything. I would stay late if I could but I wouldn't expect others to if they had plans.

Bizarre thread. You don’t get ahead by saying no to simple requests. Just nuts.

OP read back your posts. You definitely are coming across with the tone of they should do as I say because I say so.

That's not an effective manager.
You may have developed career wise with that dinosaur approach but it definitely will not get the best our of a team or make it a pleasant place to work.

I get that you are frustrated but you really need to examine how you communicate as a manager.
You've gone from saying he usually does well to well now I'm watching him and will want a performance review....because he didn't do as you wished when you clicked your fingers?!

I would never speak to anyone in my team like that regardless of what grade and I'm a niche specialist who regularly makes decisions well into the hundreds of millions.

@Amy8 how much notice did you give him?

it was a 15 min task and it would not have taken him into his time off - the questioning and what I perceive as excuses did. In the end I did it. Is it ok to be a little annoyed by that ?

I didn’t speak to him rudely - I did the task myself

Would that 15 minutes have stopped him completing a task for his actual manager?

Your own manager asked YOU to do it. It's just 15 minutes after all.

I’m a millennial and when I was younger, I would have said how high even as my husband left for the weekend and said I think we might be done… I mean I just had no boundaries at all. When I first managed Gen Z I was so angry with them for their lack of commitment. But actually some years on, I admire their boundaries and I have much better boundaries too. I’m a senior manager and it forces me to really think about what is reasonable. We now have a rota on a Friday for someone to handle ‘last minute’ emergency stuff. They are paid to stay late, have agreed to it and expect the work. There are no issues.

As was assigned to you by your manager.

We are going by the standards of the last century; that’s the point and the reason for the clash.

Having read the whole thread including the drip feed detail of what the task actually involved, though, I’m more on OP’s side.

I’m a Gen X and a direct manager of millennials and a mentor to Zs. I see plenty of Zs who are great at self-managing, willing to fit in an extra task or step up to take on whole projects. I’ve never liked the wholesale labelling of generational attributes: some people are lazy and always have been; some people don’t live to work and never have; some people will run themselves into the ground for a job and always did.

He wouldn’t last long when I work. He should have seen this as an opportunity to impress his skip level manager and potentially open up opportunities for him in the future, if he impressed you on this single urgent task it’s more likely you would have wanted him to take on more responsibility ultimately leading to his own career advancement. I’m always talking to my team about high visibility tasks/projects - these don’t come along every day and when they do you jump on them and do not eff them up. This is such basic common sense that on that basis alone I would be questioning his abilities. Very frustrating OP but at the end of the day it’s his own career he is sabotaging. You likely won’t ask him for help in these circumstances again and someone else will get the breaks.

I agree with this.

OP seems to have jumped to the conclusion that this incident with a staff member, who she otherwise has no other concerns about, is a general reflection of his underperfomance (caused by his... Birthdate?!).

In this scenario I would raise this with his direct report (my direct report) in their next 121. 'By the way, while you were off last week, I asked Colin to pull some numbers for a paper I needed to submit to Geoff. I know he was finishing early but it was 2pm and it was a 15 minute job. He said he'd need to check it with you first but the deadline was that day so couldn't wait. Unless there was another deadline that Colin didn't mention, it might be worth some coaching on how the team needs to respond to urgent requests from leadership.'

it was a 15 min task and it would not have taken him into his time off -

@Amy8 what time did you ask for
it? eg at 9am or 15 mins before he left. How did you know what other things he had to do?

None

hello! I am in a meeting “can you go in and get xx data for me - needed for an important matter we are discussing please “

something id ask his manager normally without any issue