Gen z’rs

[Newyorklady]

I manage a large team approx 25 staff.
majority of staff report back to me being happy and settled in their roles.
we work hybrid in office 2 days a week max. Remainder wfh. No requirements to work over, workload manageable.
we offer flexible working, good Annual Leave and I consider myself an approachable manager.
I have mixed age groups however I seem to be constantly coming across Gen Z’rs who are struggling to cope both in life and at work.
I am starting to feel at a loss what to do.
They seem to be quite lazy ie I’ve had to get them out of bed when realising not online by 11 am, they make constant excuses not to come in the office.
I’ve started to performance management them informally due to these issues. This relates to 2 members of staff both late twenties.
Both now been off regularly sick citing depression and low mood. When raised before I offered reasonable adjustments and stress risk assessments. They come back to work when they’re sick pay reduces. I’ve offered Regular wellbeing check ins. Offered EAP.
Due to continued dips in performance I had no choice but to start informal PIP after 6 months following last absences.
Began phasing back in office.
Again at Christmas now sick pay refreshed gone off long term sick citing depression. Then changed the sick notes after 2 times to Work Related Stress.
Im flummoxed and at a loss. What work related stress when they are hardly in work ?
they do not have challenging roles but seem unable to cope with accepting a job has responsibilities and expectations.
I don’t get this off my 20 odd other staff who report back how much they enjoy the role. I seek regular feedback from all team members.
i honestly just wished they would leave and find out what the real work of work is like.
What else can I do Im fed up with constantly offering support only for it to never be enough and go on the same cycle. They seem to have a sense of entitlement re getting paid to do very little. Anyone else get this from same age group.
Advice.

I hear you OP. I have the same issues at my work. Just a bunch of workshy snowflakes. Sorry no advice.

It's so easy to flake like this today for ypung people.
Can you tbh get rid of them? They will never do the job.

Can't you just performance manage them out of the job? Or if they've been there less than 2 years just termninate their contract.

Same here. Sorry no advice either.
all I get is entitlement, over confidence, demanding lots or benefits (an office like Meta but also full flex and if possible working from Bali for a few weeks), but no actual work results, lots of very basic mistake, inappropriate clothes for meetings with Clients etc

Yet you try getting a job when you are over 50.

Yes and yet the older ones are my best staff.

I’d love to. Where I work takes forever to get anyone out.
I will absolutely be progressing the PIPs as soon as they return.

We hire a lot of graduates and they are either brilliant or awful like this. Never in the middle. Luckily the bad ones tend to leave when they realise they aren’t being promoted as fast as the good ones or getting the good pay rises.

I have been pleasantly surprised by our latest intake of 18-21 year olds. They're conscientious, hard working and seem well motivated...so I don't think it's a generational problem.

During their initial training period and for some time after they are not allowed to work from home (unless for exceptional ad hoc reasons).

Personally I think their professional development benefits hugely from being in the office environment, they're learning constantly not just about the job but how to interact with colleagues etc and how the firm operates beyond their own department.

Also, one thing we found with the pandemic a lot of the younger ones struggled with working from home because they were in shared houses or still in the family home which caused issues with space, equipment etc. And let's face it, at that age they're sometimes not the best at making productive decisions about how to use their time! I know I'd have been a nightmare with that degree of freedom at 18/19, although I'm very conscientious and have a good work ethic now!

We offer flexible working but with parameters - you communicate with your line manager about what time you will start and finish etc.

Expectations are clear but there is also a lot of support and opportunities. The trust to WFH is something that has to be earned and as they prove themselves, flexibility increases.

It seems to be the generation who think life is like a TikTok or Instagram reel and when they realise it's not they can't cope and have to play the mental health card, which is insulting to those who genuinely do suffer with their mental health and still drag themselves to work every day.

This exactly

I think it is not appropriate for you to suggest that 'generation Z' are inherently lazy or unable to fit into the workplace.

Making this type of generalisation is as inappropriate as if you were saying over-50s are by definition poorer employees simply because of their age.

You simply happen to have two young people who don't seem to perform as you wish.

You also appear quite dismissive of mental health issues.

If they are not performing then follow the proper procedure to dismiss them.

That's your role as a manager.

But you also need to make sure you are fair to them if they genuinely have long term mental health issues (which qualifies as a disability).

By now you should have involved occupational health so they can advise if reasonable adjustments are needed.

Not doing this you might end up exposing your organisation to claims of disability discrimination and unfair dismissal if you jump to PIP without carefully considering potential long term health issues.

As a manager you should know that by the way...

I hear you. We only have one, however she thinks it's fine to watch TikTok videos with the sound on in office and looks offended if she's asked to do literally anything. I don't see her lasting.

Ones I have recruited myself have been brilliant. Taken in 2 graduates doing really well.
Unfortunately these are a couple I inherited and were recruited in Covid. They had little supervision whilst wfh so I suspect they got away with a lot and have struggled since I came in and we are now enforcing 2 days a week in the office.
They act like I'm an ogre for asking them to actually work within parameters and come into the office.

I’ve wasted time interviewing and going through a recruitment process only for the selected candidate not to turn up on their first day and no courtesy to inform of a change of mind.

@Newyorklady ah yep that makes sense, we had similar issues at the time. All have now moved on, some through performance improvement plans and some just deciding they wanted to do something different.

Can you raise it higher up and put them on more formal performance improvement plans?

I don't think it's generational but never known work standards so low (highly predictable but still very annoying)

age aside, what did their contracts say about coming in? Or about working hours? If they're not online on time, doesn't that count as lateness and should go with whatever the warning stages are for persistent lateness?

Is it the case that HR just never get on the case about contracts?

They have had OH. Stress Risk assessments and every reasonable adjustment in the book.
Hence my frustration and post.
i am in no way dismissing mental health issues but do feel it’s the stock excuse these days for not wanting to do the job they are paid for.
Read the other responses I don’t think it’s just me.

Yes, that was a weird post you replied to there - mental health is not so convenient that you go off until your pay reduces and then get better until the clock resets again. I think I would be taking them down performance management and not letting it reset when they go off. Its infuriating, and bad for morale to have people like this around - why should others work hard when these people get away with murder?

Sounds very familiar although im not a manager

Then it's everyone else left to pick up their workload while they're off, on top of their own adding

Interesting the comments above re Tiktok and Instagram, is this the first wave of the generation who grew up with access to social media.

I can remember it being instilled in me at school that unless I was ill, I was going to school, think in reception I tried faking a stomach ache, my mum saw straight through it! Certainly if I was too ill for school, I was deemed too ill for my hobby

We had a girl start part time at my place - 2 days a week. After 1 week, said 2 days is too much so she needs to cut down to 1 day a week. Since my company agreed to that, we have only seen her once. Different excuse every week - thankfully she is on her trial period so we have let her go. Absolutely no work ethic.

At my workplace I've actually only seen the sort of behaviour you describe from individuals aged 40+, as it happens. I think you're focusing on the age aspect when that's really a red herring.

Sorry for your pain OP. One reason I am happy managing nobody. Sounds as though you're in the civil service where it is very hard to get rid of the work shy. Can you 'manage' them out of your team to the post room where there will be less stress ?

I think your main mistake here is to make it informal. You need to start down a proper formal route.

I have adult children and dont recognise the snowflake variety so often sneered about on mn.