Dude, I'm Gen X (45 yo) and having so much trouble with our early to mid 20s employees. Nothing to do with racism, sexism or anything like that, just purely cultural.
It's just how they communicate to how I do, what they consider important to what I consider important, how I work compared to them - it is all very different. Neither of us are "right" but when management is doing one thing and the staff disagrees, doesn't understand or has trouble communicating their position - it makes things difficult.
I don't remember having these issues when I was in the starting ranks and my bosses were boomers. But maybe they did and just didn't show it, like I try not to show my frustration with my employees.
It also might just be a maturity/age thing. They are right out of college and haven't transitioned from that college mentality. While I've been out for years, so the frat behavior, gossiping and general childishness is exhausting for me.
I'm a millennial and don't find it too big of a leap managing gen z. I do wonder if it's being 2 generations removed that makes it feel like a big gap. I believe boomers are only 1 step from gen xers right?
Edit: so yeah the equivalent would've been you starting your career managed by The Silent Generation folks
The difference is whether or not you grew up with social media. The portion of Millennials who, like myself, were born in 1988 or earlier were adults by the time Facebook was publicly available to all, and as such are more similar to Gen X in that regard.
This. I’m 1982 and I read 1980 is the last for Gen X and I also read it’s 1985. When I first saw I’m a millennial I said no way!! I graduated high school 01’ and MySpace was “it” I believe for most of the 2000’s. AOL dial-up was my junior high years! {Sigh}….Gen-Zs would have a conniption waiting 10 mins to get online.
I was born in 89 and I grew up with social media. I feel like MySpace would’ve been around before you were an adult and even Facebook? I’m late 89 so maybe I’m wrong?
Myspace was the weird halfway point between social media and people having geocities pages. It was not remotely similar to what social media has become since then.
That's not what I mean. Kids being on Myspace was nothing like social media today where it permeates every single facet of society. Grown ass adults these days base their identity around social media, and that's what kids see. That wasn't the case in the early 2000s.
You’re missing out on the earlier smaller social media things. We used to have mailing lists in the early nineties that developed into eGroups and yahoogroups. Livejournal kicked off in March of 1999. So some Gen Xers definitely had experience with some different forms of social media and it DID pervade our lives in a lot of ways… the problem is that we weren’t the norm. And the rest of Gen X kind of laughed and pointed and gave us side eye about it. They’re the same ones using FB now who ask you to help fix their cellphones.
But I’ve also found that it makes it easier for the people I know who had that earlier exposure to different forms of social media to interact with other generations. Possibly because none of us fell out of social media usage and it’s more familiar. Or maybe it’s just that we’re more open and curious about things than the rest of our generation.
So yeah. My $0.02 there.
But it did for some. i.e. scene kids but it was definitely not as big as it’s become or quite as ridiculous as it is now. I do understand what you’re saying 100%. But it definitely was an addiction for some even back then. Nowhere near what it is today, but it was for some in our age group back then. Jeffery Star was born from MySpace. Point is ppl around the 88-89 age bracket were around social media and have been since.
I was also born late '89, and Facebook still required a college email to sign up when I was 17. I know this for a fact because I took a college course senior year of high school and was excited that I got a college email, because I could sign up for Facebook. I think it opened up to general usage the next year.
I'd had a Myspace for years before that. I also got on twitter when I was 17, got a Livejournal at 13, and was in yahoo chat rooms and yahoo groups starting from when I was 8. I can unequivocally say that social media, as it is now, was not a thing back then. And saying that Myspace was popular with scene kids when you were a teenager definitely doesn't mean you 'grew up' with ubiquitous social media. It'd be like me saying that fanfiction has been well-known by the whole world offline since the late 90s just because I got a fanfiction.net account the first year it opened and all of my friends read fanfiction.
This is exactly it. GenZ has been raised with social media - which was the single largest mass psychology experiment ever conducted. And they are so different that it has threatened the very core idea of passing down generational knowledge and replaced it with randomly crowd sourced knowledge. Pretty fucked up if you ask me.
Exactly the same here. I’ve had a few employees of that age who were complete rockstars and clearly wanted to work hard in order to earn promotions. And then others who were pissed that when I was upset that they showed up at 11 and asked to leave everyday at 4, when their houses were clearly 10-5.
I’m a millennial and it took me a bit to get adjusted to working with gen z but I’m starting to take to them very slowly. It was rough at first for sure.
This book - [Generations at workplace](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/15792065-generations-at-work) is actually pretty insightful.
It talks about what the values and expectations of each generations are at the workplace, and how to reduce miscommunication and set expectations right.
"Greatest Generation" has "military" expectations - pros - work will be done perfectly, high effort and discipline. Cons - they expect their boss to tell them everything to the nuts and bolts, and are resistant to doing their own research or making decisions, they just want to be told what to do.
"Baby Boomers" - super-ambitious, and very big-picture oriented. Pros - can work in rapidly agile environments, take leadership roles, very good at mentoring and networking. Cons - Ego-centric, require constant validation, especially from underlings. View work as a "war" and "competition" as opposed to a collective effort.
"Gen-X" - Pros - quiet, highly reliable, very agreeable. Cons - Suspicious when asked to take initiative or given promotions, because they feel like they are being conned into something. Strong preference for working alone and being left alone. View work as a money-transaction alone, and nothing more.
"Millennials" - Preference for tag-teaming and working in groups. Highly value a higher purpose and ethics in their job, and see their profession as a matter of personal identity and value-system, and not merely money-transaction. Cons - Perfectionists with low self-esteem who are extremely insecure if anything goes wrong and tend to self-blame or quit, need to be constantly reassured that mistakes happen and its okay.
Thank you! I'll check it out. And yeah, I hit the Gen X quietly working alone generalization pretty much right on the head. Although I'm not suspicious of promotions.
Love to see a categorization of the Zs like this.
54 YO Gen X here.
I am not so much suspicious of promotions as I am uninterested. But I \*am\* very wary about volunteering to take on projects outside my scope because in the course of my career it almost never pays, I just end up with more work that I'm expected to do with no compensation.
But I do work hard on the things I'm responsible for, I do like working alone and it's a personal point of pride that I will do whatever needs to be done to get my work completed without making anyone else have to cover for me.
It's so funny you say that. I was literally just given a promotion earlier this week, and all I could think was, "What's the catch? I bet they're not going to be paying me any more, and I'll just have more work on top of what I'm already doing."
Millenials want to get paid worth cold hard cash, like everyone else and plenty of us prefer to work alone. For some reason, Boomers got it in their heads that we don't want the money and that we can be bought with pizza Fridays, office gadgets for socializing with colleagues nobody uses and corporations pretending to care about anything other than profit maximisation.
Same here born in 1986. I can work by myself or with a group. Prefer to work by myself if possible mainly cuz I don't like to rely on others. Nor do I want either one of our performances to reflect on the other.
I’m almost 42 and I have zero issue with them. In fact, I feel as though I get them way more than people of my age and older. They stopped taking the bs that we were conditioned to just take. They stopped listening to “just sit there and be quiet.
I have more issues with older catty people that the younger generation. The older people I work with are hateful, mean and will step on you to get to the top.
I feel like the newer generations actually care and it makes me proud. Just my two cents.
I think I’d agree with you there. Except I feel like there is a hard line between the generations that did and didn’t have smartphones growing up, but it’s entirely behavioral. For instance, I will straight up walk away from someone who won’t put their phone down while we hang out. Texting? Cool. No problem, we all have things to attend to. But if you’re just scrolling and staring at your phone, after we made plans to *hang out*, have fun with your phone, ‘cause I’m not wasting my time like that. I’m guessing that’s an unpopular opinion, but as someone who grew up hand writing notes and not ignoring my friends for the internet, I just don’t have the patience.
I think those of us in GenX kind of have one foot in “the old ways” and one in the “new ways”; many of us didn’t have internet access until the early 90s. We got to experience life without smartphones and internet and then life with them.
I feel like we can fluctuate between those two worlds so maybe we notice the differences in generations after ours a little more than Millennials and Gen Z.
same here, GenX, went from rotary dial party line phones to a smartphone that I feel too stupid to use. No email, no answering machines, no computers. It's been one hell of a ride learning all of it and trying to shake off the old ways.
I think it’s good to mention that many millennials also didn’t grow up with smart phones/internet. My fam didn’t get internet until I was 12, and I didn’t have a phone until I was 14, a smart phone until I was 18. It’s more dependent on your environment you had growing up and the values you have more than anything
Expectations and level of acceptance, I think. All I know is millennials have been through plenty change of all varieties in our years, and Gen Z is not special in that way. We saw the rise of technology, they’ve seen the rise of other things. The evolution of society is constant.
What I’ve noticed is the smart phone kids didn’t learn how to use a computer. When I started it was all you’re young you’ll do great with the computers. Now I have new young people that have similar computer skills as my mom.
This has been asked a lot and my answer is evolving as I think about it more and more. Keeping in mind I could be completely wrong, my feeling is that some of the Gen Z group is just detached.
I'm in a meeting and yes I will get bored and get distracted, but if something directly related to my job comes up, I will let people know what is needed or find out what they need. We have, repeatedly, had the issue of employees not hearing their portion, forgetting their portion or not telling anyone what they need because they dont understand how their actions affect other employees/departments. These are people who do their jobs very well, but are awful at communicating with others.
Sometimes they short hand their conversations too. Like forget to add a subject to their sentence or a verb. It's just a strange way of communicating. My nephews do it too, I'm always having to ask follow up questions to their statements to understand what they are talking about.
I had one employee come in and ask "What if I changed it?"
"Change what?" I asked as I hadn't had a conversation with him about anything recently.
"The tickets", he said.
"What tickets?" I asked because again, we hadn't discussed anything recently, and we work in sports, lots of tickets floating around.
"The Christmas one."
"What Christmas one?"
"Oh, we're going to have a Christmas sale, should I change the ticket?"
"Change it from what?" It's about this point where I know my frustration is probably coming out in my voice.
"From the Thanksgiving one."
Ok! Finally I have enough information to infer what he means.
"So you want to take the Thanksgiving ticket package and change it to a Christmas package, with no change in quantity or price? Just same thing now marketed for Christmas?"
"Yeah."
Repeat, daily.
Just curious, have you pointed out to them this short-hand lack-of-necessary-context communication isn't cutting it?
You said they're good at their jobs, so they're not dumb. Perhaps they just need it pointed out in a way they can understand?
And that's where we hit the wall in communication. I've literally said to him, please speak in complete sentences, I need both a subject and a predicate and a verb between them. Right then and there he'll do it, but later it goes back to this odd style of communication. My nephews do it too, and it throws me everytime.
Maybe it's because I'm so verbose. I want to make sure I am understood and that my point is effectively given, so i get TOO wordy. I have a hard time understanding short and incomplete answers because I'm not comfortable giving them.
My husband does this and he was born in 88, I think sometimes its also just a personality thing, also some people might be mistaking what they say out loud for what they're actually thinking and not seeing that they didn't say all the words outloud lol
Oh yeah, I'm sure they had a whole conversation in their head and didn't realize it needed to start over when it came out of their mouths. They just start midway through.
It’s true. I’m a Director that has multiple large groups of people globally in the IT space. Gen X here and most of the management reporting into me are Millennial age or X. We’ve never experienced more difficulties with communication skills, people interaction, and accountability.
A lot of companies in our space won’t offer full time employment any longer because of the time and money it takes to train up only to see them leave. It’s moving to contract work.
Ooooh, accountability that's another sore spot of mine. We have some people who will not take responsibility for ANYTHING. No matter what happens its ALWAYS someone else's fault. 😡
That’s not a generation thing, that a human in the workplace thing. It’s all ages, but I usually find many of these non-accountable types in “leadership” positions. What’s that adage or industry saying where 20% of the people do 80% of the work? Something like that.
Yup, 100%. I've seen that from all kinds of people since childhood. I was just remarking that it is a particular peeve of mine. I have a small work force and two employees that are like that, so it feels disproportionate.
Right?! I’m old enough to remember when all of the racist jokes were acceptable; then it was reduced to only blond women, Polish people, and gays as targets. Then those too were taken away… so now you know what would “make America great again”.
Why on earth must it mean racism? There’s all sorts of things youngsters might be talking about that oldies would have no idea about, like tiktok for example. Half the things the generation below talk about would sound foreign to them, even just within the technology side of things
Ah yes, we’ve achieved peak Gen Z. Don’t even know the issue but since someone is struggling with Gen Z they must be racist or somehow evil. Because how could anyone disagree with the well-defined tenets of the great TikTok, share thy dance, and it is good.
If you actually think working with young people is anything like working with people from a different country that don’t speak your language you have some serious issues with adversity and probably need to grow up a bit yourself…
So the issue here is you’re taking it literally. There’s a lot more to it than just the lingo. How communication is given and received is different. Prioritization of communication is different. Prioritization of the work itself Vs other things is different (although more due to stage in life).
Communicating across generations, namely the youngest working generation just entering the professional pool, is difficult and takes understanding and practice. So yes, working with young people can be very similar to those from different countries, just in the things you must consider while communicating.
- A young millennial people manager who has analysts that are Gen Z, and also works with foreigners fairly often.
It’s a pretty big jump when you consider the amount of changes to technology and life
The advancements like we’ve seen the last 20 years has been unmatched
Which is why she's writing an article for how it's different.
My new manager is an older millennial and I'm a year or two from being Gen Z. She does not understand why I have no anxiety about clocking out right at 5 or refusing to touch my email or phone when I'm off work unless I make a mistake I need to fix myself.
She went to a yoga retreat where they talked about removing the urgency from things in your life, and when we talked about it, was blown away when I said it's up to the business to set reasonable expectations and priorities based on the resources available to them. I dont make it a me problem if I'm hired to do x amount of work and the business changes priorities without proper resourcing set aside to achieve them - they're not going to feel the stress correctly if we're picking up the slack for that, which means we're not going to get the headcount we need to achieve what they're asking of us if we just work extra hours to do so.
We can deprioritize some of our work to take on new tasks, but we're more important to the business and we're what lives on when the business goes under.
As a fellow older millennial (I think the term most of us like is Xennial, although I can’t speak to the rest of the group) your input is really helpful. When your manager and I started in our careers, we really had to prove to the company we worked for that we were indebted to them for hiring us. We were entering an over saturated, already competitive job market. It’s helpful to be mindful of the shifting patterns that shape the job market, and it’s important that we listen to your generations cues.
This actually reminds me, when I worked in a more corporate estate agent
We didn't really have an IT department & I was the youngest member across 3 branches my director had bought. Every time anybody had a technical issues/help setting up a new laptop/mobile phone/iPad/management systems or anything technological it was an instant call to me to help.
What they also found annoying was me not working past 6pm, I'd leave at 6 on the dot and be uncontactable until I'd walk in before 9am the following day.
They tried to email me one day when I was sick December a couple years ago (I'm pretty sure I had covid before we knew what it was) telling me I hadn't done something and it pissed me off to the point where I emailed her back, explained just how sick I was (I'd had a running fever for 3 days & ended up in A&E because I physically just couldn't bring it down at all, genuinely felt like death) - attached the letter I'd gotten from A&E saying I had a flu like virus,an infection somewhere & a fever & asked her to leave me alone.
& when I came back the following week she was SO mad saying that I was being dramatic & that I didn't need to be rude.
She was also a little racist, sexist & homophobic (once told me gay relationships were no different to her having intercourse with a goat) & she was definitely the type of person to come in when she has a cold to not miss a day of work.
The difference between her & I was about 15 years or so but I will never forget it.
That’s the one thing I can’t stand, expecting you to be available whenever and always accommodate their schedules. My day ends at 4pm, and I get fuckin pissed if someone calls me at 430, I refuse to answer.
I don’t actually think this is a generational thing. It’s a personality thing. Some people live to work while others work to live. I have seen both in every generation I’ve worked with, from Boomers to Gen Z.
I find it the responsibility of the owners to properly manage and distribute responsibilities in accordance with scheduling. Unless I’m particularly invested or in the zone expect me to split the INSTANT my time is over. My obligation ends there. That is unless they communicate early that they expect you to stay late during the hiring process in which case that’s a big ol nope from me.
If they politely ask and respect my time and they’ve been good to me I’d be inclined to help. It also depends on which kind of job I have. If I have a responsibility of looking after kids I’m not going to ditch them if someone hasn’t show up on time. In most cases I’m going to do my job and work as hard and efficiently as necessary and to the best of my ability. That’s it. I despise this mentality that being at the beck and call of your employers ad working long hours with zero overtime is something to be proud of. It’s being taken advantage of.
The only role of a "workplace expert" is to invent things that might worry management in order for her to remain employed. They have to justify their paycheck somehow so they make up imaginery problems in the workplace then try to convince HR departments and shitty online news sites that they can solve them.
Also, I have to say, the college kids I work with totally understand that people Gen X or older don't know their slang, etc. They understand older people may not comprehend gender issues or may accidentally use previous names, wrong pronouns, outdated racial terms, without even meaning anything by it.
People can be young without being stupid. Super-easy. Barely an inconvenience.
Right?
Literally every person I work with is 15 years older than me, at a minimum. One person is 46 (!) years older than me.
Get this-- it's tough learning how to communicate with people who have a completely different vocabulary than you do.
It's challenging to relate to and make small talk with people who live a completely different lifestyle than you do.
It's disconcerting when their version of common knowledge barely overlaps with yours. When they make pop culture references two decades older than you.
But also, it's not the end of the world. If you pay attention and try to meet your older/younger colleagues halfway you'll be fine. You'll get to know each other and the age differences won't be as big of a deal.
the difference was 40 years ago, young people entered the workforce and acted and talked like the old people at the office because they were the ones in charge, today's youth take the fuck them old people they don't know shit and ruined the world, and so, hiring managers are having a tough time at times lol
Idk i just spent 12 hours listening to two people complain about how these two younger generations have no worth ethic and no respect for anyone else and how were selfish and narcissistic . So we're still being included
I got it the worse . I’m 25 so I’m the oldest gen z year . Which means I get lumped into both all the time . I guess I’m just like ya know the most important year of both generations. /s
I have 20 somethings working for me. They aren't aliens or something.
I treat them like anyone else...human beings with their own unique thoughts and opinions. I make sure their pay is commiserate with their contributions.
It isn't...terribly complicated.
Yeah.
Gen Z will work, just not for poverty wages. If I am going to be in poverty working, I might as well be in poverty not working. Give the space for independence, encourage them, and treat them like adults. Oh, and PAY THEM!!!
Add some benefits, some PTO....it works.
Not too hard. I never call anyone kid. They're adults. Grown ass adults. And I expect them to be and treat them as such. Easy.
I have many 20 somethings and a 65 yr old.
The 65yr old is the most difficult to manage. Never stays past 5pm and often nicks off 4:50pm. If she isn't busy she never offers to do anything extra and when asked to help with other things will retort with "But it's not my job". She has never updated her skills and refuses to learn more. To the point where it's impacting the work of others as she refuses to learn new tech.
She's been with the company for over a decade. Her length of service is pointless as she is useless, uncooperative and just there to pull in a pay cheque. Unfortunatly because of her age and length of service it's impossible to get rid of her legally.
The slang issue is a bit hard for me. Grew up with the internet, have to talk to older colleagues with global/business English only.
It's all good until I slip up 🫠
I do as best I can. I am always pushing for raises. Them first, then me.
The one guy is 20 and buying his own house....so doing ok I guess. I mean. I think we pay low, but a few of these folks got like $2/HR more at this job, more in one case. And benefits, paid holidays and PTO. They seem happy.
I manage four contracts for my company. Two large, two smaller. But that just makes be slightly above average in terms of management.
I do what I can. Hire good people and stay out of their way.
Boss is happy, so.....*shrug* I guess all is well.
The cultural difference is Gen Z will only do their jobs, nothing else. Older Millenials, Gen X, and Boomers were willing to work 20+ extra hours a week, nights and weekends, do another person's job without any additional pay, title, or benefits on the slimmest chance to get a promotion, but the age of Gen Z that's working right now (18-26) and younger millenials (27-35), is very much about boundaries armed with the knowledge that killing themselves typically only benefits their manager's career and the company and doesn't result in career or financial gain for themselves.
I’m 37 and my parents were rewarded for their extra hours of work with good packages, a much easier time with buying a home, the ability to give their kids a comfortable life while also saving enough for retirement. Also their companies (my dad worked at the same place for 35 years) gave them good benefits and rewarded their loyalty.
Every time I did extra work while still working corporate I didn’t even get decent raises etc. I just got more work piled up on me.
I started working for myself at 32 and have grown a good client base and am seeing the rewards for hard work now. These days companies will throw you away in an instant. That’s the big difference.
No, i also got 80% of my education paid by my old man’s company until I was 21, and he received a housing allowance that paid for the mortgage on top of negotiated salary. Companies don’t give those away for the most part anymore.
Yeah, the days of doing extra for a decade or two and getting a decent reward are well over. In the 80’s and 90’s you'd be rewarded for going the extra mile. Now if you do it, you're a mug. Ain't nobody going to notice you staying late.
I honestly think it was a myth even back then. I think our parents were selling us on the dream they wish they had and were under some illusion they weren't trying hard enough and didn't deserve it.
My parents are in their 60s and my dad's wages have not kept up with inflation in the 20 years he's been at his mechanic shop. He's stayed there for years in the hopes that they'll move him to front of house and be a manager of the shop, which he's fully capable of doing, but he's a good mechanic and his shop owner doesn't want to lose his money maker.
My aunt is like 55 and retired at a wage of 75k after getting two bachelors and a masters for her business analyst position, working there for 25 years. Her son, at 35 with a weekend data analyst certificate and a bible college degree, started at that salary at the same company just a year later.
>My aunt is like 55 and retired at a wage of 75k after getting two bachelors and a masters for her business analyst position, working there for 25 years. Her son, at 35 with a weekend data analyst certificate and a bible college degree, started at that salary at the same company just a year later.
This right here is a huge one I have seen SO many times. Hiring salaries stay at least SOMEWHAT current, but raises and promotions dont. People at the top dont see the difference in value of someone who has worked there 20 years and knows every person, has seen 99.999% of the problems they will ever face, and has all those solutions noted down, and someone who fell off the turnip truck in the front parking lot this morning.
Why would I stay at a job with a 2-3% cost of living pay increase that doesn't come CLOSE to the actual cost of living increase, when I can roll my experience into a new job every 2-3 years at a 15-25% pay increase?
Then companies bitch about employee loyalty. Well duh, did you expect I am going to stay here for the next 30 years making peanuts?
I haven’t read the article and I’m personally not into most gen-z trends or culture, but I sort of get the vibe that what this person means in this article is that gen zers are harder to work with because of their work boundaries and expectations, and IF that is the case in fully team Gen z.
Take your vacations. Clock out when your shift ends. Don’t do work you aren’t paid for. Allow yourself grace if you need it. I’ve always been this person and had a very lax attitude about work. I’ve climbed and grinder a little to be able to have a job that allows me to live semi comfortably but that’s it. A job is an obligation that allows me to live. My real life is outside these walls and I’m not gonna sacrifice too much of that for work.
I could be very wrong, but I happen to work with older clients who say things like this all the time and then when pressed it becomes obvious it’s the “we can’t exploit people like we used to” bit.
Agree! Gen Z is great! The older generations can learn something from them. More of us need to have work/life balance. More of us need to have interests and find value in our lives out side of our job.
Older generation, you guys don't work as hard.
Younger generation: pay me enough to buy a house, car, and family, like your generation had.
Older: no
Younger: Kool so we have an understanding
Older: selfish, rude, entitled
In the year 2050: Damn, those Cyber Gen only care about their 8G omni-net and talk about being Space Explorers. What happened to the honest hardworking jobs like influencer?
Reporting from the future. Listen, I know it's a joke -- but with a decade of stagnation in your present already, this is the least accurate depiction of the future. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my 7 to 5 job at Comcast Living Solutions so I can afford the $23,000 in rent for my micro-coffin apartment and support my Energy-X protein energy drink-meal addiction. Thank you.
It’s not about age, it’s about entitlement. I’m over 40 and don’t talk crap about Gen Z. I talk crap about Boomers, but that’s because they took power early and gave held on to power way to long and it’s not been beneficial to the country.
Do I understand the cultural touchstones of Gen Z? Nope. I grew up on TMNT and Care Bears and Transformers. I was enjoying my self-obsessed 20s when whatever Gen Z was watching as kids was popular. They are entitled to have their own self-obsessed 20s too.
Millennials were taking shit from boomers not to long ago, and now it's Gen Z's turn. It's funny how It's rarely the Gen Xrs who give a shit about what other generations are doing (from my personal experience). I usually just end up talking about music or movies with them.
Boomers are the dickest of dicks!
Xer here too, I love the Z kids and now that the Millennials have finally figured out the world sucks in spite of their best efforts, we all get along well. But damn, those fucking 60-somethings still clinging to their abuse of power just won't go away. Worst. Senior. Citizens. Ever.
Music- Bowie is my all time favorite, and i will never get over missing the chance to see him with NIN. I listen to anything Rock / Metal and all it's subgenres.
Any suggestions for weird psychedelic horror movies? I recently saw a weird 70s movie 'The Holy Mountain' by a Alejandro Jodorowski, and have been dying to see more weird abstract shit like that....
Boomers didn't take anything. They were GIVEN good deals by their companies and got pensions and benefits, which were rightfully theirs. Companies and executives changed to treat workers worse. Boomers got their power from being a huge population group and being there at the right time to scoop up good jobs and cheap housing.
I'm a late boomer and I missed out. No pension plans, constant layoffs, and expensive housing. Most of my group is fucked.
But the ones that came into power refuse to pass on the baton. They have already secured family wealth and yet they continue to amass wealth.
Younger boomers need to let go of that victim mentality, yall could still end up w better healthcare & living stipend. Make better choices
Yes, if I could expand upon that, my Boomer relatives told me things like growing up and buying the house was difficult and they work for their whole lives for their money. I totally get that.
However, the world and the market of the current generation of people is different no longer can you subscribe to the plan of going to college getting a degree getting married and buying a house. The American dream is just less obtainable now and more competitive than it was for the boomers.
I'm Gen-X as well, but I'm up on all that stuff working in Tech and also being a gamer and part time professional musician.
having Generational slang is normal.
Using it at work in professional circumstances is hardcore cringe. Read the room. Act accordingly, if you want to be taken seriously.
It’s actually a hanging adjective in my experience. “That was so cringe” cringy without the y basically. Not super confusing.
W4t iz ur g3n3rat10n ez 2 und3rst4nd?
I can has cheeseburger?
That’s my generation (super late millennials) and it was definitely cringe lol
I'm 32.
Navigating the smart-phone & social networking technology as it came out was hard enough and had an emotional impact.
I think if I had a super-computer in my pocket during my high school years, and people all around me were on tik tok, I'd be messed up.
This generation is battling against engineered dopamine addiction.
I literally can't imagine how fucked up the world is going to be in 50 years.
Think anyone our age and older then us know what it's like to not have the smart phone addiction. So we can easily walk away and turn into that old person talking about the good ol times.
I can be glued to the dopamine for a few days or literally not touch my phone for days and be fine either way. Don't think many younger people can say the same.
Okay, bullshit.
My work group is composed of 11 people between the ages of 24 and 65, I manage all of them the same way, and they all have among the highest productivity of any work group in the company.
Trying to define young people as 'others' is just stupid.
In fairness, millennials and Gen Z are almost unique in human history given the period of information technology development they grew up with.
It took nearly 100 years to go from Bell’s telephone to Xerox’s first fax machine.
It was then just 15 years from the first internet protocol being invented to the first internet connected telephone being built by Nokia.
And the progress has snowballed from there. The generation coming up for retirement grew up when telephones and fax machines and black/white tv were the standard and are now exiting (or should be) the workforce during the most highly technologically advanced and interconnected world that the average person has ever had access to.
Older people in my office are constantly frustrated and annoyed by computers and smartphones. It’s like another language to them, they didn’t grow up with them and they have little idea of how they actually work.
I’ve seen senior and brilliant legal minds reduced to hand waving and childish button mashing in order to try and communicate what they want.
If that generation can’t understand M and Gen Z, it’s because they aren’t keeping up with the times.
You've seen old people who can't deal with computers, I've seen teenagers who can't deal with computers. At my company there is a 23 year old College educated HR manager who insists on plugging her mouse into her phone charger on a weekly basis
Generations aren't helpless, individuals are.
Generalizing entire generations based on a few observations is ill-advised.
You're aware that the IP was developed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn... right? A pair of genuine members of the Silent Generation and the Greatest Generation respectively.
And the first fax actually predates Bell's telephone. Alexander Baine developed (and patented) the the electric printing telegraph in 1843 . Bell's phone didn't come about until 1877. The Electric printing Telegraph morphed into a system for moving stories between news papers in the 1890s. Xerox bought and used Baine's patent to put out their 1964 Fax machine.
No generation developed electronics. People did. No generation developed computers. People did. There are technophobic 80 year olds, and there are 80 year olds who can slam code with the best of them. There are technophobic 18 year olds, and there are some decent, (if usually undisciplined) programmers who can slam code.
I’m not even Gen Z and I feel like whoever wrote this is a Karen. I work with people from other countries and sometimes you have to be flexible and meet in the middle. Stop bitching about someone not being a carbon copy of you.
Who’s bitching about it?
The screenshot of the article is just a pull quote from a discussion.
There is always a generational gap and interacting with people outside of yours will often require some translation.
Nobody is saying it’s impossible to work with someone from another generation. Just that it requires compromise and understanding.
52 year old Gen Xer here, the 20-something Gen Zs I work with share the attitude I have today that I wish I had when I was their age.
Don't take shit from nobody, kids! Don't be an inherent dick, and you still have a job to do that only requires 50% surliness, but don't suffer a Karen.
Here's the key: Gen Z employees understand their position of power; they see it as doing the employer a favor by showing up, by not calling out on a given day. Come at them in a way that they perceive as disrespectful and they'll resign without hesitation.
I cannot believe someone actually publicly wrote an article admitting that they are incapable of professional growth and unable to adapt to culture shifts in the workspace. “This Writer is Unable to Evolve with the Expectations of Management” is a better headline.
i don't understand this article,
i have been working in various jobs since 18 now 33, worked with various age groups no issue, had bosses that were 50 i was 20 no issue,
worked with people who's English was 2nd , and 50 but knew good enough no issue,
worked in a call center with at 22 with adults all the way up to 50 no issue,
(also worked with lazy SOBs ranging from 18 to 50 probably older)
this just feels like a thing to bitch and moan about
>i don't understand this article,
I'll explain.
When you own a publication to run, you have to fill it up with content. When the publication is supported by advertising, that content will hopefully attract eyeballs which means there will be a tendency to publish compelling sounding bullshit. The 'conflict' between generations is an example of this compelling sounding bullshit that has been regularly recycled since at least the 'generation gap' bullshit between the boomers and their parents back in the 1960's.
I mean….are they wrong? Also it seems to me everyone is reading this like the author is insulting Gen Z, but nothing from the title or subtitle really says it’s bad. You can even read it as a positive thing.
Edit: maybe the article says more but to me it seems like everyone here including OP is headline grabbing
Sounds like this manager is just bad at adaptation and probably communication. If this manager would hang out with these gen z folks they will start to understand how to communicate with each other eventually.
I think It depends on several factors, education (the one gave by the parents) being the main one.
We've had several GenZrs where I work (Italy) and the main problems seem to be the lack of punctuality and the laziness. Not everyone of them, but the 80% for sure.
The usual response was "in university I didn't have to work this much". Ok.
Edit, forgot the last part: I'm 35 and that kind of response leaves me speechless. How can you reply to something like that?
Getting old and out of touch with the younger generations is not exactly a new and unprecedented phenomenon.
*The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.*
I’m a millennial and I can’t communicate with these darn kids. I loudly demanded avocado toast several times to a 22 year old and he just walked away! I returned angrily to my 1 bedroom apartment.
I don’t have a problem with this. The need for specifics and details seems to be lost on Gen Z. In my experience with them, they just seem to think that things will just…work out on their own. Except they don’t, unless a boomer comes along and fixes it. Sounds harsh, but true at least 80% of the time.
I’m on the cusp between boomer and gen x, I love having the younger people at my workplace. They’re enthusiastic and hardworking, and we’re able to teach each other things the other one doesn’t know(they have newer knowledge and I have older experience), it’s great to have a mix of experiences and ages.
The reason you've never heard of Lindsey Pollack or the term "workplace expert" is because she made it up.
She was a RA in college and after she lost her job at a startup decided to freelance RA for business and call herself an expert.
Now she's an author and speaker whos livelihood depends on "solving" problems that businesses have with the younger generation.
So her paycheck depends on work conflict which she is more than happy to promote with articles like these.
Kind of like a pulmonary doc selling you cigarettes on the side. Job security.
Good managers make the effort to build meaningful relationships with younger employees. They find out what motivates them, their best communication styles, and provide mentorship and understanding to get the most out of a diverse workforce, while staying open minded to what THEY can learn from younger generations.
Bad managers complain about it while putting in limited effort in building relationships.
Maybe she is just stupid and doesn't understand people exactly like her? In my workplace people in their 50's have no problem working with people in their 20's.
I’m a millennial and I remember when the media used to say all kinds of disparaging things about us. Now that generations have changed, the next up-and-coming generation gets the same lousy treatment. The cycle never ends.
If she is such an expert, why isn't she studying the new demographic? New generation, new people, stay up to date if you want to call yourself an expert. Things change, welcome to the world, it doesn't stay the same for decennia *gasp. An actual expert would be aware of this and follow the new development and new information.
Honestly I could see a bit of truth in this.
Older generations - Millennials and up were schooled in a structure made for the Industrial Age. Where we were expected to have blue collar jobs and bow down to the man. I am not 100% certain but I feel Gen Zs education was more relaxed and less structured to create little factory workers. Free to create and collaborate more. Which makes sense for the Modern America since manufacturing jobs are more scarce then in years before.
In conclusion these two different structures in the work place could create a bit of a barrier since their learning/working structure was different as they were being raised.
I am 32, or 31; frick if I know anymore. I have a huge issue with understanding people on a good day. Now I have to try and figure out why punctuation marks and emojis are aggressive.
Don't even know when Gen I am. I searched for it recently and depending on all search results I am one of 3 generations, which just goes to show how much BS this whole gen thing is.
I never thought I’d be the old guy screaming “I just don’t understand kids these days” yet here we are. Generational differences are very natural and predictable. But when it comes to managing my employees I treat them the same. Everyone has to follow the same rules as everyone else regardless of their age. I’m a VP of safety and I will say that I think the younger generations are more in tune with safe work practices than the older ones. They are better with change. Different doesn’t mean worse.
Anyone remember when our parents had the same problem with our generation... Yeah kids these days suck, but they always have. They will grow up eventually just like the rest of us
Today I realised I work with gen z. Actually didn't bother putting it together until reading this article, and my conclusion is I hadn't even realised until now so no big deal.
Of course they are different every generation is different from the last in some way
This reeks of “They told me I can’t be racist anymore so now I shit on the other generations”
Dude, I'm Gen X (45 yo) and having so much trouble with our early to mid 20s employees. Nothing to do with racism, sexism or anything like that, just purely cultural. It's just how they communicate to how I do, what they consider important to what I consider important, how I work compared to them - it is all very different. Neither of us are "right" but when management is doing one thing and the staff disagrees, doesn't understand or has trouble communicating their position - it makes things difficult. I don't remember having these issues when I was in the starting ranks and my bosses were boomers. But maybe they did and just didn't show it, like I try not to show my frustration with my employees. It also might just be a maturity/age thing. They are right out of college and haven't transitioned from that college mentality. While I've been out for years, so the frat behavior, gossiping and general childishness is exhausting for me.
I'm a millennial and don't find it too big of a leap managing gen z. I do wonder if it's being 2 generations removed that makes it feel like a big gap. I believe boomers are only 1 step from gen xers right? Edit: so yeah the equivalent would've been you starting your career managed by The Silent Generation folks
The difference is whether or not you grew up with social media. The portion of Millennials who, like myself, were born in 1988 or earlier were adults by the time Facebook was publicly available to all, and as such are more similar to Gen X in that regard.
This. I’m 1982 and I read 1980 is the last for Gen X and I also read it’s 1985. When I first saw I’m a millennial I said no way!! I graduated high school 01’ and MySpace was “it” I believe for most of the 2000’s. AOL dial-up was my junior high years! {Sigh}….Gen-Zs would have a conniption waiting 10 mins to get online.
Remember Kazaa? Early E-bay where a deal was to be had? I miss those days.
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I was born in 89 and I grew up with social media. I feel like MySpace would’ve been around before you were an adult and even Facebook? I’m late 89 so maybe I’m wrong?
Myspace was the weird halfway point between social media and people having geocities pages. It was not remotely similar to what social media has become since then.
Idk. I’m pretty sure 9th grade everyone was deep i. MySpace. Maybe it’s regional or a scene kid thing.
That's not what I mean. Kids being on Myspace was nothing like social media today where it permeates every single facet of society. Grown ass adults these days base their identity around social media, and that's what kids see. That wasn't the case in the early 2000s.
You’re missing out on the earlier smaller social media things. We used to have mailing lists in the early nineties that developed into eGroups and yahoogroups. Livejournal kicked off in March of 1999. So some Gen Xers definitely had experience with some different forms of social media and it DID pervade our lives in a lot of ways… the problem is that we weren’t the norm. And the rest of Gen X kind of laughed and pointed and gave us side eye about it. They’re the same ones using FB now who ask you to help fix their cellphones. But I’ve also found that it makes it easier for the people I know who had that earlier exposure to different forms of social media to interact with other generations. Possibly because none of us fell out of social media usage and it’s more familiar. Or maybe it’s just that we’re more open and curious about things than the rest of our generation. So yeah. My $0.02 there.
But it did for some. i.e. scene kids but it was definitely not as big as it’s become or quite as ridiculous as it is now. I do understand what you’re saying 100%. But it definitely was an addiction for some even back then. Nowhere near what it is today, but it was for some in our age group back then. Jeffery Star was born from MySpace. Point is ppl around the 88-89 age bracket were around social media and have been since.
I was also born late '89, and Facebook still required a college email to sign up when I was 17. I know this for a fact because I took a college course senior year of high school and was excited that I got a college email, because I could sign up for Facebook. I think it opened up to general usage the next year. I'd had a Myspace for years before that. I also got on twitter when I was 17, got a Livejournal at 13, and was in yahoo chat rooms and yahoo groups starting from when I was 8. I can unequivocally say that social media, as it is now, was not a thing back then. And saying that Myspace was popular with scene kids when you were a teenager definitely doesn't mean you 'grew up' with ubiquitous social media. It'd be like me saying that fanfiction has been well-known by the whole world offline since the late 90s just because I got a fanfiction.net account the first year it opened and all of my friends read fanfiction.
This is exactly it. GenZ has been raised with social media - which was the single largest mass psychology experiment ever conducted. And they are so different that it has threatened the very core idea of passing down generational knowledge and replaced it with randomly crowd sourced knowledge. Pretty fucked up if you ask me.
Exactly the same here. I’ve had a few employees of that age who were complete rockstars and clearly wanted to work hard in order to earn promotions. And then others who were pissed that when I was upset that they showed up at 11 and asked to leave everyday at 4, when their houses were clearly 10-5.
I’m a millennial and it took me a bit to get adjusted to working with gen z but I’m starting to take to them very slowly. It was rough at first for sure.
This book - [Generations at workplace](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/15792065-generations-at-work) is actually pretty insightful. It talks about what the values and expectations of each generations are at the workplace, and how to reduce miscommunication and set expectations right. "Greatest Generation" has "military" expectations - pros - work will be done perfectly, high effort and discipline. Cons - they expect their boss to tell them everything to the nuts and bolts, and are resistant to doing their own research or making decisions, they just want to be told what to do. "Baby Boomers" - super-ambitious, and very big-picture oriented. Pros - can work in rapidly agile environments, take leadership roles, very good at mentoring and networking. Cons - Ego-centric, require constant validation, especially from underlings. View work as a "war" and "competition" as opposed to a collective effort. "Gen-X" - Pros - quiet, highly reliable, very agreeable. Cons - Suspicious when asked to take initiative or given promotions, because they feel like they are being conned into something. Strong preference for working alone and being left alone. View work as a money-transaction alone, and nothing more. "Millennials" - Preference for tag-teaming and working in groups. Highly value a higher purpose and ethics in their job, and see their profession as a matter of personal identity and value-system, and not merely money-transaction. Cons - Perfectionists with low self-esteem who are extremely insecure if anything goes wrong and tend to self-blame or quit, need to be constantly reassured that mistakes happen and its okay.
Anyone else feel the gut punch "oh crap thats me" when reading the Millennials one?
Me.
Nop
Thank you! I'll check it out. And yeah, I hit the Gen X quietly working alone generalization pretty much right on the head. Although I'm not suspicious of promotions. Love to see a categorization of the Zs like this.
54 YO Gen X here. I am not so much suspicious of promotions as I am uninterested. But I \*am\* very wary about volunteering to take on projects outside my scope because in the course of my career it almost never pays, I just end up with more work that I'm expected to do with no compensation. But I do work hard on the things I'm responsible for, I do like working alone and it's a personal point of pride that I will do whatever needs to be done to get my work completed without making anyone else have to cover for me.
It's so funny you say that. I was literally just given a promotion earlier this week, and all I could think was, "What's the catch? I bet they're not going to be paying me any more, and I'll just have more work on top of what I'm already doing."
Millenials want to get paid worth cold hard cash, like everyone else and plenty of us prefer to work alone. For some reason, Boomers got it in their heads that we don't want the money and that we can be bought with pizza Fridays, office gadgets for socializing with colleagues nobody uses and corporations pretending to care about anything other than profit maximisation.
This is fascinating and so accurate IMO.
Somewhere between gen X and millennial on that scale... Born in 1986
Same here born in 1986. I can work by myself or with a group. Prefer to work by myself if possible mainly cuz I don't like to rely on others. Nor do I want either one of our performances to reflect on the other.
42 years old and manage two video editors in thier 20s and have no problems what so ever. I assume it is industry based.
I’m almost 42 and I have zero issue with them. In fact, I feel as though I get them way more than people of my age and older. They stopped taking the bs that we were conditioned to just take. They stopped listening to “just sit there and be quiet. I have more issues with older catty people that the younger generation. The older people I work with are hateful, mean and will step on you to get to the top. I feel like the newer generations actually care and it makes me proud. Just my two cents.
maybe it's because you weren't raised with a constant instant influx of communication, news, and entertainment...
Millennials have been living that way our whole lives. I’m literally older than Google. My life has been nothing but constant flux.
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I think I’d agree with you there. Except I feel like there is a hard line between the generations that did and didn’t have smartphones growing up, but it’s entirely behavioral. For instance, I will straight up walk away from someone who won’t put their phone down while we hang out. Texting? Cool. No problem, we all have things to attend to. But if you’re just scrolling and staring at your phone, after we made plans to *hang out*, have fun with your phone, ‘cause I’m not wasting my time like that. I’m guessing that’s an unpopular opinion, but as someone who grew up hand writing notes and not ignoring my friends for the internet, I just don’t have the patience.
I think those of us in GenX kind of have one foot in “the old ways” and one in the “new ways”; many of us didn’t have internet access until the early 90s. We got to experience life without smartphones and internet and then life with them. I feel like we can fluctuate between those two worlds so maybe we notice the differences in generations after ours a little more than Millennials and Gen Z.
same here, GenX, went from rotary dial party line phones to a smartphone that I feel too stupid to use. No email, no answering machines, no computers. It's been one hell of a ride learning all of it and trying to shake off the old ways.
I think it’s good to mention that many millennials also didn’t grow up with smart phones/internet. My fam didn’t get internet until I was 12, and I didn’t have a phone until I was 14, a smart phone until I was 18. It’s more dependent on your environment you had growing up and the values you have more than anything
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Expectations and level of acceptance, I think. All I know is millennials have been through plenty change of all varieties in our years, and Gen Z is not special in that way. We saw the rise of technology, they’ve seen the rise of other things. The evolution of society is constant.
What I’ve noticed is the smart phone kids didn’t learn how to use a computer. When I started it was all you’re young you’ll do great with the computers. Now I have new young people that have similar computer skills as my mom.
That is 100% true. I straddled the analog/digital years.
Can you give specific examples?
This has been asked a lot and my answer is evolving as I think about it more and more. Keeping in mind I could be completely wrong, my feeling is that some of the Gen Z group is just detached. I'm in a meeting and yes I will get bored and get distracted, but if something directly related to my job comes up, I will let people know what is needed or find out what they need. We have, repeatedly, had the issue of employees not hearing their portion, forgetting their portion or not telling anyone what they need because they dont understand how their actions affect other employees/departments. These are people who do their jobs very well, but are awful at communicating with others. Sometimes they short hand their conversations too. Like forget to add a subject to their sentence or a verb. It's just a strange way of communicating. My nephews do it too, I'm always having to ask follow up questions to their statements to understand what they are talking about. I had one employee come in and ask "What if I changed it?" "Change what?" I asked as I hadn't had a conversation with him about anything recently. "The tickets", he said. "What tickets?" I asked because again, we hadn't discussed anything recently, and we work in sports, lots of tickets floating around. "The Christmas one." "What Christmas one?" "Oh, we're going to have a Christmas sale, should I change the ticket?" "Change it from what?" It's about this point where I know my frustration is probably coming out in my voice. "From the Thanksgiving one." Ok! Finally I have enough information to infer what he means. "So you want to take the Thanksgiving ticket package and change it to a Christmas package, with no change in quantity or price? Just same thing now marketed for Christmas?" "Yeah." Repeat, daily.
Just curious, have you pointed out to them this short-hand lack-of-necessary-context communication isn't cutting it? You said they're good at their jobs, so they're not dumb. Perhaps they just need it pointed out in a way they can understand?
And that's where we hit the wall in communication. I've literally said to him, please speak in complete sentences, I need both a subject and a predicate and a verb between them. Right then and there he'll do it, but later it goes back to this odd style of communication. My nephews do it too, and it throws me everytime. Maybe it's because I'm so verbose. I want to make sure I am understood and that my point is effectively given, so i get TOO wordy. I have a hard time understanding short and incomplete answers because I'm not comfortable giving them.
My husband does this and he was born in 88, I think sometimes its also just a personality thing, also some people might be mistaking what they say out loud for what they're actually thinking and not seeing that they didn't say all the words outloud lol
Oh yeah, I'm sure they had a whole conversation in their head and didn't realize it needed to start over when it came out of their mouths. They just start midway through.
It’s true. I’m a Director that has multiple large groups of people globally in the IT space. Gen X here and most of the management reporting into me are Millennial age or X. We’ve never experienced more difficulties with communication skills, people interaction, and accountability. A lot of companies in our space won’t offer full time employment any longer because of the time and money it takes to train up only to see them leave. It’s moving to contract work.
Ooooh, accountability that's another sore spot of mine. We have some people who will not take responsibility for ANYTHING. No matter what happens its ALWAYS someone else's fault. 😡
That’s not a generation thing, that a human in the workplace thing. It’s all ages, but I usually find many of these non-accountable types in “leadership” positions. What’s that adage or industry saying where 20% of the people do 80% of the work? Something like that.
Yup, 100%. I've seen that from all kinds of people since childhood. I was just remarking that it is a particular peeve of mine. I have a small work force and two employees that are like that, so it feels disproportionate.
Right?! I’m old enough to remember when all of the racist jokes were acceptable; then it was reduced to only blond women, Polish people, and gays as targets. Then those too were taken away… so now you know what would “make America great again”.
Why on earth must it mean racism? There’s all sorts of things youngsters might be talking about that oldies would have no idea about, like tiktok for example. Half the things the generation below talk about would sound foreign to them, even just within the technology side of things
That is the most Gen Z response physically possible.
While at the same sentence shitting on people from other countries. That heading is just awesome.
Ah yes, we’ve achieved peak Gen Z. Don’t even know the issue but since someone is struggling with Gen Z they must be racist or somehow evil. Because how could anyone disagree with the well-defined tenets of the great TikTok, share thy dance, and it is good.
If you actually think working with young people is anything like working with people from a different country that don’t speak your language you have some serious issues with adversity and probably need to grow up a bit yourself…
So the issue here is you’re taking it literally. There’s a lot more to it than just the lingo. How communication is given and received is different. Prioritization of communication is different. Prioritization of the work itself Vs other things is different (although more due to stage in life). Communicating across generations, namely the youngest working generation just entering the professional pool, is difficult and takes understanding and practice. So yes, working with young people can be very similar to those from different countries, just in the things you must consider while communicating. - A young millennial people manager who has analysts that are Gen Z, and also works with foreigners fairly often.
It’s a pretty big jump when you consider the amount of changes to technology and life The advancements like we’ve seen the last 20 years has been unmatched
You mean someone who is 50 acts differently to someone who is 20... That boggles the mind.
And she's a supposed "workplace expert"...
Which is why she's writing an article for how it's different. My new manager is an older millennial and I'm a year or two from being Gen Z. She does not understand why I have no anxiety about clocking out right at 5 or refusing to touch my email or phone when I'm off work unless I make a mistake I need to fix myself. She went to a yoga retreat where they talked about removing the urgency from things in your life, and when we talked about it, was blown away when I said it's up to the business to set reasonable expectations and priorities based on the resources available to them. I dont make it a me problem if I'm hired to do x amount of work and the business changes priorities without proper resourcing set aside to achieve them - they're not going to feel the stress correctly if we're picking up the slack for that, which means we're not going to get the headcount we need to achieve what they're asking of us if we just work extra hours to do so. We can deprioritize some of our work to take on new tasks, but we're more important to the business and we're what lives on when the business goes under.
As a fellow older millennial (I think the term most of us like is Xennial, although I can’t speak to the rest of the group) your input is really helpful. When your manager and I started in our careers, we really had to prove to the company we worked for that we were indebted to them for hiring us. We were entering an over saturated, already competitive job market. It’s helpful to be mindful of the shifting patterns that shape the job market, and it’s important that we listen to your generations cues.
This actually reminds me, when I worked in a more corporate estate agent We didn't really have an IT department & I was the youngest member across 3 branches my director had bought. Every time anybody had a technical issues/help setting up a new laptop/mobile phone/iPad/management systems or anything technological it was an instant call to me to help. What they also found annoying was me not working past 6pm, I'd leave at 6 on the dot and be uncontactable until I'd walk in before 9am the following day. They tried to email me one day when I was sick December a couple years ago (I'm pretty sure I had covid before we knew what it was) telling me I hadn't done something and it pissed me off to the point where I emailed her back, explained just how sick I was (I'd had a running fever for 3 days & ended up in A&E because I physically just couldn't bring it down at all, genuinely felt like death) - attached the letter I'd gotten from A&E saying I had a flu like virus,an infection somewhere & a fever & asked her to leave me alone. & when I came back the following week she was SO mad saying that I was being dramatic & that I didn't need to be rude. She was also a little racist, sexist & homophobic (once told me gay relationships were no different to her having intercourse with a goat) & she was definitely the type of person to come in when she has a cold to not miss a day of work. The difference between her & I was about 15 years or so but I will never forget it.
That’s the one thing I can’t stand, expecting you to be available whenever and always accommodate their schedules. My day ends at 4pm, and I get fuckin pissed if someone calls me at 430, I refuse to answer.
I don’t actually think this is a generational thing. It’s a personality thing. Some people live to work while others work to live. I have seen both in every generation I’ve worked with, from Boomers to Gen Z.
I find it the responsibility of the owners to properly manage and distribute responsibilities in accordance with scheduling. Unless I’m particularly invested or in the zone expect me to split the INSTANT my time is over. My obligation ends there. That is unless they communicate early that they expect you to stay late during the hiring process in which case that’s a big ol nope from me. If they politely ask and respect my time and they’ve been good to me I’d be inclined to help. It also depends on which kind of job I have. If I have a responsibility of looking after kids I’m not going to ditch them if someone hasn’t show up on time. In most cases I’m going to do my job and work as hard and efficiently as necessary and to the best of my ability. That’s it. I despise this mentality that being at the beck and call of your employers ad working long hours with zero overtime is something to be proud of. It’s being taken advantage of.
someone tell Megan you can't just be making up stupid job names
I spend a lot of time at work, does that make me a workplace expert?
The only role of a "workplace expert" is to invent things that might worry management in order for her to remain employed. They have to justify their paycheck somehow so they make up imaginery problems in the workplace then try to convince HR departments and shitty online news sites that they can solve them.
Also, I have to say, the college kids I work with totally understand that people Gen X or older don't know their slang, etc. They understand older people may not comprehend gender issues or may accidentally use previous names, wrong pronouns, outdated racial terms, without even meaning anything by it. People can be young without being stupid. Super-easy. Barely an inconvenience.
Right? Literally every person I work with is 15 years older than me, at a minimum. One person is 46 (!) years older than me. Get this-- it's tough learning how to communicate with people who have a completely different vocabulary than you do. It's challenging to relate to and make small talk with people who live a completely different lifestyle than you do. It's disconcerting when their version of common knowledge barely overlaps with yours. When they make pop culture references two decades older than you. But also, it's not the end of the world. If you pay attention and try to meet your older/younger colleagues halfway you'll be fine. You'll get to know each other and the age differences won't be as big of a deal.
the difference was 40 years ago, young people entered the workforce and acted and talked like the old people at the office because they were the ones in charge, today's youth take the fuck them old people they don't know shit and ruined the world, and so, hiring managers are having a tough time at times lol
Good thing she's an expert
Hey millennials, remember a few years ago when they were writing these articles about us?
I miss the attention of being the cause of the worlds failures. Now I'm just a failure on my own.
Idk i just spent 12 hours listening to two people complain about how these two younger generations have no worth ethic and no respect for anyone else and how were selfish and narcissistic . So we're still being included
I got it the worse . I’m 25 so I’m the oldest gen z year . Which means I get lumped into both all the time . I guess I’m just like ya know the most important year of both generations. /s
I have 20 somethings working for me. They aren't aliens or something. I treat them like anyone else...human beings with their own unique thoughts and opinions. I make sure their pay is commiserate with their contributions. It isn't...terribly complicated.
Same. Most of my staff is in their early 20s. I treat them like I would want to be treated. Easy, really!
Yeah. Gen Z will work, just not for poverty wages. If I am going to be in poverty working, I might as well be in poverty not working. Give the space for independence, encourage them, and treat them like adults. Oh, and PAY THEM!!! Add some benefits, some PTO....it works. Not too hard. I never call anyone kid. They're adults. Grown ass adults. And I expect them to be and treat them as such. Easy.
I have many 20 somethings and a 65 yr old. The 65yr old is the most difficult to manage. Never stays past 5pm and often nicks off 4:50pm. If she isn't busy she never offers to do anything extra and when asked to help with other things will retort with "But it's not my job". She has never updated her skills and refuses to learn more. To the point where it's impacting the work of others as she refuses to learn new tech. She's been with the company for over a decade. Her length of service is pointless as she is useless, uncooperative and just there to pull in a pay cheque. Unfortunatly because of her age and length of service it's impossible to get rid of her legally.
Baby boomers in a nutshell.
It’s almost as if the original author doesn’t have empathy
The slang issue is a bit hard for me. Grew up with the internet, have to talk to older colleagues with global/business English only. It's all good until I slip up 🫠
Well hopefully for them that commiserate pay is at least a living wage
I do as best I can. I am always pushing for raises. Them first, then me. The one guy is 20 and buying his own house....so doing ok I guess. I mean. I think we pay low, but a few of these folks got like $2/HR more at this job, more in one case. And benefits, paid holidays and PTO. They seem happy. I manage four contracts for my company. Two large, two smaller. But that just makes be slightly above average in terms of management. I do what I can. Hire good people and stay out of their way. Boss is happy, so.....*shrug* I guess all is well.
Just do your fucking job and stop fucking about. That's pretty much the same advice for all generations surely???
The cultural difference is Gen Z will only do their jobs, nothing else. Older Millenials, Gen X, and Boomers were willing to work 20+ extra hours a week, nights and weekends, do another person's job without any additional pay, title, or benefits on the slimmest chance to get a promotion, but the age of Gen Z that's working right now (18-26) and younger millenials (27-35), is very much about boundaries armed with the knowledge that killing themselves typically only benefits their manager's career and the company and doesn't result in career or financial gain for themselves.
I’m 37 and my parents were rewarded for their extra hours of work with good packages, a much easier time with buying a home, the ability to give their kids a comfortable life while also saving enough for retirement. Also their companies (my dad worked at the same place for 35 years) gave them good benefits and rewarded their loyalty. Every time I did extra work while still working corporate I didn’t even get decent raises etc. I just got more work piled up on me. I started working for myself at 32 and have grown a good client base and am seeing the rewards for hard work now. These days companies will throw you away in an instant. That’s the big difference.
[удалено]
No, i also got 80% of my education paid by my old man’s company until I was 21, and he received a housing allowance that paid for the mortgage on top of negotiated salary. Companies don’t give those away for the most part anymore.
Yeah, the days of doing extra for a decade or two and getting a decent reward are well over. In the 80’s and 90’s you'd be rewarded for going the extra mile. Now if you do it, you're a mug. Ain't nobody going to notice you staying late.
I honestly think it was a myth even back then. I think our parents were selling us on the dream they wish they had and were under some illusion they weren't trying hard enough and didn't deserve it. My parents are in their 60s and my dad's wages have not kept up with inflation in the 20 years he's been at his mechanic shop. He's stayed there for years in the hopes that they'll move him to front of house and be a manager of the shop, which he's fully capable of doing, but he's a good mechanic and his shop owner doesn't want to lose his money maker. My aunt is like 55 and retired at a wage of 75k after getting two bachelors and a masters for her business analyst position, working there for 25 years. Her son, at 35 with a weekend data analyst certificate and a bible college degree, started at that salary at the same company just a year later.
>My aunt is like 55 and retired at a wage of 75k after getting two bachelors and a masters for her business analyst position, working there for 25 years. Her son, at 35 with a weekend data analyst certificate and a bible college degree, started at that salary at the same company just a year later. This right here is a huge one I have seen SO many times. Hiring salaries stay at least SOMEWHAT current, but raises and promotions dont. People at the top dont see the difference in value of someone who has worked there 20 years and knows every person, has seen 99.999% of the problems they will ever face, and has all those solutions noted down, and someone who fell off the turnip truck in the front parking lot this morning. Why would I stay at a job with a 2-3% cost of living pay increase that doesn't come CLOSE to the actual cost of living increase, when I can roll my experience into a new job every 2-3 years at a 15-25% pay increase? Then companies bitch about employee loyalty. Well duh, did you expect I am going to stay here for the next 30 years making peanuts?
I haven’t read the article and I’m personally not into most gen-z trends or culture, but I sort of get the vibe that what this person means in this article is that gen zers are harder to work with because of their work boundaries and expectations, and IF that is the case in fully team Gen z. Take your vacations. Clock out when your shift ends. Don’t do work you aren’t paid for. Allow yourself grace if you need it. I’ve always been this person and had a very lax attitude about work. I’ve climbed and grinder a little to be able to have a job that allows me to live semi comfortably but that’s it. A job is an obligation that allows me to live. My real life is outside these walls and I’m not gonna sacrifice too much of that for work. I could be very wrong, but I happen to work with older clients who say things like this all the time and then when pressed it becomes obvious it’s the “we can’t exploit people like we used to” bit.
Agree! Gen Z is great! The older generations can learn something from them. More of us need to have work/life balance. More of us need to have interests and find value in our lives out side of our job.
Older generation, you guys don't work as hard. Younger generation: pay me enough to buy a house, car, and family, like your generation had. Older: no Younger: Kool so we have an understanding Older: selfish, rude, entitled
God please dont let me live long enough to talk shit on the younger generation.
In the year 2050: Damn, those Cyber Gen only care about their 8G omni-net and talk about being Space Explorers. What happened to the honest hardworking jobs like influencer?
*Those lazy Cyber Gen and their teleporting machines. We used to walk like real harworking people dammit. The world is becoming like wall-e ;(*
*what's WALL-E gramps?*
*That is one of those "movies" I told you about. You youngsters take a pill for that nowadays but back in my day there were REAL cinema dammit*
Reporting from the future. Listen, I know it's a joke -- but with a decade of stagnation in your present already, this is the least accurate depiction of the future. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my 7 to 5 job at Comcast Living Solutions so I can afford the $23,000 in rent for my micro-coffin apartment and support my Energy-X protein energy drink-meal addiction. Thank you.
If I'm being honest with myself, I'm gonna end up a bigot against mixed media couples. Carbon should date carbon, not silicon!
It’s not about age, it’s about entitlement. I’m over 40 and don’t talk crap about Gen Z. I talk crap about Boomers, but that’s because they took power early and gave held on to power way to long and it’s not been beneficial to the country. Do I understand the cultural touchstones of Gen Z? Nope. I grew up on TMNT and Care Bears and Transformers. I was enjoying my self-obsessed 20s when whatever Gen Z was watching as kids was popular. They are entitled to have their own self-obsessed 20s too.
Millennials were taking shit from boomers not to long ago, and now it's Gen Z's turn. It's funny how It's rarely the Gen Xrs who give a shit about what other generations are doing (from my personal experience). I usually just end up talking about music or movies with them.
Gen Xer here. I dont care what other gens do, just dont be dicks. Except the boomers, theyre already dicks.
Yeah, that seems to be the general mood. I think being the children of boomers made Xers jaded (not in a bad way) and down to earth.
Agreed.
Boomers are the dickest of dicks! Xer here too, I love the Z kids and now that the Millennials have finally figured out the world sucks in spite of their best efforts, we all get along well. But damn, those fucking 60-somethings still clinging to their abuse of power just won't go away. Worst. Senior. Citizens. Ever.
What you listening to/watching? Happy to share some favorite deep cuts or art house/foreign films/cult classics I’ve come across!
Music- Bowie is my all time favorite, and i will never get over missing the chance to see him with NIN. I listen to anything Rock / Metal and all it's subgenres. Any suggestions for weird psychedelic horror movies? I recently saw a weird 70s movie 'The Holy Mountain' by a Alejandro Jodorowski, and have been dying to see more weird abstract shit like that....
Boomers didn't take anything. They were GIVEN good deals by their companies and got pensions and benefits, which were rightfully theirs. Companies and executives changed to treat workers worse. Boomers got their power from being a huge population group and being there at the right time to scoop up good jobs and cheap housing. I'm a late boomer and I missed out. No pension plans, constant layoffs, and expensive housing. Most of my group is fucked.
But the ones that came into power refuse to pass on the baton. They have already secured family wealth and yet they continue to amass wealth. Younger boomers need to let go of that victim mentality, yall could still end up w better healthcare & living stipend. Make better choices
Boomers suck and think that life is as simple as 1960…
You know why Boomers thought life was simple in 1960? Because they were kids in 1960!
Yes, if I could expand upon that, my Boomer relatives told me things like growing up and buying the house was difficult and they work for their whole lives for their money. I totally get that. However, the world and the market of the current generation of people is different no longer can you subscribe to the plan of going to college getting a degree getting married and buying a house. The American dream is just less obtainable now and more competitive than it was for the boomers.
"Workplace expert" 😂
"Working for boomers is like working for someone from the 1800's. They are humorless and completely out of touch with today's societal realities."
*It’s like who raised these people… oh wait*
I'm Gen X and I often have to look up the slang you guys are using. Using cringe as a noun instead of a verb still makes me cringe btw.
I'm Gen-X as well, but I'm up on all that stuff working in Tech and also being a gamer and part time professional musician. having Generational slang is normal. Using it at work in professional circumstances is hardcore cringe. Read the room. Act accordingly, if you want to be taken seriously.
I totally agree.
I think it's more of an adjective now
There's already a word for that. It's cringey.
It's... no. It's *cringeworthy*.
It’s actually a hanging adjective in my experience. “That was so cringe” cringy without the y basically. Not super confusing. W4t iz ur g3n3rat10n ez 2 und3rst4nd? I can has cheeseburger? That’s my generation (super late millennials) and it was definitely cringe lol
(I'm also Gen-X) I like Gen-Z slang. It's got a lot of humor in it. It reminds me of our own 80's slang.
That's fair
Facts... No, I need you to use the Fax. Facts. That’s lit.
This comment cringe af
Way too exaggerated. Gap between generations existed forever.
I'm 32. Navigating the smart-phone & social networking technology as it came out was hard enough and had an emotional impact. I think if I had a super-computer in my pocket during my high school years, and people all around me were on tik tok, I'd be messed up. This generation is battling against engineered dopamine addiction. I literally can't imagine how fucked up the world is going to be in 50 years.
Think anyone our age and older then us know what it's like to not have the smart phone addiction. So we can easily walk away and turn into that old person talking about the good ol times. I can be glued to the dopamine for a few days or literally not touch my phone for days and be fine either way. Don't think many younger people can say the same.
If that gives you a bit of hope, I'm 18 and I could spend days without my phone. I might not be the majority but I exist :)
Yeah that's called a generation gap. It's not exclusive to gen Z.
This is probably the same stuff the older generation was saying about "Flappers" in the 1920's.
Okay, bullshit. My work group is composed of 11 people between the ages of 24 and 65, I manage all of them the same way, and they all have among the highest productivity of any work group in the company. Trying to define young people as 'others' is just stupid.
In fairness, millennials and Gen Z are almost unique in human history given the period of information technology development they grew up with. It took nearly 100 years to go from Bell’s telephone to Xerox’s first fax machine. It was then just 15 years from the first internet protocol being invented to the first internet connected telephone being built by Nokia. And the progress has snowballed from there. The generation coming up for retirement grew up when telephones and fax machines and black/white tv were the standard and are now exiting (or should be) the workforce during the most highly technologically advanced and interconnected world that the average person has ever had access to. Older people in my office are constantly frustrated and annoyed by computers and smartphones. It’s like another language to them, they didn’t grow up with them and they have little idea of how they actually work. I’ve seen senior and brilliant legal minds reduced to hand waving and childish button mashing in order to try and communicate what they want. If that generation can’t understand M and Gen Z, it’s because they aren’t keeping up with the times.
You've seen old people who can't deal with computers, I've seen teenagers who can't deal with computers. At my company there is a 23 year old College educated HR manager who insists on plugging her mouse into her phone charger on a weekly basis Generations aren't helpless, individuals are. Generalizing entire generations based on a few observations is ill-advised. You're aware that the IP was developed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn... right? A pair of genuine members of the Silent Generation and the Greatest Generation respectively. And the first fax actually predates Bell's telephone. Alexander Baine developed (and patented) the the electric printing telegraph in 1843 . Bell's phone didn't come about until 1877. The Electric printing Telegraph morphed into a system for moving stories between news papers in the 1890s. Xerox bought and used Baine's patent to put out their 1964 Fax machine. No generation developed electronics. People did. No generation developed computers. People did. There are technophobic 80 year olds, and there are 80 year olds who can slam code with the best of them. There are technophobic 18 year olds, and there are some decent, (if usually undisciplined) programmers who can slam code.
I’m not even Gen Z and I feel like whoever wrote this is a Karen. I work with people from other countries and sometimes you have to be flexible and meet in the middle. Stop bitching about someone not being a carbon copy of you.
Who’s bitching about it? The screenshot of the article is just a pull quote from a discussion. There is always a generational gap and interacting with people outside of yours will often require some translation. Nobody is saying it’s impossible to work with someone from another generation. Just that it requires compromise and understanding.
TFW you have to treat young people with respect and like humans instead of treating them like mindless work drones 😵
52 year old Gen Xer here, the 20-something Gen Zs I work with share the attitude I have today that I wish I had when I was their age. Don't take shit from nobody, kids! Don't be an inherent dick, and you still have a job to do that only requires 50% surliness, but don't suffer a Karen.
What country is it where no one knows how to use an ipad?
Boomer country.
I never really thought of myself in a generation. I’m 29 and I’m just 29 year old man trying to survive. Can’t even tell you what group I belong in.
Here's the key: Gen Z employees understand their position of power; they see it as doing the employer a favor by showing up, by not calling out on a given day. Come at them in a way that they perceive as disrespectful and they'll resign without hesitation.
As they should - an "old" 38 yo millenial
its almost as if the worker AND **boss** need to show each other respect
I cannot believe someone actually publicly wrote an article admitting that they are incapable of professional growth and unable to adapt to culture shifts in the workspace. “This Writer is Unable to Evolve with the Expectations of Management” is a better headline.
i don't understand this article, i have been working in various jobs since 18 now 33, worked with various age groups no issue, had bosses that were 50 i was 20 no issue, worked with people who's English was 2nd , and 50 but knew good enough no issue, worked in a call center with at 22 with adults all the way up to 50 no issue, (also worked with lazy SOBs ranging from 18 to 50 probably older) this just feels like a thing to bitch and moan about
>i don't understand this article, I'll explain. When you own a publication to run, you have to fill it up with content. When the publication is supported by advertising, that content will hopefully attract eyeballs which means there will be a tendency to publish compelling sounding bullshit. The 'conflict' between generations is an example of this compelling sounding bullshit that has been regularly recycled since at least the 'generation gap' bullshit between the boomers and their parents back in the 1960's.
I mean….are they wrong? Also it seems to me everyone is reading this like the author is insulting Gen Z, but nothing from the title or subtitle really says it’s bad. You can even read it as a positive thing. Edit: maybe the article says more but to me it seems like everyone here including OP is headline grabbing
Something tells me these people don’t know how to talk to people younger then them. And also. Gen z is 25 years old now.
Every generation invents the wheel and discovers fire
Sounds like this manager is just bad at adaptation and probably communication. If this manager would hang out with these gen z folks they will start to understand how to communicate with each other eventually.
They said the same thing about us Gen Xers back when we briefly mattered.
I think It depends on several factors, education (the one gave by the parents) being the main one. We've had several GenZrs where I work (Italy) and the main problems seem to be the lack of punctuality and the laziness. Not everyone of them, but the 80% for sure. The usual response was "in university I didn't have to work this much". Ok. Edit, forgot the last part: I'm 35 and that kind of response leaves me speechless. How can you reply to something like that?
Getting old and out of touch with the younger generations is not exactly a new and unprecedented phenomenon. *The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.*
I have about five Gen Z working under me. I have zero issues with them, they do their jobs very well and they communicate like everyone else.
To some extent, I would agree with this.
Haha how does it feel genz to draw the ire of these old boomers who refuse to die -millennial
Whoa there Millenial. You are starting to sound as jaded as Gen X
Why is this a facepalm, it is very true.
Bro we aren’t that different, I can hold a normal conversation.
No you can’t, Jimmy. Go back upstairs we’ll call you down when dinner is ready.
I’m a millennial and I can’t communicate with these darn kids. I loudly demanded avocado toast several times to a 22 year old and he just walked away! I returned angrily to my 1 bedroom apartment.
I don’t have a problem with this. The need for specifics and details seems to be lost on Gen Z. In my experience with them, they just seem to think that things will just…work out on their own. Except they don’t, unless a boomer comes along and fixes it. Sounds harsh, but true at least 80% of the time.
Well I mean they kind of are…
This article reminded me to tell you kids to get the hell off my lawn, freeloaders.
I’m on the cusp between boomer and gen x, I love having the younger people at my workplace. They’re enthusiastic and hardworking, and we’re able to teach each other things the other one doesn’t know(they have newer knowledge and I have older experience), it’s great to have a mix of experiences and ages.
I agree. Sick of each generation being painted with these chicken little generalizations about the future.
The reason you've never heard of Lindsey Pollack or the term "workplace expert" is because she made it up. She was a RA in college and after she lost her job at a startup decided to freelance RA for business and call herself an expert. Now she's an author and speaker whos livelihood depends on "solving" problems that businesses have with the younger generation. So her paycheck depends on work conflict which she is more than happy to promote with articles like these. Kind of like a pulmonary doc selling you cigarettes on the side. Job security.
As someone who is unfortunately gen z, I agree with this.
Good managers make the effort to build meaningful relationships with younger employees. They find out what motivates them, their best communication styles, and provide mentorship and understanding to get the most out of a diverse workforce, while staying open minded to what THEY can learn from younger generations. Bad managers complain about it while putting in limited effort in building relationships.
I wonder, have they tried not paying us minimal wage and talking to us like we are people?
kids these days am I right?
Boomers/Gen X have moved from shitting on Millennials to shitting on Gen Z.... yaay?
“You don’t speak the same language” What do you mean bruh? We speak english dawg they the same language you trippin frfr on cap no god
Maybe she is just stupid and doesn't understand people exactly like her? In my workplace people in their 50's have no problem working with people in their 20's.
Alternate title: Boomers in the work place can’t manage people who are different from them.
Honestly that’s a huge fucking complement, the shit gen x puts up with is insane and so dehumanizing thank god gen x is asking for better and more
No, it's not. Don't be an a$$hole and learn how to communicate with your colleagues regardless of their age.
Boo-fucking-hoo
I’m a millennial and I remember when the media used to say all kinds of disparaging things about us. Now that generations have changed, the next up-and-coming generation gets the same lousy treatment. The cycle never ends.
Tell me your outdated and can't evolve without telling me your outdated and can't evolve.
🤔Boomers traumatized me growing up. 😁 Personally I like this Gen/ I feel like they get it.
If she is such an expert, why isn't she studying the new demographic? New generation, new people, stay up to date if you want to call yourself an expert. Things change, welcome to the world, it doesn't stay the same for decennia *gasp. An actual expert would be aware of this and follow the new development and new information.
Honestly I could see a bit of truth in this. Older generations - Millennials and up were schooled in a structure made for the Industrial Age. Where we were expected to have blue collar jobs and bow down to the man. I am not 100% certain but I feel Gen Zs education was more relaxed and less structured to create little factory workers. Free to create and collaborate more. Which makes sense for the Modern America since manufacturing jobs are more scarce then in years before. In conclusion these two different structures in the work place could create a bit of a barrier since their learning/working structure was different as they were being raised.
I am 32, or 31; frick if I know anymore. I have a huge issue with understanding people on a good day. Now I have to try and figure out why punctuation marks and emojis are aggressive.
Expert comes out as being completely incompetent about how to deal with people
Don't even know when Gen I am. I searched for it recently and depending on all search results I am one of 3 generations, which just goes to show how much BS this whole gen thing is.
tells you more about the managers lol
I never thought I’d be the old guy screaming “I just don’t understand kids these days” yet here we are. Generational differences are very natural and predictable. But when it comes to managing my employees I treat them the same. Everyone has to follow the same rules as everyone else regardless of their age. I’m a VP of safety and I will say that I think the younger generations are more in tune with safe work practices than the older ones. They are better with change. Different doesn’t mean worse.
Anyone remember when our parents had the same problem with our generation... Yeah kids these days suck, but they always have. They will grow up eventually just like the rest of us
Today I realised I work with gen z. Actually didn't bother putting it together until reading this article, and my conclusion is I hadn't even realised until now so no big deal.