I am an Xer who manages a small but crucial team at my workplace (in an EU country). I had a lady resign last week, and I have another who may be about to resign or I may have to let go due to low engagement. They are both Gen Z. Today it hit me: the five years I’ve been managing this department, the only people I’ve lost have been from Gen Z. Clearly I do not know how to manage Gen Z so that they are happy working here. What can I do? I want them to be as happy as my Millennial team members. One detail that might matter is that my team is spread over three European cities.
Happy to provide any clarification if anyone wants it.
Edit. Thanks for all the answers even if a few of them are difficult to hear (and a few were oddly angry?) This has been very helpful for me, much more so than it probably would have been at the Old Place.
Also the second lady I mentioned who might quit or I might have to let go? She quit the day after I posted this giving a week’s notice yesterday. My team is fully supportive, but it’s going to be a rough couple of months.
hold leadership accountable, provide a clear path to advancement and pay them well
hold leadership accountable
You’re not wrong, but that can turn into a Game of Thrones scenario really quick like, if you’re not careful.
My bosses have never held leadership accountable and it’s still a bunch of feudal lords fighting over their fiefdoms
Yeah but they’re all still alive to do fighting over.
No, you don’t know how to manage genZ (or any other cohort) because that’s not a fucking thing.
Start here:
Fight to pay them more. Period. This should be at the top of your daily to-do list. Your team is the reason you have a job, and they’re the reason your shareholders live such splendid lives. So, you want to keep your position(s) of benefit & security? Then never stop fighting for worker’s pay & benefit INCREASES. It is really hard to care about management, production (or shareholders 🙄) when you can’t take care of yourself or your family.
Curate a safe, work-focused environment that supports the life-cycle of a product that actually solves current, real-world problems like - global warming, profiteering, equality, etc.
Stop managing and learn how to lead.
Leaders:
Know how to say, “I don’t know.”
Show / do by example
Share knowledge
Support and foster knowledge sharing.
Shut their goddamn mouths and trust their teams to succeed (that’s why you hired them in the first place right?) and when the team/member falls short of PREVIOUSLY AGREED UPON goals you work together to address the extenuating circumstance(s).
Every company’s greatest asset and product is the verve, innovation, and vision of its employees. Squash, or worse, fail to invest in any of these aspects of your workforce and the human beings you’re trying to “manage” will “manage” themselves into better working conditions elsewhere.
I really want to upvote and downvote at the same time.
Angry upvote?
That’s just it, I’m not angry about it.
It’s more like there’s parts I really agree with and parts I really disagree with.
And then, with the parts that I agree with and the parts I disagree with, how they were presented in some ways I liked and in other ways I really disliked.
Up/down votes are just a system for suggesting other people read the post. Nothing more. Should it get more visibility?
Up/down votes are just a system for suggesting other people read the post. Nothing more. Should it get more visibility?
Well that’s a side effect, I can’t agree with you though that that’s the only reason, as I know that’s not how people use it.
They use it to either agree or disagree to what’s being said, or to show their approval/disapproval of how the comment was written, that it was with written well or not, even if they disagree with what was being said.
That might be how people use it, but it’s not what it does. It just controls visibility
Understood, but when you’re describing it’s just a technical mechanics of it. What I’m speaking towards is why the button was pushed in the first place.
the old subreddit r/aBetterWorld is an idea that would help you exactly in this instance if it were not just an idea
Appreciate the info, but I’m into Lemmy, not Reddit.
I’m a millennial but have insight. Think about the 90s. Didn’t even have MapQuest yet. No cell phones.
Okay, now you’re at work, and your sister miscarries her pregnancy. When do you discover this? 6pm? 8pm? Later that week?
Gen Z finds out between customers. Or emails.
In the idle time you used to spend daydreaming about your girlfriend or lackthereof, gen Z is learning about wildfires that will reduce their air quality. They’re googling rent worldwide to figure out if it’s time to seriously consider moving somewhere cheaper and colder.
What am I getting at?
We as a society get ever more connected. We are therefore ever less present from our 9-5. There is so much going on that is relevant to us, and an 8 hour chunk of my day is really asking too much to sacrifice.
If your employees are at a computer, let tell them outright it’s totally okay to watch Netflix or YouTube, or reddit, or lemmy, whatever as long as the work is getting done on time.
If your employees are serving customers, let them take frequent 10 minute breaks to use their phone or be away from humans.
Let them know you understand they have WAY more going on in their lives than your job which barely pays bills. Then, act that way.
But also, gen Z knows that no one gives raises like new bosses. So, don’t expect them to stick around long.
I agree with most of this, but this bit
If your employees are serving customers, let them take frequent 10 minute breaks to use their phone or be away from humans.
Is comically absurd.
GenZ are not the first people to have things they’d rather be doing than work, or to be tired due to human interaction. The latter is called emotional labour and has been a thing across all service industries for literally a hundred plus years.
I’m not saying that people don’t need breaks, everyone does, especially in jobs which are physically/mentally tiring, but to say people need frequent breaks solely to check their phone is derisible.
Fine: People need frequent breaks to do whatever the fuck they want
