I don’t want to generalize or stereotype, but the new generation (aka “Millennials” and / or “Gen-Z”) can be incredibly frustrating to manage in the workplace. All of the studies that I have seen are right - this new generation values different things than say…my generation or the generations that preceded me. They value holistic balance, place less emphasis on material goods, greatly value their personal time, and live in an ‘experiential economy’. However, their work style can be, at times, very frustrating. A few examples of things they say that drive me crazy:
”When is it due?” The most frustrating to hear when you ask somebody to do something is to hear a response of, ‘when is it due?’. What that tells me immediately is that the person manages to a deadline, which is usually more bluntly labeled as a “procrastinator”. In the business I work in, when somebody asks you to do something, the default assumption is that it is needed ASAP.
“What do I get for doing this?” This one really gets me. There are times when you ask somebody to go above-and-beyond to help get something over the finish line. An example might be asking somebody to stay late to help finish off a client deliverable. The worst response I hear is, ‘what do I get for doing this?’ The blunt reality is that you get to come back tomorrow and do this whole charade all over again. I get it - nobody wants to give up their evening to stay at work and grind through something. With that said, it’s not like I’m asking them to do something I am not willing to do myself - I’m there right in the trenches with them. This ‘everybody gets a trophy’ and immediate gratification culture has gotten out-of-hand.
“I didn’t go to college for this” There are menial things in every job that nobody wants to do, but that just need to get done. There is no question that many of these tasks do not require a high school GED, let alone a college degree to do. It may involve photocopying; it may involve formatting a document; it may involve manually recalculating values to ensure a model is working correctly. In any case, these can be critical tasks and when you ask somebody to do them, the last thing I want to hear is, ‘I didn’t go to college for this’, which is another way of saying, ‘I am above this’. What kids out of school don’t realize is that you have to earn opportunities - if you can’t photocopy with proficiency, there is no way in hell that I (or anyone else) would give you something more strategic to do.
Perhaps I am being overly sensitive, but having grown up in the “do whatever it takes” culture, it can be very frustrating when kids are given incredible opportunities to prove themselves that will lead to long-term benefit, but they constantly want to shortcut ‘the process’ to find short term satisfaction. The amount of jobs that I am seeing kids have 5 or 6 years out of school now is crazy. I am not saying that there cannot be benefit to changing jobs, especially when you are constantly looking for new challenges. However, I don’t believe that is what is happening in most cases. What I think is happening is kids are not finding that short term gratification in a job, and instead of earning the opportunities that truly stimulate them, they go seek it out in another job. It is not a good or bad thing - it is just reality. Employee loyalty is limited to what you can provide to that employee today.