Here Come The Gen Z Workers! (And That Means…What, Exactly?)
By now you’ve read or skimmed a few articles announcing the arrival of a whole new generation of workers — the Z Generation, defined as those born after 1995 or 2000, depending on who’s counting.
This report paints a picture of Gen Z workers as an ambitious group:
“…32 percent of Gen Z workers expect to be working in their dream job within 10 years. New college graduates name career growth as their top desire from their first jobs, with fulfilling work and stability tied for a distant second. These young workers are hungry for success, and they expect their employers to let them capitalize on that drive.”
We also hear Gen Z’ers are more independent and prefer working alone and without direction to working in teams. And they’re also said to “lack critical thinking and decision-making skills.”
It almost sounds like we should react as though we’re preparing for the arrival of visitors from another planet — to learn a new language to communicate with them or to somehow modify our workplace to accommodate their preferred ways of doing things, capitalize on their supposed strengths and compensate for their shortcomings.
It’s always interesting to know what any new crop of workers have told researchers they care about, their attitudes about work and what they value in an employment situation.
But even assuming these generalizations turn out to be true, it seems wrong for companies to go too far in responding to them.
Any strategy to carve out for special treatment any segment of the workforce smacks of crass manipulation, demeaning both the targeted workers and the company, and takes everyone’s eye off the purpose of being at work in the first place. (Remember those cringeworthy perks like pool tables and endless Skittles and Dove Bars and craft beers after hours?)
Workers — new ones or long-tenured ones — are not “customers” like students or campers in a pre-school or summer camp. It’s not management’s job to treat new workers as an “incoming class” and attempt to curry favor with them by tailoring the work to their reputed preferences. And companies serious about their mission should not be expected to turn their processes and procedures upside down to “adapt” to some presumed gaps in the skill sets a new bunch of workers bring with them on Day 1.
And I really don’t think the future stars of Gen Z really want or expect employers to coddle them in this way.
A more appropriate response is for managers to listen attentively and respectfully to the new workers while gently helping them turn their attention outward, away from their own desires and needs, skill sets and skill gaps, to find ways to bring their own unique talents to bear on the work that’s in front of them.
The company — every company — is in business to serve customers and to make money for its owners or stockholders, I case you want to make some money for yourself, we recommend you to see this new Georgia sports betting website. And the job of everyone who goes to work there is to find ways to deliver to customers products and services they value and will pay for, and to make sure it gets done in a way that’s responsible and ethical and results in a profit to the company.
Neither we nor they know exactly how Gen Z workers will respond to the challenges they’ll face in the workplace. But, just as those that came before have done, members of the new generation who warm to the work will soon forget all about what they told researchers about their likes and dislikes before they started. And, just as quickly, they’ll see themselves mastering any skills they lacked, once they see what’s needed to get the job done.
Whenever any new group of workers arrives on the scene, the potential exists for everyone to do new things in new ways — to learn from each other and create breakthroughs.
But that requires a shared commitment to productive and constructive interaction, and a willingness to resist any urge to overreact to perceived differences by forcing changes in the company environment.