Gen Z doesn't seem to care about career advancement??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This makes sense. We max productivity and we need to diversity how money is made. Think of a time where agriculture was the main method of producing, then people moved on to manufacturing. When manufacturing was maxed (outsourced), people moved into service economies. Now service economies are efficiently run, they are creating new pathway to influence society - content creation & entertainment. As society we move forward and they are leading the way.

This is interesting. Is there a book or something about this concept? I wonder if there are trends between the first generations to embrace a new industry field and the last generations before an industry ages out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Gen Z/young millennials has watched their parents work well over 40 hours a week and sacrifice their personal lives. They don't want to spend their entire lives at work and I think it's great.

This is what my son told me. He said my generation is obsessed with having a career not a job and Gen Z treats a job as a job and nothing more. It's there to provide money to live life, not become their life.

[Anonymous]

They don’t care about crap like country club memberships, boats, fancy cars, RVs etc

They are willing to make little & live simply

[Anonymous]

Gen Z is averse to hard work, in general.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a fantastic employee who is Gen Z. He has a great attitude and work ethic. He always overproduces on projects, never misses a deadline, and my favorite of all - his work needs very little editing.

I have a lead PM who put in her notice and I absolutely think this guy would be a fantastic fit. The team she was leading also skews young so promoting him wouldn't ruffle any feathers of some of my employees who have been here longer.

I called him in for a meeting Friday morning to tell him about the upcoming position and let him know I'd like to toss his name in the ring for the position. He declined. He said he's happy at his current position, even after hearing the salary bump, because he doesn't want more duties. He said his current workload is perfect for his work-life balance. I think I made a face when he said that because he clarified that he's working on building his brand in his downtime because his ultimate goal is to be able to support himself as a content creator and streamer.

I guess he is a Twitch game player in his free time. I've heard of Twitch but I'm not super familiar with it. He explained it to me and basically let me know that while he loves his job, it's not his passion like gaming.

I had my son show me some steamers this weekend on TikTok and Twitch. He explained how both platforms monetization works. It is still blowing my mind that people pay to watch another person play a video game. Anyway, I was chatting with both BILs who are also in management and they've noticed the same thing. Gen Z are great workers but overall, don't care about advancement. Anyone else seeing similar?

We have had similar things happen. We offered a 25% pay bump to someone to move from analyst to sr. analyst and they called meetings and demanded all kinds of information before they would accept the promotion. We also have someone who we would like to promote to a management position but she refuses to accept the position and leave her union.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When the economy changes and they need more money they will change their tune; this post COVID economy where one doesn't really have to work hard to support a lifestyle is deceiving. Also, if they are living at home, on mom and dad's cell phone plan, etc, it is easy to be idealistic

+1. They are young and have had a very unusual entry into the workforce. Wait until they want to get married and have kids (although maybe they don’t want that, either).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Gen Z/young millennials has watched their parents work well over 40 hours a week and sacrifice their personal lives. They don't want to spend their entire lives at work and I think it's great.

Not just that - they watched their parents work 60 hours and be incredibly smart but never advance to anything higher than middle management. It happens to most people, there can only be 1 CEO for hi dress of smart and hard working people. So what’s the point? They’re rightfully asking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the economy changes and they need more money they will change their tune; this post COVID economy where one doesn't really have to work hard to support a lifestyle is deceiving. Also, if they are living at home, on mom and dad's cell phone plan, etc, it is easy to be idealistic

The theme of this thread seems to be that they’re NOT idealistic but cynical to a point where they don’t trust their hard work will be rewarded.

Cynical or realistic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the economy changes and they need more money they will change their tune; this post COVID economy where one doesn't really have to work hard to support a lifestyle is deceiving. Also, if they are living at home, on mom and dad's cell phone plan, etc, it is easy to be idealistic

+1. They are young and have had a very unusual entry into the workforce. Wait until they want to get married and have kids (although maybe they don’t want that, either).

Yeah and wait till they can't depend on us Gen Xers and older millennial to cover the basics financially then we will see lots of them going back to grad school, Seeking out training to ramp up skills voluntarily, things we all did in last decade and the one before to get where we are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gen Z is averse to hard work, in general.

‘Hard work’ or not allowing themselves to be exploited for sub par wages?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen Z is averse to hard work, in general.

‘Hard work’ or not allowing themselves to be exploited for sub par wages?

Hard work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen Z is averse to hard work, in general.

‘Hard work’ or not allowing themselves to be exploited for sub par wages?

Hard work.

Good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen Z is averse to hard work, in general.

‘Hard work’ or not allowing themselves to be exploited for sub par wages?

Hard work.

I posted above about people refusing or questioning promotions and to some extent I agree. Work has become more transactional to this generation and it's a bitter pill to swallow for all of us who were willing to lay down on train tracks for our employers, but they are not wrong. I don't want talented people to hamper their own growth though. How do we solve for that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:eh.. I'm a gen xer, and I'm not interested in advancement, either. I like my work/life balance, too. Planning to retire early.

I came her to say this as well, fellow genxer. My dh was just basically forced to become management, so he plans on retiring earlier than originally.

More power to this Gen Z dude. I bet he is making bank on Twitch doing something he loves. It just doesn't pay the medical insurance.

[Anonymous]

I'm a millennial and felt similarly. I passed on taking over my boss's role. Except then they picked a real idiot to hire, run the program into the ground and then leave in 3 months. They lost a lot of good people during that 3 months. I realized I had to step up or suffer another fool. I run the program and have changed it into my dream job.

My managers have tried to get me interested in a higher role and I've flat out said no. Senior management is not for me, I don't like what they do and how out of touch they are. I like still doing program work.

I think changes are needed in management. Management has forgotten what their role is. The program is what makes the money and they shouldn't be doing things that don't further it. They treat employees like mushrooms. Feed them shit and keep them in the dark.