Gen Z skills
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Anonymous
Object! I meant to write object! (Before you hurl corrections back at me.) |
Anonymous
| Thank you! Admittedly I don’t think I was ever graded on grammar in school, but somehow went on to make deans list as an English major. Wish schools still taught this! I went to private school and have always been a good student FWIW |
Anonymous
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I work with a lot of Gen Z-ers at a large consulting firm. A few things that stand out.
1. I very much appreciate people who want to try / get their hands dirty, and want to learn to think like a more senior person. A year of you sitting in a classroom learning "by the book" is useless in my world (although you could 100% spin your wheels there, and pop back up in 12 months with lots of internal certs and nothing to show for it). The sooner you embed yourself into the work, the quicker you will learn and the quicker you will progress. How does "learning to think" work in your organization? 2. Understand that your career is YOURS. Not mine, not our CEOs, not your cube mates. I am not going to be spoon feeding you every next step. I know it can feel uncomfortable coming from a school environment to not know where the road leads... but opportunity can come out of strange places. Do not sit on the shore and wait for people to push you into the pool. Go find it. Say yes, dig deep, learn what excites YOU. Not everything looks like it has immediate payoff but you are building a career, it doesn't happen in a year. The flip side, if you are unhappy with the work or culture, this isn't a life sentence, you can change your reality but please do not make it everyone else's headache that you hate what you do at our org. 
3. Get the easy stuff right - formatting, reviewing all your numbers before it gets sent for peer review, re-reading emails and presentations before hitting send, just generally giving a hoot. Do your part well and make sure you know what "doing your part well" means in your world. Ask questions, take notes, show that you are taking direction and feedback from Project A and applying it to Project B (when realistic of course...) 4. Understand career pathing and what your world could look like in 12, 24, 36 months time... and make sure you are doing great work in the seat you are in today to make the next conversation an easier one to have. Don't expect that your role will change +6 months from hire because you don't feel like being the one to send out the meeting notes or w/e. 5. No one ever begrudges hard work. My most talented Gen Z'er works her tail off but still works a standard 40 hours per week, is communicative on what she needs, and responsive and engaged. She digs deeper when the project needs to but she also has a great way of protecting her 40 hours of work so that she isn't burning the midnight oil. Sorry - rambly - but might help? |
Anonymous
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I agree about grammar and writing! My Gen Z staff tend to have atrocious writing skills: Incomplete sentences, randomly capitalized letters, overall lack of clarity. It’s one thing to have errors in a quick email to a peer, but reports to higher-ups need to be polished.
Gen Z also have a tendency to ask dumb questions to their managers. By dumb, I mean the answers can be found via a simple google search or by going through work files or systems or by asking a coworker. (And these aren’t new employees. Of course new people should ask questions. But after 1+ years on the job, you should have systems in place to find your own solutions before going up the chain of command.) |
Anonymous
| Stop using chat gpt for every little thing. It makes you look dumb, like you can’t write a basic email, and we can all tell you didn’t write it. |
Anonymous
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Ok, for real? Other than you taking the abuse, stop apologizing and stop begging. The constant "please, please, and sorry" is annoying. It makes you look like you did something wrong even when you did not. Often, work is great, and you have one of the rude and nasty older people say something, and even if you know you are right, you apologize.
If you are in charge of an event, don't ask about every little thing. Set up the calendar with people you are in charge of, such as a visit or similar. "Please let me know if you want to visit .... on...." It is your job to make the schedule and organize it. Ask what their priorities are before, but then just do it. Of course, if your boss is a narc, which so many are, this will get you in trouble. So pay attention if you work for a malignant, pathetic narcissist. |
Anonymous
Unfortunately Gen Z lacks the critical thinking skills to use AI in a way that would benefit them and by using AI as they do they are eroding their underdeveloped critical thinking skills. COVID has really hampered Gen Zers socially in the workplace in just on how they dress but in how they communicate and what they see as normal asks of colleagues and employers. It’s not entitlement - it’s cluelessness, but it comes off as entitlement. |
Anonymous
Gen Z is an anxious bunch. A lot of them don’t want to do something wrong which turns into not doing anything at all or being super annoying and needy about tasks. |
Anonymous
I don't think so. I see Gen Z working hard, hours past the end of the working day. I see them as great workers and an incredibly innovative group of workers. Sorry, you are just a stereotype about how the generation younger than yours is lazy and horrible. You are the one sounding horrible here. |
Anonymous
If AI can do Gen Z jobs, we won't need Gen Z workers. |
Anonymous
| Soft skills are needed. |
Anonymous
I seee 99% of the Gen Z in my workplace goofing off from 9-4:30, running out the door for a workout class, and not logging in at night. When pointed out that their inability to work a full work day is throwing work back onto the rest of the team, they run to HR and call everyone toxic. |
Anonymous
| genx and boomers need to retire and take a nap |
Anonymous
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A few reasons why, many not your fault.
Management training programs have been cut, going to On the Job Training pre-covid that is near impossible to do virtually or hybrid. HR and Woke in the workforce limits what bosses can say to workers. Less team goals and more individual goals over last decade. For example I got JIRA tickets, ServiceNow tickets, annual work required that my raises and bonus based off. They give zero credit for helping co-workers. So people have little incentive to help others. Less time in office. Now this is both ways. My first Job I had a formal Management Training Program. Eight weeks of intensive training ten hours a day with grading and we were instructed every aspect of company, how to dress, how to do a business lunch, how to interview, how to manage staff, how to do presentations, how to use firm software, how to do performance review etc. I was then assigned an area with staff where I worked 50 hour weeks. My management training program the 15 of us kept in touch and my bosses and staff was with me the whole 50 hours. We often go to drinks after work, around 3-40 times a year plus we talk over lunch. I get a lot of great feedback and advice over beers. So by 26 I was at a level that my co-workers who are under 40 have yet to reach. And my younger co-workers under 26 are operating at the level of a 21 year old. That said you have to go and get it. Come to work more, find a mentor, learn on your own, go to company events, join industry groups, volunteer to work and/or speak at industry conferences, get active LinkedIn and get your grand out there and take LinkedIn on line courses. We are not going back to what I got. So get it yourself. |
Anonymous
Clearly not since they didn't use a grammar check before posting. All too many people have not been taught basic grammar. Not the PP. |