Be honest - were you a good employee when you were young?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, don’t knock on their hotel room doors. That’s inappropriate. Call or text them, don’t go to their hotel room. That’s treating them like your kids.

Second, not being ready for a scheduled 10:00 am meeting is not acceptable. I would never, ever have done that. I was a good employee, I showed up on time, I tried to do my best, and I respected authority. I’m Gen X.

This. Don't go looking for them, if they are late they are late. It's how they learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 58 (so early GenX). I'm sitting here trying to remember ever being late to a meeting. Only if one meeting ran into the next maybe. I was late for work once when I was rear ended on my way to the office.

I've worked nights and weekends (proposals). Took work home before there was WFH. Worked remotely and in office. Virtual meetings before zoom existed. All of that early in career.

There are good Gen Z employees, but they are far and few between and I suspect they are either ambitious or were raised by militant parents. Or both. Not showing up to meetings, missing deadlines, being late, not wanting to be on camera, it's really annoying. Thankfully I'm a VP at a large corporation now, so there are inevitably several layers of mgmt between me and most GenZ employees. But I have also noticed that they tend to be far less....respectful? of senior management than I was at that point in my career.

Times change.

Times definitely change. I'm an elder millennial and my parents, however flawed, both had great work ethic (boomers) and taught me the basic rules of work: being on time and prepared is a non-negotiable. It appears negotiable now. The younger folks I work with definitely do not care about dressing the part, networking, or otherwise even seeming like a team player. Lots of attitude. It's tiring.

[Anonymous]

By now I would have told these team members the expectations, and asked them whether they understand that not following these expectations will lead to losing their jobs. If after that discussion, they are still behaving like this, I would be planning to let them go as soon as we return from the trip.

[Anonymous]

I was a good employee because I needed the money. If I had no loans to pay and endless money, I too would have been really casual in my approach to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 58 (so early GenX). I'm sitting here trying to remember ever being late to a meeting. Only if one meeting ran into the next maybe. I was late for work once when I was rear ended on my way to the office.

I've worked nights and weekends (proposals). Took work home before there was WFH. Worked remotely and in office. Virtual meetings before zoom existed. All of that early in career.

There are good Gen Z employees, but they are far and few between and I suspect they are either ambitious or were raised by militant parents. Or both. Not showing up to meetings, missing deadlines, being late, not wanting to be on camera, it's really annoying. Thankfully I'm a VP at a large corporation now, so there are inevitably several layers of mgmt between me and most GenZ employees. But I have also noticed that they tend to be far less....respectful? of senior management than I was at that point in my career.

Times change.

Another early GenX. I was always on time and put in the extra hours to get proposals out, etc. before virtual work. Everything had to be at the office and I had a long metro commute to my crappy apartment! I was definitely underpaid--remember finding out the admin assistant old ladies made more than I did, and I had to help them figure out everything on the computers like formatting and pagination, etc.! It was a bum deal all around, but I would have never dreamed of just slagging it all off. When I was sent on business trips I was very cognizant of the corporate amEx and never took advantage.

Agree with the PP that said if people are consistently late or missing meetings, that's an easy paper trail. Nothing complicated about it. And it's just that young person; not all of them. Take a chance on one right out of school. I hear they're getting the shaft right now.

[Anonymous]

Did I always show up? Yes.

Was I a good employee? In some ways, yes and in others, no.

I had a hard time advocating for myself and when I didn't feel the boss was right I was more likely to blow up the situation than handle it gracefully. It took many years to learn how to ignore people being a$$holes and continue to push the mission forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By now I would have told these team members the expectations, and asked them whether they understand that not following these expectations will lead to losing their jobs. If after that discussion, they are still behaving like this, I would be planning to let them go as soon as we return from the trip.

+1 tons of young people (and others) are looking for jobs right now. If they don't shape up it should be easy to replace them.

[Anonymous]

Yes.
Gen X

[Anonymous]

I was a little immature and not as in tune or on board with cultural expectations at work (wasn't in the mood to housesit and be the nanny for my students when I was already working as their teacher because their parents were on vacation on their yacht without kids)....but I always was on time and did my work that was asked for me in my normal job.

[Anonymous]

Yes, very strong work ethic starting from my early teen years. In my twenties I had already started muttering about how the younger crew seemed to be slackers. 49 now and get needing to have better work/life balance, but you show up on time and get the job done efficiently.

[Anonymous]

no i wasn’t a good employee. i was always late, dressed inappropriately, etc. untreated adhd and also some other stuff made work no picnic for me or my employers.

i’ve learned how to handle my adhd and time blindness better now. also kow instead of being up till 3 am im in bed by 9, which makes everything easier.

[Anonymous]

I was a good employee until I saw my boss mistreat a coworker. I stood up for her and then I was in the crosshairs myself.

[Anonymous]

Do people get fired anymore? If I was on a business trip and someone from my group was late to meetings I'd have wanted them gone. And I don't want to hear about this whole work life balance thing.

[Anonymous]

Another early GenX and yes, I was always a good employee. We were raised to be on time (early), prepared, dressed appropriate, and respectful. People who didn’t pull their weight were fired.

Times have changed but not sure why it’s been acceptable to accept a declining work ethic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people get fired anymore? If I was on a business trip and someone from my group was late to meetings I'd have wanted them gone. And I don't want to hear about this whole work life balance thing.

This. I get that people are imperfect and I’d give anyone some grace over being a few minutes late here and there, but strolling in 45 minutes late to a meeting, coffee in hand, is just disrespectful.